Triller’s broken universe
The second Triller Fight Club 'Legends' event on Saturday night was a tough watch
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A real ordeal
THE LONG READ
We’ve had the Thriller in Manila and the Rumble in the Jungle. Well…we’ve now also got the Farce in Florida. Triller Fight Club Legends II was certainly something, and the sooner it’s in boxing’s rear view mirror, the better.
In the space of just over a year, Triller has created a bizarre alternate universe within the world of boxing which has stolen headlines and bemused long-time fans in equal measure. Driven by celebrity boxing and legends getting back in to the ring for an exhibition payday, combined with a sprinkling of musical acts and mainstream stars on commentary, it’s a unique (and often confusing) strategy. They claim it has been wildly successful so far, but as they own their delivery model - their pay-per-views air on Fite TV, which Triller bought out earlier this year - we’ll never really know how much of that is bravado and PR.
For the most part, this explosion of novelty boxing has been relatively harmless. Perhaps not to the soul of the sport, but at least for the matchmaking. The fighters, though often either unbelievably green or well past their best years, have been pretty well-matched, and there is clearly an audience interested in this sort of hoopla. Jake Paul (who has, of course, now left for Showtime) fighting fellow novices from the entertainment world, legends exhibitions like Tyson against Roy Jones, and the occasional bout between active boxers to fill out the show - there has been a balance to it, a strange sense of order.
It’s not really for me, but neither are quite a few hugely popular things today. Each to their own, to some extent. We could talk about the impact this all might be having on the sport as a whole but despite being questionable nothing has appeared to be too immoral.
That all changed on Saturday night.
This event was originally due to be headlined by Oscar De La Hoya’s in-ring comeback against Vitor Belford in LA’s Staples Centre, however Oscar got Covid and Triller needed a replacement. Holyfield (who has supposedly been training for a fight, presumably an exhibition, against old rival Mike Tyson for the last two years) was dropped into his place, and the event was saved.
Boxing has always been a bit of a circus, so to suddenly get too high and mighty over a sport that has long been on the edges of acceptability in society would be somewhat two-faced - the chaos is part of what brings us to the fight game.
With that said, dragging a 58-year-old Evander Holyfield - a true legend from the last great heavyweight era, but someone who had his last fight a decade ago and was rightly struggling to get sanctioned by the more responsible state governing bodies fifteen years ago - in to fight with only a week or so’s notice against a younger, far less over-the-hill opponent felt like a step too far for me. The California State Athletic Commission refused to allow the bout to go ahead, so they moved the entire event to Florida, whose powers that be were happy to approve it.
Holyfield remains one of the all-time greats, an undisputed champ at both cruiserweight and heavyweight in the ‘80s and ‘90s who has been involved in some of the biggest fights in boxing history. That will never be in doubt. But he was being asked serious questions about retirement after he was battered and stopped by James Toney way back in 2003, and here we are 18 years later and he has just headlined a fairly major pay-per-view in 2021.
Even for boxing, this seemed like wantonly reckless behaviour.
Evander Holyfield should have never been allowed to fight against someone like Vitor Belfort, even if the Brazilian former UFC star was and is a relative boxing novice he is a dangerous fighter and far closer to his athletic prime than his opponent on Saturday night. The return of ‘The Real Deal’ took place on a pretty high-profile show, much more so than former foe James Toney’s own worrying return planned for October - the less said about that, the better.
For Saturday night’s sorry mess, we have both Triller AND boxing as a whole to thank…
Ryan Kavanaugh, the man behind the Triller Fight Club concept, has admitted their events are filling a vacuum left by boxing’s inability to move with the times effectively and deliver modern entertainment. When there is a scarcity of good product, there is also an opportunity, and that is the world Triller is trying to operate within. “The sport as a whole hasn’t really evolved”, said Kavanaugh last year. “The right prescription forward hasn’t been done. Boxing kept shrinking, shrinking, shrinking, into such a narrow niche. But, at the end of the day, it’s entertainment.”
Boxing’s own political machinations and lack of centralised ownership, unable to consistently deliver the big fights, has meant that these novelty boxing shows have a much more prominent platform than they should.
On Saturday night’s evidence, though, Triller Fight Club weren’t providing much in the way of entertainment, and Evander Holyfield could have been seriously hurt.
