In boxing, as in life, it works better of course if you are stupid. You know less, so you care less and worry less. It works better for everyone else, too, if you are stupid. That way you are easily led and fooled; easily both bought and sold to. That way you think boxing means one thing when it actually means – or meant – something else. You hear that Jake Paul is fighting Anthony Joshua, for example, and you don’t so much as question it, for you see nothing wrong with it by the standards of today. All you might offer, in the form of a quote tweet, is this: “LOL. SO RANDOM.” This, you accept, is the new normal. It’s why you find yourself watching Misfits the same way you watch “Love Island” or any other crap reality TV show. You call it a guilty pleasure. Or just a bit of fun. “Harmless” fun. It’s also why you watch boxing, real boxing, find a second home in Riyadh, where big money can be made, and believe only what you see and are told. When someone asks you why Saudi Arabia now runs the sport, you reply only that it is “a bit random, yeah” and shrug your shoulders. You then hear of the banning of journalists from press conferences and fights and say, “Yeah, but at least we’re getting the big fights now.” Besides, why should you care about the access of some random journalist nobody even knows? You offer the same shrug of indifference when the subject of performance-enhancing drugs comes up and when those who have failed a random test are suddenly back in the ring making money. It doesn’t affect you, so you just keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and – oh look, DAZN have posted. That’s random. Who’s Carlos Zarate?
Subscribe to my channel
