Dana Johannsen: Brutal truth behind broken sport

Brian Minto says fighting Joseph Parker injured and in an "awful" mental state was one of the dumbest moves of his career. Photo / Peter Meecham

Minto’s admission he fought with busted nose proves boxing is a fiasco.

Press releases from boxing promoters generally don't make for interesting reading.

They're usually all hype and bluster, pumping up athletes that in real life don't appear the lean mean fighting machines they are made out to be in the press material.

But one release landed yesterday that made you read on beyond the predictable opening entrails about quests for redemption (seriously, do all bouts have to be about redemption or proving a point?).

In outlining his motivations for taking part in next month's Super 8 Cruiserweight tournament in Christchurch, US boxer Brian Minto, who lost to Kiwi heavyweight Joseph Parker in his last fight in New Zealand, rather unselfconsciously made some stunning admissions about how his sport operates.

"I have [a] major point to prove after the Joseph Parker loss," Minto said (no surprises there).

"I broke my nose a week out and couldn't get the fight rescheduled. I put the money first."
Hold on, what?

The Pennsylvania native also admitted he was in no fit state mentally to step in the ring, with his father's terminal battle with dementia weighing heavily on his mind.

"My mental state was awful and I didn't do myself any justice, looking back it was one of the dumbest moves of my career."

Minto's comments, which were made with no apparent hint of animosity towards the promoters of the event, Duco, paint a rather bleak picture of his sport's regard for the health and welfare of its athletes.

Minto has said in another interview he did not tell the promoters of his broken nose, only that he needed to reschedule. The answer was no.

Presumably deals had been done, corporate tables had been booked, booze had been ordered.

Rather than inconveniencing the promoters and jeopardising his payday, Minto, who at 40 is coming to the end of his career, felt obligated to step in the ring even though he knew he was in no fit state to fight. How broken is the culture of boxing if it allows, or at least compels, someone to fight for money, even though he is not ready?

Professional boxing, ironically, preys on the desperate and the meek. In a game of physical and financial exploitation, stories like Minto's are all too familiar. There are countless examples of promoters looking to profit from an ageing legend fallen on hard times. More often than not the profit is tied up with trying to give their latest young prospect a leg up.

And while it's easy to lay the blame with the boxers who fight on knowing the risks, and even easier to blame the promoters who entice them to do so, surely some of the blame also lies those who enable the whole fiasco - the fans.