Frank Warren weighs in on rumors surrounding Anthony Joshua’s camp!
Despite being several days removed from Anthony Joshua’s jaw-dropping upset loss, the boxing world is still buzzing. Initially, it was Andy “Destroyer” Ruiz Jr’s four knock down TKO victory that captivated the boxing public’s imagination.
In the days to follow, however, this interest shifted to the countless ‘conspiracy theories’ revolving around what may have affected Joshua prior to the bout. The most intriguing of them all, is the rumor that AJ was knocked out in sparring less than ten days prior to the action packed Madison Square Garden dustup.
In an exclusive interview with IFL TV, Frank Warren, of Queensberry Promotion, weighed in on the subject.
Warren made sure to say that he was not positive of what happened. However, he assured that he would not be surprised if there was a bit of funny business.
He based his rationale on the fact that this would not be the first time a Hearn promoter would have endangered a fighter’s health.
Therefore, Warren would not be shocked if Eddie, like his father before him, placed profits over the well-being of a fighter.
“If a fighter gets knocked out in a fight in this country, per the Boxing Board of Control you got a minimum of 28 days before your allowed to step back in the ring to spar in training.
“Let alone have a fight before can you do sparring. That’s what’s supposed to happen and that’s there for a reason.
“If it happened then something is seriously wrong and it’s not like, you know, the Hearns’ have not previously put people in the ring when that shouldn’t be in there.
“He done it with Lee Purdy when Barry Hearn sat in a sauna with him the night before the fight trying to get weight off him because the fella couldn’t make weight in his previous two fights.
“That’s endangering his health, so much so that he was called by the Board and they fined him a substantial sum of money because of what happened. Now if you’ve got total disregard for a boxers health, then what are you doing in the sport?”
Knowing that the elder Hearn willingly and purposely placed one of his fighters into unnecessary danger is a scary and distasteful realization. It also puts a new slant on Barry Hearn’s recent unsavory ‘slave traders’ references.
While leading a presser for the Dillian Whyte v Oscar Rivas prizefight, the Matchroom Promotions founder gleefully referred to himself as a ‘slave trader.’ In calling himself this, Hearn elaborated that promoters of old didn’t have to respect their fighters and could do what they wanted with them.
After the offensive comparison caused a stir, both Barry and Eddie Hearn aggressively defended the comments on separate occasions and on camera. Not only did Barry Hearn defend the statement, while at the weigh-in for Joshua v Ruiz Jr, he said anyone who had a problem with it was stupid.
At the moment all of these statements are casting an extremely poor light on the Hearns’ and the manner in which they conduct business.
“It’s all well to say, ‘look at our accounts, look how much money we’re making!’ That’s one thing but you also have to have some accountability for the boxer’s health and safety.
“And if it’s true [about Anthony Joshua], and I don’t know whether it is, no one said it isn’t up to yet. If it is true that it happened then somebody should have something done about it because that is wrong.
“That’s how fighters get badly, badly hurt. That’s how the sport gets a real bad name when people don’t give a monkey’s [ass] about anything regarding the boxer’s health.
It’s all about making money.”
By: Bakari Simpson
