ANDRE WARD AND TYSON FURY vs THE LDBC: RACIAL POLITICS IN BOXING

Over a year ago now, super middleweight and light heavyweight boxing champion Andre Ward retired undefeated at the age of 33. Whatever one might think of his dirty tactics and lack of entertainment value, there is no doubt he was extremely good at his craft and his opinion as a pundit is valued and respected. He is also half-caste, but this ought to have no bearing on how we view his insight into boxing, for he obviously has an honest perspective - in contrast to the LDBC. LDBC stands for Lion's Den Boxing Community. It is a collection of Youtubers of and for Negroes of the Black Lives Matter variety and comprises channels like Thaboxingvoice, Worldbreaker Fighting and Blue Blood Sports TV. The bias shown towards black fighters and their monocular view of bouts and politics both within and outside the sport are as exaggerated as they are unsurprising. It is in this spirit in which LDBC Youtuber Barbershop Conversations approached Andre Ward to berate him about his views on heavyweights Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder.

 

SPORT AND PRIVILEGE

The boxer Andre Ward has just retired undefeated, having spent time as super middleweight then light heavyweight champion of the world. He won the Super Six Series that saw him take on and beat the best super middleweights of his era, like Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler and Chad Dawson. However, there have always been questions regarding his dirty tactics and it is indisputable that he beat several opponents through the continued use of illegal blows that went unchallenged by the referee, particularly in the defeats of Mikkel Kessler (head-butting), Sergey Kovalev (low blows) and Sakio Bika (head-butting, wrestling and elbowing). Why then was he allowed to get away with so much for so long and why are some sportsmen allowed to cheat and others not?