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Tl; dr Parker’s Cousin Buff Guy Jai has been setback because he fought randoms in Australia
“We haven’t promoted Jai ourselves in over two years, since the Jordan Thompson fight. Everything that we’ve done around Jai is with Mick Francis and Tasman Fighters. The last three fights, which have all been in Australia, we haven’t been the promoter of. The first fight, we, with Turki Alalshikh, provided quite a lot of money for sponsorship. The second fight against the Italian guy, we weren’t involved at all. And the third fight, which is probably where the problem came, DAZN turned it down.
“They didn’t make an offer to air the fight. I kind of feel like over that period, we haven’t been doing too much. More importantly, I wasn’t able to deliver Jai the fights people want to see him in. Which is not his fault, and really not my fault, because Zurdo Ramirez wasn’t available or didn’t really fancy the fight in my opinion.”
“Hopefully this deal can give him what he wants. I know there’s a confusion of Zuffa aren’t recognising belts but Jai and Mick [Francis] are saying this is going to take us to undisputed fights. I think the messaging is all over the place, it doesn’t really matter. The problem is still going to be delivering him those fights. You’ve got Benavidez-Zurdo in May, so those guys aren’t going to be available till November, December.
“So, what’s the plan for Jai? Presumably, if the plan is true to its word, he will unify. There’s only one other champion, so he will fight WBC Champion, Mikaelian, next. Which I think is brilliant for him. So as long as he does that, and as long as that actually happens, I think this has been the best move that Jai and Mick can make.”
“We haven’t promoted Jai ourselves in over two years, since the Jordan Thompson fight. Everything that we’ve done around Jai is with Mick Francis and Tasman Fighters. The last three fights, which have all been in Australia, we haven’t been the promoter of. The first fight, we, with Turki Alalshikh, provided quite a lot of money for sponsorship. The second fight against the Italian guy, we weren’t involved at all. And the third fight, which is probably where the problem came, DAZN turned it down.
“They didn’t make an offer to air the fight. I kind of feel like over that period, we haven’t been doing too much. More importantly, I wasn’t able to deliver Jai the fights people want to see him in. Which is not his fault, and really not my fault, because Zurdo Ramirez wasn’t available or didn’t really fancy the fight in my opinion.”
“Hopefully this deal can give him what he wants. I know there’s a confusion of Zuffa aren’t recognising belts but Jai and Mick [Francis] are saying this is going to take us to undisputed fights. I think the messaging is all over the place, it doesn’t really matter. The problem is still going to be delivering him those fights. You’ve got Benavidez-Zurdo in May, so those guys aren’t going to be available till November, December.
“So, what’s the plan for Jai? Presumably, if the plan is true to its word, he will unify. There’s only one other champion, so he will fight WBC Champion, Mikaelian, next. Which I think is brilliant for him. So as long as he does that, and as long as that actually happens, I think this has been the best move that Jai and Mick can make.”