Linn Sandstrom signs big money deal with Only Fans, while opponent storms out of interview
Ahead of Linn Sandstrom’s world title fight on Wednesday, the Aussie boxer revealed her unusual Only Fans deal - while her opponent stormed out of Monday’s press conference, claiming ill treatment.
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World title challenger Linn Sandstrom has joined the ever-growing list of professional fighters signed to Only Fans.
But there’s a difference.
Aussie fighters Ebanie Bridges and Cherneka ‘Sugar Neeks’ Johnson have made big money on the subscription platform, and Sandstrom has signed an ‘athlete deal’, which means she’ll be only sharing behind the scenes videos of her training, sparring and diet.
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“There’s no nude content at all,” the 8-2-2 Sandstrom told this masthead ahead of her WBA flyweight world title fight with Argentina’s Clara Lescurat at the Hordern Pavilion on Wednesday.
“I’ve signed purely as an athlete and I’ll be sharing my training journey and athlete lifestyle, nothing else.
“There’s other stuff on there, but that’s not me.”
Sandstrom says signing with Only Fans seemed like the next logical step after amassing a following of more than 90,000 on Instagram.
“I’ve been sharing my training journey on Instagram and I’ve got millions of views,” she said. “But, I haven’t made any money on all of those views.
“Now, Only Fans has given me this platform to see more of my boxing.
“I was hesitant at first, because you never know how it’s going to be received, but the response has been super positive.
“I want to be a role model as well, if people want to follow my boxing, I get to share even more of what I love doing with my fans.”
Although she’s fighting for a world title on Wednesday, Sandstrom doesn’t make life-changing amounts of money from boxing, but deals like this make it worthwhile.
“This is by far the biggest sponsorship deal I’ve ever gotten,” she said. “When I started doing social media and documenting training, people said I was crazy for documenting it.
“Now it’s actually paying me a full time salary. It’s insane.”
Meanwhile, Sandstrom’s world champion opponent angrily stormed out of an interview with this masthead after questions about her treatment in Australia.
Argentina’s Lescurat has made a series of increasingly unreasonable demands since arriving in Sydney nearly two weeks ago.
She was unhappy with the four star Darling Harbour lodgings her team initially had, and demanded an upgrade.
She has also made complaints to No Limit boxing and Sandstrom’s manager, Tony del Vecchio – who has been left out of pocket – about the gym she was training at and various expenses for her and her team.
At Monday’s press conference, the 10-0 Lescurat hinted that the promotion was trying to undermine her ahead of her fourth world title defence.
“There might be bad intentions somewhere,” she said. “There are going to be some things that throw me off my game.”
When asked by this masthead about those claims, Lescurat was decidedly more tight-lipped.
“Don’t ask me about what’s happening with hotels and things, I’m here for the fight,” she said through an interpreter. “The way I’ve been treated is not the issue.”
At this point, her coach intervened, saying in broken English: “You don’t understand, mate. No, no, it’s not a question, we’ll go.”
At that point Lescurat said, “It doesn’t interest me, I’m here to beat everyone from Argentina, Australia and the world,” and walked off.
Sandstrom said Lescurat’s antics are well-known in the boxing world.
“I have a lot of Argentinian friends and they all told me her team is very difficult to deal with,” she said. “She decided to arrive early, and we put her up in a four-star hotel in Darling Harbour.
“It was wrong, the gym wasn’t good enough, the food money wasn’t enough, the costs weren’t enough.
“It’s insane.
“With everything that’s going on in the world, be humble for what you’ve got. You’re a world champion, you’re blessed to be here in Australia and you’re getting treated so well and you’re complaining?”
Although WBA champion Lescurat has cried foul, it’s Sandstrom’s camp that has been worried ahead of the fight.
Lescurat is in a long-term relationship with high-ranking WBA official Lautaro Moreno, and there was huge controversy around her most recent title defence against Regina Chavez in Buenos Aires in February.
Lescurat won a lop-sided unanimous decision with scores of 97-93, 97-93 and 99-91 in her favour.
Chavez filed an official complaint, forcing the WBA to investigate and re-score the bout with impartial judges.
“As a result, The Committee determined the bout had not been scored accurately by the judges during the live event,” the official WBA report states. “According to The Committee’s assessment, Chavez, should have won the fight by Unanimous decision.”
As a result, the winner of Wednesday’s bout must defend the WBA title against number one contender Chavez with officials, “From a different nationality than both fighters involved.”
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