From the moment his sparring and pad work was seen in the weeks before the fight, it was clear Holyfield’s return was misguided at the very least. We know why he was fighting - he has previously declared bankruptcy despite an incredibly lucrative career and this fight dampens down some legal issues between him and Triller - but it’s unclear how anyone could conceivably think that allowing this to happen was anything but a terrible idea.
When the first bell rang to start the main event fight, commentator Todd Grisham mispronounced the event as “Filler Trite Club”, which for some reason felt like a more fitting name to me for a show with a main event like this. As the action began, it took about a millisecond to come to a realisation that most people’s worst case scenarios were bang on. Holyfield had absolutely nothing left, throwing out terrible attempts at a jab and looking in no condition to perform, despite being in excellent shape. As soon as Belfort landed any sort of punch, Holyfield was in trouble, proceeding to take himself over as both fighters missed punches and Evander fell down in to the ropes. “Clearly a slip, but not good body language” was the somewhat understatement assessment from the commentary booth of what was already a worrying and embarrassing situation.
Holyfield didn’t make it out of the first two-minute round, with Belfort flooring and beginning to pummel his opponent before the referee mercifully stepped in with 10 seconds to go in the round.
Though ‘The Real Deal’ contested the decision, it was the right one for sure. The right one really would have been to not stage the fight in the first place, but you catch my drift.
Whichever way you slice it, this was a very depressing spectacle and a really terrible look for boxing. Triller has been a bizarre, big-spending addition to the fight game over the last few years but they jumped the shark with their event on Saturday. Lord only knows where their Fight Club series goes from here, once they have finally presented the Teofimo Lopez-George Kambosos Jr. fight in a couple of weeks - a contest they massively overpaid on to win the purse bid for.
They’ve placed it on October 4th, a Monday night, which feels both brave and foolhardy, as the headliner of what will be the third of their new monthly boxing-and-rap-battle TrillerVerz concept. The second edition of that series actually already went down on Tuesday, just three days after the Holyfield-Belfort card, featuring some legitimately matched boxing matches and headlined by a rap battle between Fat Joe and Ja Rule.
If Triller absolutely, positively don’t deliver terrible and dangerous matchmaking such as their last main event ever again, they might have something still to offer the sport - they certainly seem to have some serious financial backing. After the almost universally negative backlash to the Legends show, however, perhaps their goose is already cooked.
Taking stock of what went down this past weekend, is it fair to say that boxing is at an all-time low? With this event (specifically the main event), most of the fights we want to see either not being made or falling through, sanctioning bodies actively ignoring fighters testing positive for substances on the banned list of drug testing policies they signed up for…it’s certainly starting to feel like it. The sport does still deliver but not nearly as much as it should do.
Take as a comparison Saturday’s tennis action at the US Open, where Emma Raducanu cemented her place as one of the shooting stars of world sport and became the first British woman in 44 years to win a Grand Slam title. Defeating fellow burgeoning star Leylah Fernandez in an absolutely thrilling final, this was a fine demonstration of what happens when a well-run sport puts in place a structure in which new talents can face off and create iconic moments of their own in the process. Over on the other channel, boxing had a near 60-year-old legend being stopped in one round while the fight game’s own young talents and future superstars are generally spinning their wheels and actively not fighting each other.
They aren’t quite like-for-like of course, but to the non-fan who is seeing the sea of coverage of the Triller fiasco they might as well be.
Saturday night saw boxing reach a new low-water mark. The only way is up, I guess, unless it’s down - and I dread to think what that looks like.
Leaving the questionable morality of the main event aside, a few thoughts on the card and show as a whole (because yes, I watched the whole thing)…
I’ll say something GOOD about the Fight Club event. Triller’s production is generally excellent and feels a step ahead of a lot of the staid, predictable presentation we see from other mainstream broadcasters. HBO was the Rolls Royce of boxing TV back in the day, but since then it doesn’t feel like we have seen much to push the production artform forward. Triller hired a number of former HBO staff to produce their shows and the proof is in the pudding. Speaking of HBO, it’s a shame that we couldn’t hear the great Jim Lampley back on the call as had been planned, as he pulled out rather than commentate on the Holyfield return. His stance against the main event and subsequent withdrawal were completely understandable of course - hopefully, we can see Lampley at some point again in the future somewhere, it would be a real shame for him to not be back on TV again. He was replaced by 50 Cent, which rather summed the whole event up.
