Former EastEnders Jake Wood has taken a swipe at Maya Jama for presenting boxing coverage, saying he wants to have someone covering the sport ‘who has actually seen a fight’.
The diehard boxing fan, 49, pays monthly for on-demand sports streaming platform DAZN, for which TV host Maya, 27, is a ringside boxing presenter.
But fight fan Jake admits he has ‘a real problem’ with the star hosting the coverage, and claims she doesn’t know much about the sport.
He said: “Obviously, they are going for a different audience with Maya Jama introducing it, but for my money I like to have someone introducing boxing and talking about boxing who has actually seen a boxing fight and understands just a little bit what boxing is.
(Image: ITV)
“I understand they’re going for a different audience, and what she does she’s great at, but not for my money.
“I have a real problem with just the coverage of that. It grates me up the wrong way.”
In another pop at Maya, Jake praised her DAZN colleague Laura Woods – who presents talkSPORT’s breakfast show – as ‘fantastic’ and ‘knowledgeable’.
He said: “There are great people on there, Laura Woods is fantastic. She’s knowledgeable. She knows her stuff, so I don’t mind that.”
However, Maya did an interview with DAZN where she explained what boxing meant to her and why she is presenting the sport.
She also addressed the fact that she thought people would ask ‘why is she presenting boxing now?’
Maya said: “I think a lot of people are going to be thinking ‘why is she presenting boxing now?’ but I’ve secretly been a big boxing fan for years.
“I love the sport. Me and my friends stay up until all hours of the morning to watch the fights. It’s a whole new challenge, a whole new adventure for me. Matchroom and DAZN are literally changing the game so I’m so excited to be a part of it.”
However she said that she won’t be changing presenting for boxing herself anytime soon but she did used to do kickboxing.
She added: “I’ve got so much pride that I wouldn’t ever take it on unless I was totally sure I was going to win because I don’t think I’d live down the memes of me getting beaten!”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
