I have been saying this for a while, but family and entourages should be in separate areas when official fight business is going on like press conferences and weigh-ins.
Just last week Spence and Porter’s family members and friends forced a press conference to end early after they exchanged words.
Now we have a whole fight canceled because a member of an entourage threw a sucker punch and almost killed a guy.
The junior middleweight title fight between Ivana Habazin and Claressa Shields on Saturday has been called off after James Ali Bashir, the veteran trainer for Habazin, was struck by an unidentified person and knocked unconscious at a weigh-in Friday.
The assailant fled the scene, which took place at the Dort Federal Event Center in Shields’ hometown of Flint, Michigan.
Bashir was knocked unconscious for approximately 20 minutes, witnesses told ESPN, before being taken out on a stretcher and brought to McLaren Medical Center. He was bleeding from his head after hitting the concrete floor.
Shields initially showed remorse for the situation but then came out with a video saying Habazin was making excuses for not to fight.
As you can imagine this didn’t go over well with Habazin.
There is no clear video of the punch, but video of Bashir unconscious.
Flip the pages for the video we do have, Shields calling Habazin out and Habazin telling her side of the story.