Clash of AJ and Wilder is in doubt

Anthony Joshua

ANTHONY JOSHUA and Deontay Wilder’s Saudi showdown is on the brink of collapse.

The heavyweight duo were hoping to face each other in the Middle East for mega money early next year.

But now Skills Challenge, who were promoting the event, have been unable to get the funding.

That is because the boxing landscape in Saudi has changed, with Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, now seemingly in control of where funding goes for boxing.

Alalshikh is the man behind Tyson Fury’s clash with MMA fighter Francis Ngannou but will continue to pile money into boxing.

It looks set to leave Skills Challenge, fronted by Amer Abdallah and Prince Khalid bin Abdulaziz, in the cold.

Signed

Skills Challenge were the force behind Anthony Joshua facing Andy Ruiz Jnr and Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia.

They also put on Jake Paul against Tommy Fury this year.

Skills Challenge also signed up WBA, IBF and WBO champion Usyk to a promotional deal with the hope of staging an undisputed showdown with Fury.

But they failed to get that fight on this year and then talks between Fury and Usyk for a UK showdown collapsed.

Now Alalshikh is working with Fury’s promoters Frank Warren and Bob Arum to stage the Gypsy King’s next fight in the Middle East.

The General Entertainment Authority have been responsible for bringing Formula 1 and other major sporting events to the country.

GROWING up in Kilkenny, there were only two players ever mentioned outside your own club that you simply had to go and watch.

They were Richie Hogan and ‘Cha’ Fitz, the two spoken about as the prodigies of Kilkenny hurling.

The first time I saw Richie play was the Under-14 county final against my club Dunnamaggin.

Along with his brother Paddy, the two of them were known as ‘the Bash Brothers’.

They’d accumulated 3-10 between them before half-time.

These were exceptional talents. Richie’s dad is a Callan man. He lives in the area between Bennettsbridge and Danesfort.

There was as good as a bidding war between both clubs to see who could get Paddy and Richie.

Eventually they went to Danesfort — much to the annoyance of Bennettsbridge.

Everyone wanted Richie from the off and you could see why if you fast forward into his minor and college career as the wins started racking up.

Years

Three years at minor outfield — very few players ever managed that in Kilkenny.

He had four years at Under-21, winning two All-Irelands, before being brought into the seniors at 19 in 2007.

The first two years, he didn’t get much game time.

For me it was always a case of Richie falling into the bracket of guilty until proven innocent in the eyes of Brian Cody.

You’d be talking and talking and talking about talent, talent, talent, but you had to have a clutch moment for you to be considered, ‘Okay, this lad actually has something.

To me that was the 2009 League final against Tipperary.

Tipp led by a point heading into injury time. Richie levelled it up and sent the game to extratime. He scored 1-10 that day in Kilkenny’s victory.

Afterwards, for me, he was always needed by Brian.

In a dressing room or after a match Richie is the kind of player where you warmed up your slagging and abuse at other lads before you went for the jugular with him.

You didn’t poke the bear unless you had some good info on him to absolutely take him down.

You knew it was going to come back at you because he always had one there, just primed and ready, for anyone who attacked.

I don’t know whether that’s from his own stature growing up and always having to have some sort of comeback but he was as quick witted with his one-liners as he was on the field.

My only comeback for him was that I had played in more full All-Ireland finals than him.

That was in 2012. I had played in three. He had played in three but was taken off in ‘09 ‘11 and ‘12.

That was the only slag I had. It became unusual then that in ‘14 he was taken off even though he was Player of theYear.

In ‘15 he was taken off as well, 10 minutes to go, even though he’d scored two points. He always seemed to be that player that was hard done by, taken off in finals despite the fact he was scoring, and scoring freely.

Then in the latter part of his career it was not starting big crunch games, or being brought on earlier, or at all.

If you look at the 2021 AllIreland semi-final against Cork when forwards were being taken off and brought back on and Richie didn’t make it on until the second period of extra-time.

Matches

I felt that he was not someone Cody liked — but he was someone that Cody needed.

In those clutch matches, where he needed someone to come on and try and turn it, like the 2022 All-Ireland final against Limerick,

Richie was the person that was brought off the bench.

Richie is sharp and that kind of personality lent itself sometimes to lads thinking he was extremely confident, but then again, he always was in his ability.

In his retirement statement he says that he was ‘born to hurl.’ He was and he knew it.

Never at any point did that level of confidence wane, right up to his last game — this year’s AllIreland final.

I know a lot is made of the injuries Richie had over the last few seasons, but in the 10 years between 2011-20, Kilkenny played 24 All-Ireland series games and he started 23. That’s more than any one else in that era.

Period

During the 15-year period, 2009 to 2023, he played in 30 of Kilkenny’s 33 Championship games. That’s second behind TJ and a lot has been made of TJ’s longevity.

Richie missed the 2010 semifinal due to an ankle injury, the 2012 semi due to suspension and the 2022 semi-final, possibly due to a decision by Cody.

He is in the top 20 of all time appearances on 58 and is joint third in All-Ireland final appearances with 12.

For me, he was a mentality monster in that nothing seemed to faze him whatsoever.