LETTER OF THE WEEK
IT’S very rare that I get agitated, but I am about the prospect of Nigel Benn fighting Sakio Bika. I fear for the health of a fighting legend I admire. I further fear that this fight could badly damage the reputation of boxing and its ability to continue as a mainstream sport.
Nigel looks very fit, and I’m sure he would still be capable of knocking out a line of tough guys in the gym, or even some current boxers fighting at a lower level, but he hasn’t won a fight since 1995. Bika is 15 years younger, won two fights in 2017, and as recently as 2015 went the distance in a WBC lightheavyweight title fight against ferocious puncher Adonis Stevenson. If neither Stevenson, nor Andre Ward, nor Joe Calzaghe could stop Bika, Nigel has no chance of doing so. So Nigel is going to end up in a distance fight with a rough, tough, younger man who is not that many years removed from top level fighting. This must not happen. Please, Nigel, think of your fans, think of your sport, think of your health.