When Will It All Go Wrong for British Boxing?

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

There are currently no fewer than 12 British World Champions. I think it is fair to say that the claims that this is a golden age for British boxing are pretty legitimate. The fact that we boast not one but TWO World heavyweight champions for the first time in our history says a lot about the way in which British boxing feels, and probably should feel, confident.

The problem now is – when will the bubble burst?

Most of the 12 world champions are newly crowned – our two heavyweight champs are yet to make their first defense – whilst one of them won their belt without throwing a punch in anger. The confidence that comes from breeding so many world title fighters may be all too real but it is in the British psyche to believe that we should prepare for failure; we always get ready for disappointment.

Such negativity is totally bizarre to any American but you can see the chinks in our armour every single day that things continue to go well! With each world title fight one of our guys loses we get the sack cloth and ashes out and just believe we are going to lose and then lose again until there are none left.

A few years ago we had a handful – four or five – that flew the flag and wore a belt. Since the London Olympics in 2012 a resurgence in the fortunes of our fighters seems to have happened. We won a whole load of medals at that Olympic Games and two of them are now World Champions, though not all of our World Champions fought at an Olympics.

Confidence though, breeds confidence and we have all benefited from team GB. But who out of the 12 has a longer shelf life than the rest? Who is likely to retain their title for longer than an Anthony Joshua fight?

At heavyweight both Anthony Joshua, (IBF) 16-0, 16 KO’s and Tyson Fury, (WBA, WBO, IBO) 25-0, 18 KO’s are on a collision course. Joshua defends on the 25th of June at the O2 whilst on the 9th of July, in Manchester, Fury has his rematch. You can get short odds on the two of them meeting by September/October and that means one of them has to relinquish their belt or belts; by the end of the year we shall be one champion down.

At super middleweight we have James DeGale, (IBF) 22-1, 14 KO’s who has already defended his title once and is about to do so again. “Chunky” was the first former Olympic Gold medal winner to bag a world title for the UK. Laying some fairly big demons to one side, the super middleweight division is a tough division but I reckon we can see this man continue to show he has the power and the skill to stay at the top for a long time to come. His second defense, in the USA, is very soon.

At middleweight we have a second fighter from the traveller community, Billy Joe Saunders, 23-0, 12 KO’s who has won the belt but is yet to defend it. His fellow traveler, Tyson Fury reckons Saunders can reign supreme for years and there is little to argue with as Saunders has fought a great campaign to become the world champion. Having to pull out of his recent defense hurt but he should have that back on again by the summer.

At super welterweight one of the four Smith brothers – Liam, 22-0-1, 12KO’s – reigns as the WBO champion. The four Smith brothers boast 4 British champions, 1 European champion and 1 world champion with 2 other brothers having fought for world titles over the last year. It is an amazing dynasty. Liam has defended once and should be back out again in June for another defense where he can set up bigger fights with some of the bigger named rivals out there.

One possibility is a fight with the current IBF welterweight champion, Kell Brook, 36-0, 25 KO’s, should Brook want to move up a division. It would be a fairly even scrap but Brook has his own demons to face and after three successful defenses he might want to face new challenges; Brook is a very classy operator and I think he could prove too much, even for a Smith…

At lightweight things get very interesting as we have Anthony Crolla, (WBA) 30-4-3, 12KO’s and Terry Flanagan, (WBO) 30-0, 12 KO’s. Crolla earned his shot at a world title like no other and whilst there have been quite a few people suggesting that Crolla and Flanagan should meet, and there is always the possibility that a future fight makes financial sense, there is not a lot of political will to see it happen. For the moment though both seem happy to try and mop up the rest of the British lightweight departments when they are ready to do so. On May 9th Crolla defends. Flanagan has defended twice and his reign looks pretty secure.

At featherweight Lee Selby, 23-1, 8 KO’s made a big statement with his recent second defense. He is very keen on holding on to his title. There are quite a few good and decent fights out there but they are at the division above and there is an expectation that Selby shall shift soon.

A super bantamweight we had two, they met and inevitably we end up with one – Carl Frampton, (IBF) 22-0. 14 KO’s. The Belfast based fighter showed who was the best in the UK, we already knew he was at the top of his game and now he can look forward to bigger and better fights. There have been rumors that he struggles to make the weight so, like Selby, Frampton may go up in weight to keep a world title. Frampton was of course, fleetingly a WBA champ but they took it away from him because they thought he might be contemplating fighting someone other than their mandatory.

Like at heavyweight and then at lightweight we have two world champions at bantamweight. Lee Haskins, (IBF) 32-3-3 14 KO’s won his world title at the scales and then elected not to fight the former champ, as his contract allowed, and returned to the UK with the belt. He is making his first defense of a title for which he is yet to fight on the 14th May. Jamie McDonnell, (WBA) 28-2-1, 13 KO’s meanwhile has just made his fourth defense and he looks good enough to last for some time to come. Like many above him, hitherto mentioned, he might fancy a step up in weight but money is likely to dictate things. This is one weight category I don’t see a unification fight in the UK likely.

Overall we can bask in the glory of British triumphs whilst hoping our luck stays strong. As a patriotic Scot, it may sound odd that through the 8 Englishmen, 2 travelers, 1 Northern Irishman and 1 Welshman I am writing in praise of my neighbors and not about the rich seem of boxers coming through in Scotland. That may be because our last two fighters that hit the UK stage, lasted less than 2 minutes with Anthony Joshua and just 4 rounds with George Groves, 23-3, 18 KO’s. Now Scottish boxing, that’s a slow burning future… though we do have a date with destiny at the end of May… more of that later…

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