Was That David Higgins Stage Rush Genuine Or Just A Big Ol’ Publicity Stunt?
A funny thing happened at the latest Parker-Fury shindig. David Higgins stormed the stage at a press conference complaining about neutral referees and what not, before getting thrown out by security. It was a truly hilarious watch for those long acquainted with the antics of Duco and an even funnier one if you know a thing or two about Peter Fury as well. Fury may have labelled Higgins and Duco as “rank amateurs” but his own promoters don’t have the finest reputation either and, similar to Kevin Barry, while PF’s abilities as a trainer are impossible to argue with, some of his other behaviour around his fighters certainly is.
Which begs the question… was this all too good to be true?
The Case for a Genuine Reaction
This has not been a well organised fight. These two scrappers were supposed to go at it earlier in the year but an ongoing collection of frustrations got in the way, from Duco unexpectedly winning purse bid to Peter Fury almost being denied entry into New Zealand to Hughie Fury’s injury that eventually meant the fight was called off two weeks before it was supposed to happen (by which time Hughie wasn’t even in the country despite saying earlier he wanted a full month to acclimatise).
David Higgins did not take that news well. He was able to peek around and find Razvan Cojanu to fight on short notice but the bout wasn’t much of a watch and Parker’s reputation took a slight hit… from those boxing fans even bothered to watch it. That’s not good for Duco who are trying to take this bloke global.
In fact Higgins went so far as going on telly and straight up accusing Hughie Fury of faking his injury. He said they never wanted to come to NZ and they were obstructing the fight from the moment the lost the purse bid. Except Hughie had a medical certificate and he remained the mandatory challenger which meant Parker had to go to England now (with Duco not wanting to cough up to host another fight in NZ, which is fair enough – there’s starting to be a bit of Parker fatigue and kiwis probably need to see him winning in the big bad world right now, with Premier League footballers and Hollywood celebrities in attendance instead of NZ Warriors and the Mad Butcher).
Then you chuck in this whole thing about the referee and Higgins has every reason to be pissed off. It was in the contract that a neutral ref was required and the BBBofC still went and appointed a British caller. Peter Fury doesn’t work for the BBBofC but if he kicked up a fuss then they could surely get it changed – suggesting that Fury is fine with the perceived advantage. If Parker loses his belt then Duco’s gotta jump back a few steps. There goes that Anthony Joshua fight on the horizon for the time being. It’d be a massive blow for their financial future and with the split going on between himself and Dean Lonergan that’s something they really can’t afford. Literally.
You think that kind of pressure isn’t gonna take a toll on a chap? He’s already shown with the Hughie Fury accusations that he’s a man who takes these things personally and isn’t shy of jumping to a… controversial conclusion. You can say there was a better way to go about this but those better ways maybe won’t being as much attention to the point. Hey, Duco aren’t scared of making a scene.
The Case for a Staged Publicity Stunt
Okay, that’s that out of the way now let’s get real. The first clue here is in that the video was promptly shared on basically all the relevant promotional accounts. Obviously they’d try and spin something like this to their advantage somehow so the question is more whether they planned it in advance or whether they just capitalised on the situation after it happened.
The implication seems to be that Higgins crashed the party. Except that the conference table up the top clearly has a seat reserved for him and everything. Fury’s promoter Mick Hennessy is there and it appears that Higgins was supposed to be there too. Not like that bloke to put any distance between himself and his top client, is it?
As the mediator reels off a dumb speech about the merits of broadcasting on YouTube and how it was an obvious decision yet still a brave decision (obvious once you can’t sell the fight to the big dog telly folks, that is), there’s a moment when Parker suddenly looks up and scans the back of the room. Until then he’d been looking down all bored but something/someone catches his eye now and he leans back and smiles. Kevin Barry turns and whispers a couple words to him, presumably “here we go” or whatever. Pretty soon after that old Higgy has made his way to the front and the fun commences.
What do the Fury fellows do at the same time? Nothing much, rather stonefaced. But Hennessey and old man Fury do nod at Higgins as he strolls past them… flanked by The White Buffalo! Francis Botha made them some money now apparently he’s still in the pocket, good for him. Weirdly the MC doesn’t even seem to know who he is despite the fact he’s supposed to be sitting next to him.
Parker can be expected to play it cool and non-confrontational afterwards regardless of what happened – he’s that sorta guy. But even in the moment he didn’t look flustered. Kevin Barry neither. Granted the cameras weren’t exactly pointed in his direction too much but the sharp eyes at Tahi News did pick up this small exchange right as Higgins was dragged out by security…
Hmm. Quick little wink and a chur bro then back to business?
Clearly this whole scene was always gonna make some headlines – something that this fight seriously needs. The 21,000 seat Manchester Arena has sold a rumoured 5000 tickets so far. The fight is in a few days and it’s not even a quarter sold. There’s no pay per view deal in Britain so the YouTube deal had better be lucrative… and knowing YouTube it might be. But the fact that a heavyweight title fight struggled to find a broadcaster is not a good look. The fight’s available on PPV in New Zealand, Australia and free to air in Samoa – the three countries which Duco was in charge of selling. However despite flipping the radio rights to the BBC they weren’t able to get a major player in America to take it.
Long story short, they need to sell event tickets and they need to sell PPV tickets. A press conference drama is about exactly what they need and let’s just say that the Fury family isn’t averse to such tactics either. Remember Tyson’s batman costume?
Of course, the irony of Peter Fury accusing David Higgins of having “had a good few lines up his nose” might have been lost on some people but let’s just say there’s a reason he was initially denied entry into New Zealand… and that reason was a ten year jail sentence for possession of amphetamines with intent to sell.
It all seems a little too convenient, doesn’t it? Here’s hoping the ploy worked, at least.
Usual story here, if you like TNC’s stuff then smacking an ad is about the easiest way to support us. That and the standard social media interactions, good on ya.