To permanently ban Kash Ali or not to ban him. Right now, “thanks” to his fight on Saturday night with David Price, Birmingham heavyweight Kash Ali is being talked about by plenty of people. For those fans who somehow missed it, Ali, in the biggest fight of his career, took it upon himself to BITE Price, not once, not twice but possibly four times. Thrown out in round-five after he sank his teeth into the stomach of the man who once hired him as a sparring partner, the 27 year old’s boxing future is now uncertain.
Should the now 15-1(7) Ali even be permitted to have a future in the sport? His purse has been withheld, and now The British Boxing Board of Control must decide on whether or not that alone is sufficient punishment for Ali. Should he be allowed to fight again or, as some, such as former champ Tony Bellew has said, should Ali be banned for life? Promoter Eddie Hearn perhaps put things best into perspective when he said, in speaking with IFL TV, how, due to the “sad world we now live in,” people would certainly tune into see a Kash Ali fight now. “He’s trending at number one on twitter,” Hearn said after the Price-Ali fight, commenting on how much perverse interest there is in Ali right now.
Crazy stuff can sell fights, and this is not the first time we’ve seen one fighter bite another in the ring when things were not going his way – and, as Price said with a glum face, it will not be the last. “It will happen again,” Price stated. But in terms of Ali, what if he is given the benefit of the doubt, is allowed to box again, and then proceeds to bite his opponent again? If he’s done it once (or four times) before, he could so easily do it again, right?
Price has said absolutely no way to a return fight with “animal” Ali, and who can blame him! The question now is, should any fighter have to be put at risk by stepping into the ring with such an animal? What say you: lifetime ban, or not?
