When last month’s ‘Day Of Reckoning’ card was first announced, boxing fans rejoiced at seeing a host of the sport’s biggest stars featuring on the same show, albeit not all of them in particularly competitive bouts.
December 23rd’s offering provided a fair degree of entertainment and was, for the most part, well received, with Joseph Parker’s upset win over Deontay Wilder and Daniel Dubois’ final round knockout of Jarrell Miller amongst the main talking points.
However, as good as some of the in ring action was, the show in Riyadh suffered from the same ailment that has plagued just about every combat sports events that has taken place in the Middle East in recent years – a lack of atmosphere.
Simon Jordan raised this point to promoter Frank Warren on Talksport recently.
“I watched it from the get go. If you haven’t got Saudi fighters fighting then you’re always going to have that challenge.
“It did feel like there was no atmosphere, it felt as if you could hear a door shut!”
Queensberry boss Warren was quick to refute Jordan’s claims.
“The Saudi’s got behind AJ and they certainly got behind Deontay to start with. And they were very much behind Jarrell Miller against Daniel.”
“There was an atmosphere. I don’t care how it came across, I was there and I heard it.”
𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗻: “It felt like you could hear doors shut!”
𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗸: “You’re just looking for a problem!” 😡
Simon Jordan and Frank Warren come to blows over the atmosphere at Day of Reckoning. 🔥
🍿🍿🍿 pic.twitter.com/O9L8tdiPfR
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) January 3, 2024
This is not the first time there has been criticism of the atmosphere of events staged in Saudi Arabia. There were similar grievances aired after Anthony Joshua’s rematches with Andy Ruiz Jr and Oleksandr Usyk, which were both much more subdued affairs than their initial fights.
Unfortunately for British fans, who have built a reputation as amongst the most fervent in the sport, this may simply be a trade off they have to accept in order to have fight cards of the depth of The Day Of Reckoning.
