In a recent interview with Boxing UK, current unified Junior Welterweight/Super Lightrweight world champion Josh Taylor made some scathing remarks in reference to the trend of more Influencers taking a part in boxing.
Josh Taylor seemed none too happy with the presence of social media Influencers delving into the sport of boxing: “Listen, I’m not a fan of it. They’re making money and setting some new eyes to the sport, but all of this, it’s snowballed into something else. They’re making an absolute mockery of the sport.”
“You’ve got computer geeks acting like f****** hard men and saying this, and saying that.
“They’re making an absolute mockery of the sport. One of these guys are going to end up hurt because they don’t know what they’re doing. They’ve got a couple of weeks training and then they’re acting like fighters.” Taylor continued.
As illustrated in our most recent article, Influencers seem to gain a lot of interest through a lot less work than the average boxer who do not have the luxury of having a large fan base to earn as much. Though the profile of a boxer is largely dependent on promoters, there are countless professionals who do not even have the fortune to get promoted decently, if at all.
Most boxers signed to these promotions are only guaranteed fights, and are essentially left to their own when it comes to actually being promoted. through social media, interviews or press conferences. Social media Influencers can bypass all of the effort needed to promote themselves as they already have a fan base that will pay for theirfights, regardless of whether they are skilled/experienced or not.
“I’m all for the making money and doing well, and bringing entertainment. But do something else. They’re turning boxing into wrestling like the WWE or WWF or whatever it is called. Go in and wrestle and act like a f******* clown. Why watch some clowns go at it at a circus?” Taylor said, in reference to the “professional wrestling” ‘sport’ which utilizes heavily-scripted fights and scenes during events.
“You’ve got real fighters out there that are busting their guts, day in, day out, years upon years, dedicating their selves to the sport.
“Most fighters cannot even get a fight and struggling paying bills, and you got these clowns coming in and making absolute fortunes.” Taylor went on to say. “Which is fair enough, but they’re making an absolute mockery of the sport and what boxing’s about.
“Go into the UFC if you want to act like a clown, WWE or whatever it is called, the wrestling, the fake stuff.” Taylor reiterated. “Boxing is a serious sport where people can get hurt, and one of them are going to end up getting hurt because they don’t know what they’re doing.”
