Bad blood? More like bad odour as fight fans feel short-changed

A wild weekend of big fight action left fans angry as the pay-per-view matches were over before they had time to settle in their armchairs and … oh yeah, and there was handball too

TheCopenhagenPost

Dec 14, 2015

A couple of highly-touted fights wound up fast, furious and too short for fans and pubs that paid to carry the action.

The massively hyped Saturday night ‘Bad Blood’ fight at Brøndby Hallen between Danish boxers Patrick Nielsen and Rudy Markussen attracted a massive number of viewers on Viasat who paid 499 kroner per venue to watch the action.

Tepid blood
But those viewers were not happy when the referee stopped the fight in the third round and declared Nielsen the winner over the seriously outmatched Markussen.

One poster on Viasat’s Facebook page asked: “The conclusion to this fight was decided before it started, so I expect repayment. Will it be via Mobilepay, or do you need my account number?”

Another poster wondered how a fighter could be declared “knocked out without hardly been hit”.

Many were offended by the ‘Bad Blood’ branding of the fight.

“It seems strange that a man goes down in the third round and that Nielsen said afterwards: ‘I have nothing against Rudy (Markussen), we are good friends’,” observed another fan.

Promoter Kalle Sauerland rejected the criticism, saying that the fight game comes with no guarantees.

A real fight
The Nielsen/Markussen bout wasn’t the only boxing match shown on local screens on Saturday night.

Fight fans at homes and in pubs around Denmark soaked up the excitement of a packed O2 Arena as heavyweight Anthony Joshua took on fellow Londoner Dillian Whyte. Joshua came out early and nearly dropped Whyte in the first round. Whyte regrouped and held on to force the fight into a seventh round.

Joshua landed a brutal series of punches, starting with a powerful right hand that rocked Whyte. The following barrage of jabs dropped Whyte to the canvas, giving Joshua a knockout victory.

The luck of the Irish
Rounding up the Saturday fisticuffs – actually at about 6am on Sunday morning – was the MMA/UFC featherweight match-up between Ireland’s Conor ‘The Notorious’ McGregor and long-time champ Jose Aldo.

Bleary-eyed Irishmen crowded around pub screens. And their patience was rewarded by a victory that took McGregor all of 13 seconds to accomplish. One punch. One knockout. And a couple of quick follow-up hammer fists on the floor, just to be sure the job was done.

Oh yeah … the handball
The Danes advanced to the quarter-finals in the World Women’s Handball Championship with a 26-19 over rivals Sweden.

Denmark should face Romania in the quarter-finals, who upset defending champions Brazil to send them out of the tournament.