Where are the Editorial Standards of Today’s Boxing Sites?

In a recent article by Rob Blakeman, boxing website Boxing News 24 posited the theory that former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko might have retired so as to duck David Haye. Yes, you read that right, and it wasn’t in a satirical context either. Someone actually proposed that Dr. Ironfist vacated his championship so as to not have to fight David Haye, and got it published on a major boxing news website.

Nevermind that Klischko said he was retiring to pursue his political ambitions, and those ambitions have been manifest dating back to 2004, lending a weighty sense of credibility to his stated reason. Boxing News 24 and Blakeman say it was David Haye who chased Klitschko out of boxing.

Their proof? They have none, or nothing that meets the definition “evidence or argument establishing a fact or the truth of a statement” to a reasonable degree. Blakeman started with a Klitschko camp statement after Big Vitali’s fight with Dereck Chisora that Haye should fight Chisora, and then fight him for the WBC title. That was in February 2012, and Haye actually went on to kayo Chisora in July of that same year.

According to Blakeman, this one fact is infinitely more important than the lengthy dance David Haye had with both Vitali and Wlad; or the fact that Vitali Klitschko’s last fight was in September 2012, and that he was ever busier with Ukrainian politics in the months that followed. Klitschko has been smack in the middle of the volatile, violent protests and demonstrations which are nearly tearing his country apart. Meanwhile, Haye twice scheduled, and then backed away from, fights with domestic rival Tyson Fury. On the second occasion, he claimed he would be retiring himself.

Blakeman then went on to give a stilted version of events for the 1992 European Kick Boxing Championship, and to allege that Klitschko was scared silly by tapes of Haye sparring. On this flimsy case, Blakeman and Boxing News 24 made an assertion so ridiculous that even most David Haye fans don’t buy it. Nevermind Klitschko’s political ambitions, and nevermind that Haye had no way of forcing Vitali Klitschko to fight him in the near term either (only Bermane Stiverne and maybe Chris Arreola were in a position to do that). According to Boxing News 24, Klitschko apparently stuck his tail in between his legs and ran straight into the rats nest that is Ukranian politics, even though he didn’t have to!

Some boxing websites appear to be willing to publish anything by anyone, so long as the writer in question can string a couple of sentences together. Boxing News 24 is a clear example of that lack of standards, as this piece of rabid Hayemaker fanboyism amply demonstrates. The editorial quality of the article is beyond fanciful, but enters the realm of the hallucinatory, and begs the question of why anyone would want to read such drivel?

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