The biggest sporting talking point of the weekend surrounded the boxing clash on Saturday night, and of course I’m not talking about Vitali Klitschko points victory over Derek Chisora. That was about as interesting as listening to Audley Harrison say he is going to be ‘world champion one day’, for the fifteenth consecutive time.

No the real drama came after the fight in the post-match press conference. And when I say drama, I actually mean a petulant squabble, which ended with British boxer David Haye throwing a punch at fellow countryman Chisora and then leaving pretty sharpish as his adrenaline-fuelled rival threatened to burn him.

The incident has disgraced British boxing with the pair being labelled ‘thugs’ by the media and being threatened with career-long bans, which probably amounts to them avoiding one more fall to the canvas at best anyway.

Their actions are nothing new though, boxing has always seen these disgraceful scenes outside the ring. The lack of sportsmanship at the recent Manchester United versus Liverpool match that had people howling with disgust is common place in this sport.

Fighters like David Haye, Mike Tyson and Muhammed Ali have made a career out of trash- talking their opponents in the lead up to fights.

Their defence is that they say they are helping to promote the bout and are trying to get under their opponents skin. I think the weekend proved that all they are doing is giving the sport a bad name. Any fan who says it’s fun to see two men squabble before and after a sporting contest, needs to watch something else.

And I don’t know if all this trash-talking and brawling started with Ali back in the mid 1960s, but I expect his success has made it common place.

While the likes of Sonny Liston and Joe Frazier tried to concentrate on the fight in the ring, Ali was regular moving it outside. Frazier and Ali famously clashed in a pre-match press conference in 1974 when Ali called his opponent ‘ugly’ and ‘ignorant’.

The trouble is Ali is arguably the sport’s greatest fighter, Sugar Ray Robinson aside. All too often today’s fighters try to copy him by picking rounds in which they will floor opponents, a tactic Prince Naseem Hamed used to mimic, and trash-talking about their opponents.

I think it’s time today’s boxers took a longer look at Ali’s career and try and emulate what he did inside the ring and avoid copying his antics outside it.

Due you agree with the captain? Send your comments on the week’s sporting issues to editorial@thepacketseries.co.uk.