Even the challenger’s win couldn’t ruin the atmosphere among a raucous 68,000 crowd at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Speak to those who were lucky enough to be at fights in this country and elsewhere at the height of the pandemic and many will tell you they did not feel that lucky at all. As was the case in other sports, the lack of spectators made for an eerie experience, but in boxing it also led to something altogether more disturbing – the sound of pain.
You could hear every punch. Every thud to the chest, every crack to the head, and while as a journalist or general observer you know those echoes are always there amid the heat of battle it was unappealing, to say they least, to hear them so raw and unfiltered in near desolate venues.