Comments Thread For: Anthony Joshua Refuses To Get Involved in Sportswashing Debate

[ShoulderRoll]

So you're saying this guy went to Saudi and got paid millions of dollars and not a single person on earth informed of even 1 concerning thing? Comeon man. The fact is he's not here to solve the world's problems, he's here to make as much money as possible while risking his life to entertain people. I'm sure Joshua donates to charities, so at least some Saudi money will go to some good perhaps? Him refusing to fight there would change absolutely nothing, it would take blacklisting all major events like they did with Russia.

Some guys put principles over profit. And some guys aren't built that way. That's all I'm saying.

[joe strong]

I don’t think Joshua really cares what the media thinks. How much are they getting paid to ask those questions? Joshua is getting a 10 digit check for 36 minutes of work win or lose….

[Dakuwaqa]

Some guys put principles over profit. And some guys aren't built that way. That's all I'm saying.

There isn’t a fighter today that would turn this opportunity down.

It’s a sports event ffs

Pipe down already

[Tony Green]

Anthony Joshua cares more about getting paid than he does about human rights.

Don't expect him to take a stand for justice like Muhammad Ali did. That made Ali a great man, but Joshua isn't cut from the same cloth.

Not everybody has to be the righteous, virtue signaller u crave in the sport, I wouldn't give a f either tbh, Arabia has been that way for thousands of years, and their not gonna just suddenly stop cos AJ told them it's bad, look at the big picture, and stop thinking every athlete has a duty to bring up political issues, there should never be any politics involved in sport, if Saudi wanna host events, as long as there not throwing any g*y athletes off buildings, I have no problem with it!

[Hands of Stone]

Human rights issue in Saudi is not suddenly a new thing. The world has known about it and we, America for the most part, have laid golden sheets for the Arabs to lie on. It isn't Joshua's job or any athlete's job to try to enact change within another country's laws. If America or the UK or any other country feel so strongly about it, they should enact sanctions that will bar the athletes from benefiting from the blood money. They can't and they won't because many in the Govt. benefit from the special interest that the Saudi is. All of these athletes are independent contractors, that category entitle to you to make the most you can so long as you are not in violation of any by laws. And for all of you who still think athletes need to do more regarding Saudi government, those guys are literal animals and will always do as they please. If you still disagree, then you can start by selling your gas/petrol engine cars 'cos most of those cars run on Saudi controlled oil.

[LAchargers373]

AJ could get that money in America if he had a half decent promoter. Only shams operations like matchroom put on fights in Saudi so they can maximize THEIR take cause they literally can’t promote anywhere else but england for AJ.

[Box3r]

Why does the west think they are superior than
the rest? Why does the west think it’s ok for them to commit war crimes (Iraq, Afghanistan etc) because it suits their narrative, but have the audacity to criticise other nations? I’m not justifying what Saudi do, especially to them poor and innocent people of Yemen. Please do stop being so hypocritical and look at yourself and correct yourself before criticising others.

[Liondw]

I don't know if most of the Saudi money is oil money or blood money, dirty or not, or is it the same thing?

The politics can be complex. One can say that no other country in the world pays these professional sportsmen these huge amounts of money.

I'm pretty sure most of the billionaires there and anywhere haven't earned all their money cleanly.

[MMegatron]

Where did Saudi get their money though? Fulfilling the West’s never ending desire for consumption via oil exports. Until the West can sustain itself without Saudi dependence (directly or indirectly), they should stop complaining about the Saudis massively overpaying our sportsmen. Funny how Western journalists leave that out.

[sportbuddha]

Sportswashing sounds like a ****** made up outrage generation term. These people have ALL the money they need to do anything. They love AJ and so they brought/bought him to them so they could watch the fight at home. Simple as that. They did it because they can. If you said money laundering I'd believe that over 'sportwashing' nonsense. And of course they want to prop up their country that they love. 'Sportwashing'; is obviously a projection ON them not a conspiracy BY them. And like AJ, I'd never heard the term either until today but I'm seeing right through it. They arent saying to themselves "Ya know, our society sucks, we have horrible human rights, you know, due to our religious practices, so we need to cover it up and change opinions by staging a sports event." Thats just absurdly ridiculous. Its a religion first society. They think YOU should convert.

And let AJ make some money.

It’s a quest mostly by people that have no intention of doing anything about it, aside from being ‘outraged’ on social media and spending the sum total of about 30 seconds posting some useless comment using an alt and then going off to the next thing other people are offended by that they have no intention of doing anything about either. We basically have a generation of critics and whingers that are ironically creating masses of data which is contributing to global warming (their #1 cause of outrage) with selfies and useless posts…oh the irony!