RIYADH REACTION

By Frank Warren

RIYADH SEASON SERVED up yet another magical treat on Saturday night when the undisputed clash between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitrii Bivol delivered in a big way.

It was a classic light heavyweight confrontation between the two best in the business and it reminded me in some ways of the first two encounters between Canelo and Golovkin.

To this day, people will still dispute the scoring of those two high quality fights.

The same is happening now and it is pretty much inevitable when you have two so closely matched masters of their trade going up against each other. Conflicting scorecards are an unfortunate by-product of this.

Sitting ringside I felt that Bivol edged it, but I am aware that many people at home viewed it differently. It was no robbery and it doesn’t take away from the spectacle we witnessed.

Like the two great middleweights, they can do it again and possibly again. I doubt anyone will object to that.

The heavyweight division just became a little bit more interesting from our point of view due to our man Fabio Wardley inflicting a brutal stoppage on Frazer Clarke in their British title rematch.

Fabio certainly left nothing to chance this time around.

It is hard to imagine many heavyweights withstanding the withering, disfiguring right handers that Fabio landed on the unfortunate Frazer. Sadly for the amiable Olympian, he is looking at a long time out now and I would expect that he will consider all options during this period.

He was exceptionally well treated and H.E. Turki kindly summoned the very best surgeon from his bed to immediately carry out a superb repair job on his facial fractures, enabling him to travel home with his family.

I wish Frazer all the very best and a speedy recovery.

As for Fabio, he has placed himself right in the thick of the heavyweight conversation now and really isn’t that far away from world title contention.

What he needs now, apart from a well deserved rest, is a couple of fights against top-10 calibre opposition to give him the tests and experience he requires to push forward.

Make no mistake, Fabio is a dangerous proposition for any heavyweight now, and I highly doubt the queue to take him on has lengthened. But in the era we are in now, the big fights that need to happen will be made and Fabio will have every opportunity to make it big in this sport.

He deserves it, and his story should serve as an inspiration to fighters who don’t necessarily thrive in the amateur ranks. Hard graft and living the life can take you a long way.

Unfortunately, on the night, we didn’t record a win-double because our Queen of Queensberry Raven Chapman came up short in her challenge against WBC world champion Skye Nicolson.

Raven just couldn’t impose herself on the extremely elusive Skye and was effectively outfoxed across the 10 rounds.

She can put it down to experience and will come again at world level. We think the world of Raven and believe in her, so we will get her back into position for another shot at a world title.

WE’VE GOT A potential small hall classic on the cards this Friday when we are back at York Hall with a Commonwealth title fight between our recent signing Sam Gilley and Jack McGann.

Originally it was supposed to be Sam fighting for the British title at super welterweight against Louis Greene. Unfortunately Louis was forced out of the fight due to illness, but this provides an opening for Jack to put himself back in the title picture.

Sam was initially supposed to be fighting Jack for the British title a while back, but then Jack was clubbed by Louis over in Riyadh and Louis took his position as mandatory challenger for the belt.

So Jack now has the opportunity to muddy the waters even more and I just have the feeling we are in for something special.

On the card we’ve got a Southern Area heavyweight title fight between the undefeated Courtney Bennett – who is just five fights in as a pro – and Nick Webb, who has fought at a good level. We’ve also got our exciting young cruiserweight Tommy Fletcher back in action after a spell out with tonsillitis and a good test for our Blue Chip super featherweight talent Royston Barney-Smith.

Catch the action from York Hall on Friday from 7pm on TNT Sports.