The consensus was that Jake Paul would be the one celebrating against Tommy Fury in a clash that has been a particularly pantomime affair in its build-up, even by boxing's not-so lofty standards.
The family in question are not boxing aficionados; not the sort to be regularly turning to pay-per-view for the big fight nights; but all planned to tune in for the eight rounds of boxing from the Diriyah Arena in Riyadh.
In contrast, Carl Frampton, as a former boxer, was initially irritated by the attention meted out to both Fury and Paul, fighters he rightly calls novices, when the clash was first hyped. But slowly he has come round to the idea of it, due to its unexpected audiences.
He said: "At the very start, I was like, 'what is this?' As a former boxer, it did annoy me a little bit that these guys were getting such attention.
"But my wife, who hates boxing, wants to watch. My daughter, who never mentions boxing, wants to watch this. Grannies in the street are asking me about it and, as a former fighter, I want to see it. Like it or not, this is big."
This story is from the February 24, 2023 edition of Evening Standard.
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This story is from the February 24, 2023 edition of Evening Standard.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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