BoxRec

It is beyond a joke now, with 42 year old fana facing terry next month. Nobody in the uk is importing more inept world title challengers than fwank - look at the nobody Liam smith faces this weekend, and the guy lined up for BJS before that fight got scrapped. Somebody close to fwank needs to have a word, as world title challengers these guys aren't just bad they are awful. It's almost like he wants to make his channel more obscure and widen the gap with matchroom even further. He bangs on about making the fights the fans want to see but what he delivers for his world champs is a joke.

I agree.

No mainstream cross-over exposure means no ticket sales means no money in the pot for quality opponents.

Fana? Seriously? Ffs! I didn't even realise he was still going. Frank has been the same for years. Some of Calzaghes defences years ago were a piss take as well.

Fana is something like 4-4 as a lightweight, no way should he be fighting for a world title again. Why do fans buy tickets to this?

does W@rren have a match maker or does he do it all himself?

BJS vs. Bursak
Smith vs. Radosevic
Flanagan vs. Fana
pointless, no hype, no eyeballs.

3 things - get English-speaking opponents to build a little hype and/or get fighters coming off competitive fights on sky sports and/or get old named opponents.

alternative opponents for what I'm guessing would be comparative money -
BJS vs. Jorge Heiland (beat Macklin on Sky TV)
Smith vs. Carson Jones (beat Brian Rose on Sky TV)
Flanagan vs. Yvan Mendy (beat Luke Campbell on a Sky PPV)

He's tough. He's game. He'll come to win.

jameswilson wrote:He's tough. He's game. He'll come to win.

You can't buy that kind of experience

jameswilson wrote:He's tough. He's game. He'll come to win.

He's not just tough, mate. He's African remember. That automatically puts him in the "teak tough" group of British commentator/pundit clichés.

wesshaw1985 wrote:does W@rren have a match maker or does he do it all himself?

BJS vs. Bursak
Smith vs. Radosevic
Flanagan vs. Fana
pointless, no hype, no eyeballs.

3 things - get English-speaking opponents to build a little hype and/or get fighters coming off competitive fights on sky sports and/or get old named opponents.

alternative opponents for what I'm guessing would be comparative money -
BJS vs. Jorge Heiland (beat Macklin on Sky TV)
Smith vs. Carson Jones (beat Brian Rose on Sky TV)
Flanagan vs. Yvan Mendy (beat Luke Campbell on a Sky PPV)

Good calls.

Black Sam Bellamy wrote:No mainstream cross-over exposure means no ticket sales means no money in the pot for quality opponents.

Agreed, but it's a dangerous downward spiral of quality and it's a bit sad to see a former top promoter putting on a world title fight involving fana in 2016. No doubt fwank will soon pop up on ifilm slagging off matchroom and putting the boot in on Joshua's opponent.

I thought they reserved "teak tough" for Ghanaians.

Yeah this is very bad. I couldn't watch most of FW's challengers for Calzaghe, Maccarinelli, Hatton (WBU), Gary Lockett (WBU) back when I spent a lot of money on Sky Sports.

Fana was destroyed some 7 years ago by Barrera down at super feather, in only a couple of rounds.

Meanwhile Crolla is coming off destructions of Barroso, Perez and could be heading toward unification with Linares...

Not sure how long the current deal lasts but I bet terry is wishing he was a matchroom fighter.

Couldnt Fwank have brought over Andreas Evensen? Surely he's a LW these days

bfchunk wrote:

Enzo used to have a fair pair of tits on him, but he seems to have lost them as he's got older. In stark contrast to myself.

I'm racking my brains a bit trying to remember the last time a British world title holder had a genuinely dangerous voluntary defence.

The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are Burns vs Beltran and Cleverly vs Kovalev and they were both a couple years ago.

Obviously Fury vs Klitchsko is coming up too, but they seem to be few and far between.

Autobarn wrote:I thought they reserved "teak tough" for Ghanaians.

Yeah this is very bad. I couldn't watch most of FW's challengers for Calzaghe, Maccarinelli, Hatton (WBU), Gary Lockett (WBU) back when I spent a lot of money on Sky Sports.

Fana was destroyed some 7 years ago by Barrera down at super feather, in only a couple of rounds.

Meanwhile Crolla is coming off destructions of Barroso, Perez and could be heading toward unification with Linares...

Good post. To add even more emphasis to your point, it was in 2005 (eleven years ago) that Fana was destroyed by a past it Barrera.

Is that Calzaghe-Pudwill and Maccarinelli-Lamontagne?

black panther wrote:

Autobarn wrote:I thought they reserved "teak tough" for Ghanaians.

Yeah this is very bad. I couldn't watch most of FW's challengers for Calzaghe, Maccarinelli, Hatton (WBU), Gary Lockett (WBU) back when I spent a lot of money on Sky Sports.

Fana was destroyed some 7 years ago by Barrera down at super feather, in only a couple of rounds.

Meanwhile Crolla is coming off destructions of Barroso, Perez and could be heading toward unification with Linares...

Good post. To add even more emphasis to your point, it was in 2005 (eleven years ago) that Fana was destroyed by a past it Barrera.

I think Barrera still had something. But it was the last gasp of his career.

11 years since Fana was brutally exposed, wow.

keirw wrote:I'm racking my brains a bit trying to remember the last time a British world title holder had a genuinely dangerous voluntary defence.

The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are Burns vs Beltran and Cleverly vs Kovalev and they were both a couple years ago.

Obviously Fury vs Klitchsko is coming up too, but they seem to be few and far between.

Good point. I would class fana as barely acceptable for an inter continental title fight, given his advanced years. To put him in with Flanaghan is inexcusable. Standards have declined in recent years but Jesus Christ this is a new low. Has there ever been a lightweight title challenger in his 40's ? Fana turns 43 soon after the fight. I would like to see kugan ask a few blunt questions of fwank, next time he is harping on about how old Shannon Briggs is or how crap the opposition is for kell and Joshua.

keirw wrote:I'm racking my brains a bit trying to remember the last time a British world title holder had a genuinely dangerous voluntary defence.

The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are Burns vs Beltran and Cleverly vs Kovalev and they were both a couple years ago.

Obviously Fury vs Klitchsko is coming up too, but they seem to be few and far between.

Naz, Lennox and Froch would have several consecutive hard fights vs dangerous fighters.

Froch v Taylor was a good voluntary. Froch demanded the fight of his top contender and was ridiculed for calling out the better known fighter. Froch's last ditch rally was one of my absolute favourite boxing moments.

Wasn't Taylor Froch's mandatory?

crusader wrote:Wasn't Taylor Froch's mandatory?

Yes I'm sure I vividly remember the WBC at the time adding a rule that meant winners of vacant titles had to fight 2 consecutive mandatories.

Autobarn wrote: Froch's last ditch rally was one of my absolute favourite boxing moments.

Fantastic never to be forgotten finish. I was leaping round the living room like a madman.