British boxers taken to sacrificial altar in USA

[whiskey]

Some of those 'sacrifices' earned close to their entire career earnings-to-date in one fight.

To headline a massive show, against an American PPV star is something fighter's strive towards.

It's Hearn's job (and any promoter for that matter) to get his stable into the mix for opportunities - then it's down to the fighter to accept them.

To Hearn's credit, i recall he let Barker have his entire purse for the Martinez fight, and he got a small slice of the UK tv rights or summat.

[polecateddy]

Both Richie Woodhall and Robert McCracken ended up looking a level below their good but not great American champs in their first world title tries.

[dr_devious]

The two Bruno-Tyson fights come close to this, especially the second one

[rhino222]

gavin rees fought broner stateside. broner is one serious ignorant 'james hunt'

[Onetimeonly]

Although not a title shot John L Gardner vs Michael Dokes was pretty brutal.

Gardner was actually given a chance against Dokes because the American, though unbeaten, went through a spell in his career when he looked a bit 'iffy'. He was held to a draw by the cagey Ossie Ocasio and struggled to outscore the face-first Tex Cobb before suddenly hitting hard, stopping Ocasio quickly in a rematch and also blowing away Lynn Ball. Hindsight tells us that Dokes had matured and was coming into his own but hindsight comes after the event.

Ocasio was flat out robbed in pr.

[BigDoofus]

Another one of our "Golden age of British boxing" brutally exposed.
There will be no-one left soon to headline Sky's domestic bills.

[keirw]

Another one of our "Golden age of British boxing" brutally exposed.
There will be no-one left soon to headline Sky's domestic bills.

Not sure 'exposed' is the right word, we all knew the outcome the second the fight was made.

Even Crolla, Hearn and Gallagher seemed to know it was an impossible task.

[Coco]

Dared to dream, tested himself against the best, went out on his shield and got well paid.

We complain when fighters are too protected but for me when you are at your peak you have to fight the best out there or there is no point being in the sport or claiming you were a champion

[ShadrachSimmo]

Khans next up on a hiding to nothing.

[Coco]

Khans next up on a hiding to nothing.

Or should he be stuck in against Frankie Gavin?

[handsofstone]

This is world championship level boxing so its a very high risk of being beat up or KO'd, boxers know the risks and most of them want to test themselves against the best, why else box professionally?? Sure Crolla came up short and it was a mismatch but that says more about the level Lomachenko operates at, he's a true one off and there's probably only a handful of Lightweights on the planet who can blow away Crolla like that, Crolla's in good company and in the vast majority of people who will be swept aside from Lomachenko, should every other fighter in the divison just hang them up because they've no chance of beating the greatest boxer to ever lace up the gloves?(IMO)

As for the criticism Hearn is receiving, he's a promoter who's got his guy the ultimate fight, I'm sure Crolla and the other guys with winning/competitive mentalities will be forever in his debt and grateful for the opportunity to be great

Better fighters than Crolla have been stopped earlier by far worse fighters than Lomachenko, people get stopped early all the time, were they all mismatches too? Ive seen guys winning fights taking far more punishment than Crolla did last night

We all knew Lomachenko was gonna be too good for Crolla but I personally think if you think Hearn should never have offered this fight to Crolla then your probably of a different mindset from a top athlete or competitor, the risk would far outweigh the reward for the naysayers

As for Crolla being mandatory, he's far from the worst mandatory there's ever been, infact I imagine 70% of the worst match ups in boxing come from disgraceful mandates, the WBA have moved Connor Benn into the top 5 or 6, not only has he not got 1 respectable win on his record but he hadn't fought and he's moved up the rankings twice, if he sits tight then I'm sure the WBA will make him mandatory for the title, the WBO and IBF are just as bad, if there gonna allow any Tom, Dick or Harry fight for their International/Intercontinental trinkets then they shouldn't allow the winner an automatic top 15 ranking

[keirw]

I'm not sure Hearn ever planned for Crolla to face Loma, I imagine he expected Loma to vacate to fight a bigger opponent and was looking to put Crolla in place to pick up the vacant belt.

Once it became apparent Loma wasn't going to vacate he had to pretend that this was his plan all along, he even makes out that he got one over on Arum.

[mullenman]

Hearn is a muppet. Greedy man and he has forgotten what country he is from

[banjo]

It was like watching Paddington get fed into a mincing machine.

[skanksta]

Another one of our "Golden age of British boxing" brutally exposed.
There will be no-one left soon to headline Sky's domestic bills.

