The Flintoff and Mcgregor things have really dragged boxing's name through the mud, surely the boxing board of control wouldn't allow Rio a boxing licence for a one-off fight.
They'd said already they wouldn't have sanctioned the Mayweather vs Mcgregor fight.
Did you watch the Flintoff doco? He went through all of the same due process as any other boxer that wanted to fight professionally would have to go through. He attained his license in the correct way. Don't know why you'd say it dragged boxing through the mud. If you watched the documentary you'd agree it actually showed the level of dedication required to compete in the sport. Youd have come away with no other opinion that boxing is a sport that requires a lot of dedication and extremely hard work to compete even at the lowest level. So I don't know how that's dragging boxing through the mud. If anything it was a "take my hat off to boxers for doing what they do" type of doco.
As for the McGregor fight, Muhammad Ali fought exhibition fights with wrestlers, is that also dragging boxing through the mud?
It sounds like you seen that McGregor Mayweather fight as an actual competitive fight, it wasnt, it was a circus fight, nothing more.