By Gav Duthie: It has been an action packed year for British boxing with some new world champions, great prospects and superb fights. Sky Sports link to Matchroom Promotions is working better than ever and Boxnation is now turning a profit for the first time since its inception 3 years ago.
Wembley stadium was host to the biggest event of the year with 80,000 turning up to watch Carl Froch knockout George Groves. What else were the highlights in this calendar year in the UK?
Story of the year – Curtis Woodhouse wins British Title
Woodhouse is a Professional footballer turned British boxing Light Welterweight champion. Its been a really really really long road for Curtis. When he was only 21 years old he had the world at his feet as a footballer. He had a handful of caps for England U21’s and Birmingham had just paid £1 million to secure his services. By his mid twenties he had lost his love for the game and had started to drop down the leagues. When he decided to quit pro football to take up boxing everyone was shocked. He admitted himself he had no particular talent for the sport just enthusiasm. He amassed a 10-0 record quite quickly but then it started to unravel. He lost a surprising decision before coming back and losing again to Peter McDonagh. After working his way back into contention when losing narrowly to Frankie Gavin he got a crack at the British Lightweight title against Derry Matthews. Again it ended in disappointment with a 4th round knockout defeat. He got one last crack at the title this time at Light Welterweight. With a make or break mentality and Adam Booth masterminding his strategy he defeated Darren Hamilton by split decision to win. He subsequently retired and announced he had a 5 thousand pound bet on himself to win the belt when he turned pro at 50/1. Unfortunately the adrenaline ran in him too strong and he chose to fight on losing the title to Willie Limond later in the year.
Domestic clash of the year – Anthony Crolla v John Murray
This was truly the battle of Manchester, a hotbed for boxing in the UK. Both fighters had world title ambitions but the loser was destined to remain a domestic level fighter. Murray had a world title shot previously losing out to Brandon Rios but had been out of the sport for two years due to brain swelling. Crolla had won some decent domestic clashes against Gavin Rees and Stephen Foster Jnr but with Murray making a good comeback against John Simpson he was slight favourite. The fight was brilliant. Crolla established the jab early with Murray happy to walk through them to be aggressive and land bigger shots. Murray hurt Crolla in the 4th and his strength seemed apparent in the mid rounds. Crolla weathered the storm and started to take over as Murray tired. Crolla finished Murray off in the 10th round. Anthony has a WBA title shot coming up in January against Richar Abril due largely to this victory.
International clash of the year – Tommy Coyle v Daniel Brizuela
After a tough 2013 for Coyle the experienced but light hitting Argentine seemed a good option to get some confidence back. Brizuela however hadn’t read the script and came to win. The fight was fought at a frantic pace for all 12 rounds and mostly toe-to-toe. Coyle couldn’t seem to handle Brizuela’s pressure and especially the body shots. Three quarters of the way through the fight Coyle had been knocked down 4 times and scored 1 knockdown himself. Throwing caution to the wind in the final few rounds with Brizuela losing focus he landed some big shots and knocked the South American down twice in round 11. In the 12th Coyle scored another knockdown. Despite this being the 8th knockdown in the fight the crowd was dissapointed to see the fight waved off as Brizuela seemed he could continue. Later in the year Coyle made much lighter work of Australian legend Michael Katsidis stopping him in the second round to set up a local showdown in Hull with Luke Campbell.
Fighter of the year – James DeGale
After a few years playing second fiddle to Carl Froch and George Groves Chunky DeGale has started to make a name for himself. Since signing with Matchroom Promotions he has become much more active bagging bigger fights and is now a mandatory challenger. In the early part of the year he defended his WBC silver title against undefeated Gevorg Khatcikian and then only two months later fought a final IBF eliminator bout against Brandon Gonzalez on the Froch-Groves undercard in what many considered a 50/50 contest. DeGale however felt otherwise scoring a stunning 4th round knockout. He bettered this result recently against tough former world title challenger Marco Antonio Periban with a 3rd round stoppage to cap off a fantastic year.
Prospect of the year – Anthony Joshua
Not a tough call really. The giant Olympic gold medalist has been walking through opponents this year fighting 7 times in total. Despite the 7 bouts he has only fought 12 rounds as even as he has stepped up in class against Airich and Bakhtov it has all been relatively easy. The durable American Kevin Johnson is lined up for January and being that he has never been stopped he should provide a stronger test for AJ.
Disappointment of the year – Ricky Burns
It has been a difficult 18 months or so for Burns both in and out of the ring so its at least comforting that he won an 8 round UD in his last outing on his welterweight debut. He has been involved in a bitter legal dispute with Frank Warren about leaving for Matchroom promotions as well as injuries and fights falling through. As was probably expected Burns lost his title to the emerging talent Terence Crawford after coming back from a broken jaw. The real disappointment was the comeback fight against Serbian Dejan Zlaticanin. The Eastern European fighter was fairly rough and rugged but couldn’t miss with a wild overhand right which knocked Burns down within the first 30 seconds of the fight. In the later half of the contest Ricky upped the workrate but it was all to little too late. One judge scored in his favour but he lost a split decision. With him being found not liable in his case with Warren he will be hoping for a much better 2015.
Achievement of the year – Kell Brook wins IBF title
This could have also qualified for Curtis Woodhouse’s story of the year prize because Kell has went through hell to get here over the years. He had three consecutive dates for a fight with then IBF champion Devon Alexander fall through in 2012/13 and has been mandatory IBF champion for over two years. Many fans and media, especially in the U.S, doubted his ambition to really fight at the top level. This is what makes Kell Brook’s title win even more special. He went straight to his opponents (Shawn Porter) back yard and produced a tough disciplined display which saw him a close decision winner. After Porter’s domination of Devon Alexander and Paulie Malignaggi few gave Kell the chance to win but thats what he did. His good work and perseverance hasn’t changed his luck though. Only a few weeks after the fight he was injured in a vicious knife attack in Tenerife leaving him with horrific scars on his leg. This injury dashed any plans of a December Sheffield homecoming fight but he hopes to be back in the ring by March 2015.
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