Reflections on Riyadh

It was an exhilarating experience being ringside in Riyadh on Saturday evening for a clutch of magnificent fights that pretty much delivered on every level.

The reaction across the board has been overwhelmingly positive with fans being bowled over by what they witnessed from the fantastic ANB Arena. Being inside the Arena was like being at a big show in London with the fans becoming more and more invested in the sport.

The headliner was something else. It was like watching two master craftsmen at work, employing speed, skill, precision and huge toughness. Dmitrii Bivol and Artur Beterbiev operate at the elite end of our game and it was a privilege to see them carry out their business.

For both fights I picked Beterbiev to win and on both occasions I felt that Bivol won. It is such a close run thing between these two light heavyweight titans and I doubt anyone would complain if a trilogy was put in place.

On the subject of close fights, I did feel that Hamzah Sheeraz was not particularly fortunate to get a draw in his world title tilt against Carlos Adames for the WBC world middleweight title. However, I wouldn’t vehemently argue the case with those who saw it differently.

Unfortunately, Hamzah was ultimately hampered by a serious hand injury and discovering this certainly explained a lot about the way the fight panned out.

In the early rounds when he was circling Adames, he was picking him off on a regular basis. Then his punch output suddenly decreased quite dramatically, which isn’t like him at all. Credit to him, he stuck in there and was never really in any great bother.

My one concern was that Hamzah seemed to be missing his usual menace, that destructive edge he has employed that has seen him stop his previous 15 opponents. It might just be that his time at middleweight is up and that 168lbs is beckoning.

The biggest talking point at the back end of the week was the drafting of Martin Bakole as a late, late replacement for Daniel Dubois to take on Joseph Parker.

It was gutting for Daniel and everyone concerned when he was forced to withdraw, but we would never take any chances if our fighters were not in optimum health and condition.

So big Martin embarked on his mission from Congo to Riyadh and landed in the early hours of Saturday morning. Fair play to him, but his time in the ring proved to be short-lived. Congratulations to Joe for executing a stunning finish.

It was a brave, brave move by Martin to put himself up to face a fully trained Joe. It was perhaps a braver move by his team and it is not one I would have made in similar circumstances. He had an IBF final eliminator booked in for May with time to prepare properly and, if successful, he would have been right in line for a world title shot.

He swapped this for an Interim title fight with little or no preparation at all and now finds himself on the periphery again in terms of being in world title contention.

Sticking with the heavyweight theme, I believe that Agit Kabayel has really announced himself as a top-class contender now, with his stoppage of Zhilei Zhang following on from similar outcomes against Arslanbek Makhmudov and Frank Sanchez.

He is such a smart and effective fighter and I think he now really belongs in the top echelon of the heavyweights.

I felt sorry for Big Bang, but he appears to have run out of gunpowder and just couldn’t keep up the pace against Agit, even though he still managed to land a howitzer of a knockdown.

I won’t run through the entire card, but a special mention must go to both Callum Smith and Joshua Buatsi, who got the night off to an explosive start with an epic 12 rounds of non-stop action.

A big thank you once again to Riyadh Season and I am looking forward to the next one already!