Though their events are visually impressive, I don’t think Triller’s strategy of littering random musical acts in between the oddball boxing bouts really works, at least on this evidence - the whole thing feels quite disjointed and it’s hard to see how the audiences cross over in the slightest. Their belief is that the music interests a younger, less hardcore boxing viewer, which is perhaps sound in theory, but nobody appeared to give a hoot on Saturday night. The lack of crowd reaction to the music was clearly noticeable, and it’s difficult to envisage how anyone would think a Brazilian lady called Anitta (no clue either) both miming and singing her way through a performance, and doing neither very well, would need to be on pay-per-view. The strange simulated duet between Marvin Gaye and Snoop Dogg - a Triller Fight Club investor himself - was met with total bemusement, lasted just a couple of minutes and felt totally pointless. Offering up a cocktail of fighting and entertainment is Triller Fight Club’s MO though, so this template looks to be very present in their future,l events. They’ll need to do better than this if this strategy has any chance of success.
Quite how Jono Carroll and Andy Vences were in a world title eliminator, given their patchy recent records, I do not know - but it seems somehow they were, and theirs was easily the best fight of the night. It was also the only actual proper sanctioned non-exhibition bout of the show, something which Triller disingenuously neglected to mention. Evenly matched, trained boxers delivering the most interesting bout. Who’d have thought it? It’s really not rocket science.
For some reason, David Haye seemingly thinks his points victory against Joe Fournier in an eight round exhibition was a clear calling card for that long-mooted fight with Tyson Fury. Back in 2013, it could have been great fun, but Haye must know a fight with Fury is not happening in 2021. Apparently both Haye and Fournier - who are mates and argued over who would win in a boxing match during a trip to Mykonos to set up their bout - were both paid millions for this non-event of a contest which mainly saw them follow each other around the ring. Triller is a barmy organisation.
Talking nonsense seems to be contagious at Triller shows as Vitor Belfort called out none other than Canelo Alvarez after his ‘win’ against Evander - a fight which is never happening of course, for so many reasons. As he noted in the post-fight press conference: “Canelo, $40 million. It’s on the table. How do you say no to $40 million? Just think - four zero.” Expect Canelo to say no. He also said he wanted to take on Jake Paul, which I guess is a tad more realistic and in the same circus boxing ecosystem. Please though, let’s keep the novelty boxers away from real ones, thank you.
Tito Ortiz is no boxer, and from what I’ve seen of him this year Anderson Silva isn’t too bad, so their exhibition (there’s that word again) went pretty much as had to be expected. It was short and not very sweet, with Silva delivering the clinical and early knockout on Tito. The bout was over in less than 90 seconds. For some reason, Ortiz seems to think this performance lines him up for a fight with Logan Paul, something which literally nobody is calling for. What is life anymore…
There was the option of choosing an alternative commentary for the event featuring Donald Trump and his son Don Jr. giving their thoughts on the show, for some incomprehensible reason. This was a thing, it actually happened - I chose not to watch it. Their presence also led to what felt like a bit of an impromptu Trump campaign rally prior to the main event from the crowd, some of whom had just moments earlier not obeyed the silence for the ten-bell salute in memory of the fallen from September 11th, 2001. This all wasn’t a dream, or an acid flashback. It actually happened. Not to get too political, but is this really what a former President should be doing on the 20th anniversary of 9/11? Answers on a postcard please.
