Can British promoters unite for lightweights?

By Gavin Duthie - 11/27/2015 - Comments

flanagan1By Gav Duthie: For at least the last 5 years the lightweight division has been Britain’s strongest. Sure there have been better fighters like Kell Brook (Welterweight), Carl Froch (Super Middleweight), Carl Frampton (Bantamweight) etc but for sheer depth of quality lightweight is by far and away the best. They have had at least double figures of contender to world level fighters in the likes of Kevin Mitchell, Ricky Burns, Terry Flanagan, Gavin Rees, Anthony Crolla, John Murray, Derry Matthews, Nicky Cook, Stephen Ormond and Luke Campbell and now that domestic potential is coming to fruition.

The UK now has two of the three lightweight world title holders (IBF currently vacant) and many others waiting on the wings. It is a really exciting time for UK boxing with 10 world champions overall and there are lots of potential domestic fights for world titles at 135lbs but there is a problem. The fighters are split between Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Promotions and Frank Warren’s Queensbury Promotions.

Promoter Rivalry

The Matchroom/Queensbury rivalry is becoming as divided as HBO/Showtime is in the states. Matchroom boxers fight exclusively on Sky Sports with Frank Warren’s boxers on BoxNation TV. Warren’s TV channel has been active for a few years now and seems here to stay. Any big fight foreign or domestic the two channels are battling for it. BoxNation is shown on the Sky media platform but make no mistake they are rivals. Personally I can’t even remember the last time a Matchroom fighter faced a Queensbury one.

Fights we could miss out on

This rivalry is something UK fight fans have accepted over the last few years but the lightweight division could really suffer some potential big fights over the next couple of years.

Anthony Crolla (WBA) v Derry Matthews 3

This fight should be a tap in. The have already fought twice and both contests were extremely entertaining. The most recently fought to a draw a couple of years back but in their first fights Matthews shocked us by knocking out Crolla in round 7. Being that this would be a trilogy fight and the champion Crolla hasn’t beaten Matthews yet this fight would be huge. Furthermore Matthews was the WBA interim champion and ranked WBA #1 only last week. It should be easy but Matthews gave up his title and looks set to fight Terry Flanagan for the WBO instead. This is extremely disappointing because I think this is an easy win for Flanagan. The reason for this is simply down to the fact that Crolla is promoted by Hearn and Matthews by Warren.

YouTube video

Anthony Crolla (WBA) v Terry Flanagan (WBO)

There is a huge buzz in the UK just now surrounding IBF super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton fighting WBA 122lbs champion Scott Quigg in a super bantamweight unification bout. The fact that Crolla-Flanagan would be a unification bout and they are both from Manchester would be an amazing fight for the city. They have struggled to create the same atmosphere since Ricky Hatton retired and what better way to rejuvenate this than two have two of their own fight each other both as world champions.

Terry Flanagan (WBO) v Ricky Burns

Ricky Burns is the former WBO champion at both lightweight and light welterweight. With his most recent victory over formerly ranked #8 Josh King he will again be up there. Ricky is still surely a couple of big wins away from a title shot but this would be a decent fight. Burns split with Warren is one of the most acrimonious to date. They were battling in court for over a year in a case which is rumored to have left Ricky bankrupt. There is absolutely zero chance that Warren would co-promote a venture with Ricky Burns in it so it makes his high World Boxing Organization rating utterly pointless.

5 Fights that are likely to happen

Crolla v Mitchell
Crolla v Burns
Burns v Mitchell 2
Campbell v Crolla
Flanagan v Matthews

There are some decent fights out there and I do feel that prospect Luke Campbell could turn out to be the best of all. I will still watch with anticipation but am resigned to the fact that some of the big fights will once again pass us by.



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