The David Haye circus will continue with Shannon Briggs bout - and there is no point complaining about it now
COMMENT: It has been a lot of fun covering Briggs, but nobody thought that he would get a licence.
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David Haye will fight a man called Shannon Briggs at the O2 in London in September and every single howl of protest will correctly be ignored.
On Saturday night a farcical set of fights, a cynical series of matches and a comical mix of broadcasting combined to make the fights on Dave TV, with Haye as the main attraction, the ultimate car-crash event. It was not funny.
Haye repeatedly knocked over Arnold Gjergjaj before the slaughter was stopped in round two, Briggs took pity on Emilio Zarate and only hit the Argentine's ribs before a knockout in the first round. If you had bet a tenner on each to win you would have won twenty pence in total.
There has been a relentless stream of outrage since the fights, the broadcast and the mismatches came to their inevitable ends. There has been much unrest in the business but it was not boxing's darkest three hours, which is a prize divided between several abysmal shows in the moribund Eighties, and it will not bring eternal shame on the sport. There is no shame in the fight game.
It was, instead, high-profile, glitzy and a brilliant commercial night for Haye and his backers. There was no corruption, no wise guys with guns reminding fat men with ambition that they had to take a dive and nobody was conned into buying a ticket. Haye, like Anthony Joshua, has a loyal following and on Saturday just under 17,000 paid for a bit of Lethal Bizzle, a glimpse at Jose Mourinho and the sight of their man Haye slamming a big lump repeatedly to the canvas. Boxing cynics might wonder at the sanity of the paying public but that does not make it illegal in any way. Haye did nothing wrong and the event proved once again that the south London fighter remains a major attraction.
At ringside the British Boxing Board of Control sat in judgement on the chaos having sanctioned the import of various carcasses, granted a licence to a 44-year-old man and generally ignored the concerns of people inside the trade. In many ways everybody was in on the swindle - the media treated it like a fun night, the fans got the quick knockouts they wanted and the Board officials collected their expenses and left the ringside abattoir for the suburbs with clear consciences. Nobody ended up in hospital, but it is possible Haye could have injured his back lifting his latest bag of cash - there is nothing illegal in making money when you have delivered on all of your promises. Also, Haye will hand over a substantial sum to Nick Blackwell, who recently required a hospital stay after losing his British title to Chris Eubank Jr.
Now the Board has a problem going forward after such a monumental fiasco, which they sanctioned. It has to be said that half of the online assault was aimed at the shambolic television production and that had absolutely nothing to do with the Board. The Board granted former double world heavyweight champion Briggs, who is 44, a licence when most inside the trade were convinced that he would be rejected. Briggs looked fine, did his bit by winning and setting up the lucrative September fight with Haye. Briggs, by the way, has been in London for six weeks harassing Haye and standing outside Buckingham Palace to assure the Queen that he will "get rid of that pussy Haye" for her. It has, as I mentioned, been a lot of fun covering Briggs, but nobody thought that he would get a licence.
Briggs will apply for and should get his British licence in time for the September fight with Haye, and that is because the Board is trapped in a corner after sanctioning Saturday's lunacy; no amount of belated righteousness justifies denying Briggs a living now. It is too late, sorry. The time for action was a few weeks ago when Briggs and Gjergjaj were being considered for main event status on a terrestrial television boxing show at a sold-out O2. It is too late now to moan.
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