Rather than dwell on this dumpster fire of an event, let’s remember some of Evander’s finest ever performances with help from the excellent Rummy’s Corner YouTube channel. And breathe…
THE BOXING AGENDA
Thoughts on the boxing newswire…
Wasserman Boxing, the new arm of the sports management giant led by long-time promoters Kalle and Nisse Sauerland, continue to pick up some noteworthy signings as they build their roster. With a deal agreed for their talent to appear on future Sky Sports/Boxxer shows, the headline-grabber was confirmation that Josh Kelly turned down a five-fight deal with Matchroom to make the switch to Wasserman, and it will be fascinating to see the path he chooses as he attempts to rehabilitate his career after the stoppage loss to David Avanesyan earlier this year. He is a smooth, talented fighter who is extremely marketable and could still be a genuine player at either 147 or 154 pounds, however the Avanesyan loss was a step too far too early and demonstrated flaws which will need to be corrected. Heavyweight Nathan Gorman (making the jump from Frank Warren) and Chris Jr.’s cousin Harlem Eubank have also signed up with Wasserman. Increased competition between British promoters and TV platforms should be a net positive for all parties, and theoretically ups everyone’s game. Having another viable alternative in the mainstream certainly creates more options for the fighters, the most important people of all in this crazy boxing game. The other potentially exciting element is that, though they have an agreement in place with Sky, Wasserman’s fighters can theoretically fight on other platforms as well, which should mean interesting fights are easier to make - for example, a fight like Gorman vs Fabio Wardley could still appear on a Matchroom show on DAZN. Interesting times. Sky Sports’ first show of their new boxing era, headlined by Chris Eubank Jr., goes down on the first Saturday of October…
Kudos to The Ring magazine for removing Gary Russell Jr., the current WBC featherweight champion, from their rankings (he was previously number 1 in the division on their list) due to a distinct lack of activity and no sign of a title defence coming up at any point in the near future. The pandemic has clearly meant that there has been a delay in championship defences across the board but Russell, a supremely talented boxer whose lack of action will surely hurt his legacy, only fought once per year between 2015 and 2020. “He’s a terrific fighter who doesn’t fight” succinctly summed up The Ring’s stance. Russell has defended the title just enough to hold on to the WBC crown and not be stripped, but never seems to put himself in too much danger when he does occasionally enter the ring. This act alone is obviously unlikely to change too much, but boxing needs much more of this kind of pressure put on it - when the world is not locked down, champions should be active or no longer be champions.
THE NEXT ROUND
A far-from-exhaustive rundown of upcoming boxing calendar highlights…
25th September 2021
Anthony Joshua vs Oleksandr Usyk
Promoter: Matchroom / TV: Sky Sports Box Office (UK); DAZN (US)
The news that we lost the excellent super bantamweight unification clash between WBO champion Stephen Fulton and WBC counterpart Brandon Figueroa - exactly the kind of strong, risky matchmaking boxing desperately needs at the moment - due to the latter testing positive for Covid-19, reiterates that the first few weeks of September have been generally pretty disappointing for boxing fans. Acting as a microcosm of 2021 as a whole, we’ve had fights falling through, pointless mismatches, sanctioning bodies covering themselves in anything but glory, and fighters test positive for banned substances but still keeping and defending their world title. We’ve also seen totally unsatisfying endings to the few big fights we were excited about - such as the unfortunate cut which very prematurely ended the intriguing rematch between Mauricio Lara and Josh Warrington earlier this month after less than two rounds.
Like a beacon in the darkness, however, comes one of the most fascinating fights of the year to hopefully save the month as a whole. Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk clash for the WBA, IBF and WBO world heavyweight titles in a fight which - predominantly because we came so close, yet so far, to seeing AJ-Fury earlier this year - seems to have gone somewhat under the radar so far. The pedigree is outstanding though - two London 2012 Olympic gold medallists, the man who dominated the cruiserweight division challenging the biggest star in the heavyweight division, outside in Tottenham Hotspur’s incredible new stadium, a fascinating clash of styles with a number of unknowns. Surely this one can’t disappoint. Right? Right?! Joshua has said that he ranks Usyk as the second toughest opponent of his pro career on paper, behind only Vladimir Klitschko, and I think that’s probably right. Usyk has had a phenomenal career, from a glittering amateur run to an 18-0 pro career which has seen a clean sweep of the first World Boxing Super Series and becoming the undisputed champion of the cruiserweight division. Since moving up to heavyweight, however, Usyk has not looked entirely convincing against lesser opposition than he will face the weekend after next. Usyk is an elite boxer, with outstanding stamina and footwork, but the improvements in Joshua’s game over the past two years have, I think, been undervalued by boxing as a whole - AJ boxed calmly and clinically in his nine round dismantling of Kubrat Pulev last year. Joshua also clearly offers up a major danger with the power-punching ability he possesses. Usyk has reunited with Vasyl’s father and trainer Anatoly Lomachenko as he prepares for the fight, the man who has been instrumental in many of his best performances, which adds another layer to consider. You have to believe Usyk will have an excellent game plan in place for the bout, but how he will react to AJ’s power whilst doing enough to win the fight is unclear. It’s a tough fight for both men, with intriguing challenges on both sides. Although he is technically brilliant, Usyk’s career so far demonstrates that he doesn’t completely avoid taking shots - and I wonder if he will be able to effectively take those shots from someone with the finishing ability of Joshua. Anything is possible of course, but perhaps for the mercurial Ukrainian this will be a step too far. If it’s not, and he does dethrone AJ in the UK in front of a monster crowd, then it has to be a major contender for performance of the year.
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