Latvian sports channels have announced a boycott of Mairis Briedis (28-1, 20 KOs): they believe that the formless civic position of their fellow IBF world champion in cruiserweight regarding Russia’s war of conquest against Ukraine is enough to stop showing his fights. A local resource writes about such “sanctions” against a compatriot who is not able to directly call a spade a spade.
sportacentrs.com.
We are talking about giving up broadcast rights to at least this weekend’s fight against Australian challenger Jaya Opetai (21-0, 17 KOs).
On February 24, the boxer posted a video advertising his brand’s hat, and spoke about the war only weeks later, writing in early spring that he was “against the war”; not a single word did he mention Ukraine or the Russian occupiers. The source writes that Mairis refused to clearly express his position, on whose side he is, once saying that “on the side of Latvia.” The rest of the time, Briedis avoided communication on a topical topic and any public condemnation of Russian full-scale aggression.
“According to the information available to the portal, shortly after the words of Briedis “I am on neither side”, a certain negative reaction followed from the TV3 Group, which back in March took a position according to which the fights of Mairis would no longer be shown. And this week, Briedis did not appear in the Go3 program, ”the source writes.
Briedis-Opetaya. Fighter statements before the fight
TV3’s director of sports programs confirmed that the Olen’s fight would not be broadcast: “TV3 Group strongly condemns Russia’s war against Ukraine. We have been expressing our support for Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian aggression: we suspended the broadcasting of Russian TV channels, removed content produced in Russia, and stopped broadcasting the Continental Hockey League. Our organization has a clear position, and we expect the same from our cooperation partners. Unfortunately, Briedis has not taken a clear position on the war, which is unacceptable to us and the clients, so his fights will not be broadcast until his position is clear and relevant.”
The resource writes that at the end of June, no other Latvian sports channel was going to show the fight of Briedis, despite the fact that he is one of the highest grossing athletes in his homeland and, accordingly, attracts a large television audience.
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Best4Sport TV said they received an offer last week to broadcast the fight, but it was rejected: “We have our own budget for a specific time, and this offer was too sudden, so we could not consider it.”
LTV emphasized that live broadcasts of such commercial events are not part of the concept of Latvian television, and in this case, the current public image of Briedis should also be taken into account: “But we were not given any offers.”
On the eve of the boxers successfully passed the official weigh-in.
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