Sam Jones has echoed the thoughts of many boxing fans and fighters as he spoke out on the lack of ‘common sense’ behind postponing events.
The United Kingdom, following the sad death of Queen Elizabeth II, has entered a period of national mourning. Giving the exceptional nature of events, it was unclear how this would affect the world of sport.
Historically, sporting events have been moved or cancelled out of respect for public figures passing. This year, new guidance was published that left the final decision up to sporting bodies. Boxing followed football and horse racing in postponing the weekend’s fixtures.
Sam Jones, Head of Talent at Probellum and Co-Founder of S-JAM Boxing management agency, has had his say to Boxing Social. He labelled the decision to postpone boxing, namely the Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall BOXXER card, as “ridiculous.”
“I respect the Royal Family. There’s nobody that sings the national anthem louder than me when football’s on, but to cancel any sporting event is ridiculous. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
The thing is with boxing is … it’s not just making weight and putting their bodies through hell to make weight, they go through a camp – and Savannah, Claressa, and all the other girls on the undercard would have paid for their camp. Some of them probably work as well, they may not do it full time.
“I don’t want to get politically involved, because I’m not intelligent enough to do that, but what I do know is that people shouldn’t be – not forced to mourn – but we’re kind of being forced to be sad if that makes sense. It’s awful what’s happened with the Queen passing away. 96 years old, she’s lived a full life, and we should so respect the Queen, but there’s nothing more patriotic than to sing the national anthem before [these] events.”
“The ECB [England and Wales Cricket Board] have shown complete common sense – they’ve come out and said ‘we’re not cancelling, we’re going to honour the Queen’ which is what should have happened on the fight night on Sky Sports.”
“Heaven forbid if Savannah or Claressa get injured in the next month or so, that huge pay day has been taken away from both of them and the whole card is probably going to get scrapped.”
Strong words from Jones, and ones that many in the sport will agree with in respect to the work and money put in by the fighters and their teams. As per BOXXER’s statement, all involved in the Claressa Shields – Savannah Marshall fight are working to stage the full card on October 15 at The O2 in London.