Joshua vs. Dubois announcement shows Saudi ambition

By Joe Hughes

THE announcement of Anthony Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois this week showed the continuation of Saudi Arabia’s ambition and Turki Alalshikh’s seeming attempt to take over boxing promotion worldwide. 

This latest part of ‘Riyadh season’ will follow their American debut headlined by Terence Crawford vs Israil Madrimov. 

It’s another example of rival promoters happily working together thanks to Saudi influence and money: Joshua with Matchroom and Dubois with Queensberry. There are even a few Boxxer-promoted fighters on this one. Both the USA and UK instalments are stacked cards from top to bottom and continue the trend of actually having good fights all through the show.

This week, the amateur boxing club I help coach at, Paddy John’s ABC, has decided to go back to the amateur boxing alliance. We’ve been part of the alliance since its inception, but our boxers voted to join England Boxing last year. 

We’ve been trying to register for the past 6 months with no success, for some reason, meaning our boxers have been unable to compete since December. It’s been an extremely frustrating period for the club and I’m looking forward to getting our boxers back out there competing again. 

I’m attending the Erb’s Palsy Group Fun Day this Saturday, it’s an event where lots of people with Erb’s Palsy, especially children and their families, can meet up and relate with people in the same situation they are in. 

I’m taking my belts, some pads and gloves along to let the kids have a go at boxing and see if they enjoy it. Boxing was really good physiotherapy for my injured arm and I’m sure without boxing, it would be much worse than it is now. I think it is a great sport for those with an injury like mine to take up. It can really help. Not just the physical part but everything else as well. Who knows, maybe I’ll meet and inspire the next Joe Hughes.