I don't think anyone had Crolla as poster-boy for any "Golden Age" ?!

Everyone likes him, admires what he's achieved etc. but he hasn't even spent much of his career as Britain's no1 LW.

Get AJ, Fury, White, Yarde, Buatsi, Smith and Warrington KO'd in a year THEN we can talk about a sacrificial altar...

[Noxy]

Howard Clarke vs Vargas

[smiling assassin]

This is world championship level boxing so its a very high risk of being beat up or KO'd, boxers know the risks and most of them want to test themselves against the best, why else box professionally?? Sure Crolla came up short and it was a mismatch but that says more about the level Lomachenko operates at, he's a true one off and there's probably only a handful of Lightweights on the planet who can blow away Crolla like that, Crolla's in good company and in the vast majority of people who will be swept aside from Lomachenko, should every other fighter in the divison just hang them up because they've no chance of beating the greatest boxer to ever lace up the gloves?(IMO)

As for the criticism Hearn is receiving, he's a promoter who's got his guy the ultimate fight, I'm sure Crolla and the other guys with winning/competitive mentalities will be forever in his debt and grateful for the opportunity to be great

Better fighters than Crolla have been stopped earlier by far worse fighters than Lomachenko, people get stopped early all the time, were they all mismatches too? Ive seen guys winning fights taking far more punishment than Crolla did last night

We all knew Lomachenko was gonna be too good for Crolla but I personally think if you think Hearn should never have offered this fight to Crolla then your probably of a different mindset from a top athlete or competitor, the risk would far outweigh the reward for the naysayers

As for Crolla being mandatory, he's far from the worst mandatory there's ever been, infact I imagine 70% of the worst match ups in boxing come from disgraceful mandates, the WBA have moved Connor Benn into the top 5 or 6, not only has he not got 1 respectable win on his record but he hadn't fought and he's moved up the rankings twice, if he sits tight then I'm sure the WBA will make him mandatory for the title, the WBO and IBF are just as bad, if there gonna allow any Tom, Dick or Harry fight for their International/Intercontinental trinkets then they shouldn't allow the winner an automatic top 15 ranking

Very sensible post

[jamamb]

ya i agree, some real over the top stuff, crolla is nowhere near an awful challenger compared to what we often see, and it was v the biggest star in the division. hed been a long time contender and it was nice for him to have a moment on the big stage. im sure it was among his best or was his best pay too

[skanksta]

"ya" and if any boxer is thinking of signing for Matchroom and they say,
"I know you've lost 6 times already - including twice at British level - but I can get you a big 6 figures to headline against a superstar in Los Angeles..."
I think they'd be a lot of sacrificial lambs wanting to jump on that altar !

[KiwiRider]

The two Bruno-Tyson fights come close to this, especially the second one

Punchers chance in both though, Crolla didn't have that.

[handsofstone]

"ya" and if any boxer is thinking of signing for Matchroom and they say,
"I know you've lost 6 times already - including twice at British level - but I can get you a big 6 figures to headline against a superstar in Los Angeles..."
I think they'd be a lot of sacrificial lambs wanting to jump on that altar !

4 of Crolla's losses were before he became a world champ, bit harsh, apart from Lomachenko and Garcia, no one would bat an eye if Crolla was matched with any other Lightweight around, no doubt mandatories are pish but Loma's planning on unifying the division so you've got to expect 1 or 2 more mismatched guys, its inevitble

[kbackup408]

this might be the funniest post here (stellas kicking in )

[Ruthless-RKO]

I'm not sure Hearn ever planned for Crolla to face Loma, I imagine he expected Loma to vacate to fight a bigger opponent and was looking to put Crolla in place to pick up the vacant belt.

Once it became apparent Loma wasn't going to vacate he had to pretend that this was his plan all along, he even makes out that he got one over on Arum.

He did plan for it. He was begging for purse bids. He wanted Crolla to earn a nice pay check.

[mickey1975]

He did plan for it. He was begging for purse bids. He wanted Crolla to earn a nice pay check.

No, he wanted Loma here so he could go ppv like GGG-Brook!

[Ruthless-RKO]

No, he wanted Loma here so he could go ppv like GGG-Brook!

Yes, that’s why Arum had to ‘overpay’ Crolla and have the fight in the US.

Hearn wanted the fight regardless.

Hearn doesn’t win purse bids, he would have used DAZN money and probably had the fight there anyway.