Rio Ferdinand to become a professional boxer

That’s a shame. Seems a little harsh?

I'm gonna guess that I'm not the only one who just sees three men's knees there?

As cracking as they are, I'm assuming Pogue's talking about Rio being denied a license.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/43988433

DiseaseOfTheAge said:

I'm gonna guess that I'm not the only one who just sees three men's knees there?

As cracking as they are, I'm assuming Pogue's talking about Rio being denied a license.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/43988433

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If you click on the pic there's a summary underneath.

Ferdinand ends boxing career without fighting:

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/ferdinand-ends-boxing-career-without-fighting

I don't really think there's a lot to be said for giving licences to thirty nine year olds who've never had one before, to be honest.

I know I probably shouldn't speculate on Rio's personal stuff but (I'm going to anyway) I hope he finds something else that works for him as a new vocation/hobby strikes me as something that could be quite important for a man who not that long ago became a widower.

Did Andrew Flintoff get a licence or was that an unofficial fight? If he did, then maybe they were trying avoid the sorts of criticisms that came with his fight as that was a total joke.

Still, there are some really terrible pro boxers out there. Some are literal Wengers - specialists in failure who pretty much only exist to give debutants or novices an easy win.

Just got to go on boxrec to find a few:
http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/663419
http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/627385
http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/740939
http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/477904
http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/339418
http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/732363

What division was Rio hoping to fight in? Was thinking that it gets more dangerous to be rubbish the bigger the you are as you're facing more punching power. They're all pretty big lads at light heavyweight and cruiserweight, although I can't see any heavyweights with similarly terrible records.

Those fellas have all being going a while too so not just starting out at a later age. Suppose that, and showing that they can lose safely (if that makes sense?) has to count for something.

Presumably Rio can have some kind of boxing match anyway? I mean, people who fight in those white collar boxing events don’t need a license. Could he not use whatever loop-hole they do for a one-off event?

It's not really surprising. He will be a long, long way off the ability required to fight at the level his celebrity status will allow him to enter. The boxing board is just protecting itself from the criticism they would get if he got absolutely pummeled (which is pretty likely).

Pogue Mahone said:

Presumably Rio can have some kind of boxing match anyway? I mean, people who fight in those white collar boxing events don’t need a license. Could he not use whatever loop-hole they do for a one-off event?

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I don't see why not. Saw something on here the other week with idiots from youtube having fights like that.

He could maybe even do proper amateur stuff - http://www.abae.co.uk/aba/

That's of course if he wanted to.

Edit: Apparently you can compete in amateur until you're 40 - not sure if that's up to 40 or including 40 year olds. You need to a medical card from a doctor to say you're fit to fight.

I don't think it's necessarily something about Rio the non-footballer....but essentially them taking a stance towards celebs/ex-athletes just thinking they can step in for a quick fight against a career bum.

I also think it's right to reject him because of that. While Flintoff isn't quite the athlete Rio is, it was a farce. And it'd continue to go down that route if they allowed Rio, but then again, MMA allows whatever really at the moment, so like yeah whatever.