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02nd May 2017

The bitterly disappointing truth behind that photo of Jay Z and Barry Chuckle

Ben Kiely

Barry Chuckle and Jay Z are not boxing buddies, although some people still think they are.

There is nothing that would give us greater joy than to report that one of the greatest wordsmiths of our time, a modern-day Shakespeare actually attended marquee boxing events with his pal Jay Z.

An image of the two A-Listers ‘sitting ringside’ at Anthony Joshua’s world title triumph over Wladimir Klitschko in Wembley went viral on Saturday night, with some fans genuinely buying what the internet was selling them.

Understandably, fans were perplexed that someone of Barry Chuckle’s stature was willing to rub shoulders with a peasant such as that other chap. A lot of amusement was had over the photo.

Ex-footballer Stan Collymore was among those unfortunate souls who fell for the prank. He tweeted his disbelief over the image, but added that nothing in the fight could top the snap.

We hate to break it to you, Stan, but the image isn’t real.

We despise being the bearers of bad news, but nobody belongs anywhere, nobody exists on purpose, everybody is going to die and, worst of all, this image is a fake.

Mr Chuckle’s head was actually superimposed onto the body of prize pugilist Andre Ward, who sat next to Jay Z for the 2015 Throne Boxing Fight Night in New York.

We can only assume that when this photo was taken, Barry Chuckle was off living the high life at some even swankier do, where no photographs were allowed.

That’s just the type of life that man leads. One that Jason Zee could only dream of.