Gavin Duthie

I love boxing.

Britain and their Great champions?

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By Gav Duthie: At one point earlier this year the UK celebrated having 14 world champions at the same time making it arguably the best boxing country pound for pound. Within the last month 3 have fallen in Anthony Crolla (To Jorge Linares), Liam Smith who lost to Canelo and Tyson Fury who relinquished his WBA and WBO titles due to depression and allegations of drug taking, both performance enhancing and recreational. Recently one of the UK’s best in Carl Frampton said that although the number of champions were great he didn’t feel they were all true champions. This piece discusses the 11 world champions who remain and how long they might be champions for.

Anthony Joshua 17-0 (17)

AJ is the current IBF champion but its possible that the WBA and WBO titles could be on the line if he faces Wladimir Klitschko on December 10. Whether he wins or not depends on at what stage of his career you feel The 40 year old Wlad is now. For me Wlad was confused against Fury after finally facing someone taller, with a longer reach and he couldn’t dictate the pace. Joshua will come to fight and be easier to hit. I don’t think Wlad is finished just yet so I pick him to knock Joshua out. If the fight doesn’t come off he will likely defend against someone like Bermaine Stiverne and keep his title a bit longer.

Liam Walsh: Britain’s most underrated fighter?

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By Gav Duthie: Liam ‘Destiny’ Walsh 21-0 (14) proved he is more than ready for a world title shot after a dominant performance against former world title challenger Andrey Klimov 19-3 (9). Whether Walsh was attacking or defending, orthodox or southpaw he was completely in control over his rugged Russian/American opponent over all 12 rounds. Klimov was a great yardstick fight as he had only previously lost to top fighters Terrence Crawford and Jose Pedraza but Walsh did just as good a job as these superstars before him. Britain has 13 world champions at present but I would honestly say that he is one of the UK’s top 10 fighters.

Announcements due this week for camp Sauerland

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By Gav Duthie: Eager to bounce back quickly from the disappointment of Jurgen Braehmer’s elbow injury and subsequent title defeat Kalle Sauerland is promising announcements for his British contingent David Price and George Groves.

David Price

Despite fighting only last night Kalle Sauerland let slip that Price is going to face fellow British prospect David Allen 9-1-1 (6), October 15 on the Tony Bellew v BJ Flores undercard. This would be only 2 weeks to the day between fights. Obviously Price means business but in reality he hardly broke a sweat last night against journeyman Ivica Perkovic stopping him in 2 rounds at the event in Germany. Price’s ability to beat guys at this level has never been in question and neither has his boxing talent but his chin and stamina have and at the very least Allen will ask some questions of these two attributes.

Should Klitschko take a fight soon?

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By Gav Duthie: Through no fault of his own Wladimir Klitschko has admitted that this is the most inactive he has ever been in his career. He has not fought since his 12 round unanimous decision loss to Tyson Fury last November with the Mancunian heavyweight pulling out of two scheduled rematches in July and October.

Fury is citing depression for the latest call off which suggests this fight wont happen in the foreseeable future. In the last few days heavyweight prospects Dillian Whyte and Luis Ortiz have both stated they would take Fury’s place and Anthony Joshua has been mentioned for November. Wlad is not getting any younger and the question is will we see him again before the year is out.

Shakur Stevenson and Robeisy Ramirez – Their contrasting futures

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Image: Shakur Stevenson and Robeisy Ramirez - Their contrasting futures

By Gav Duthie: The greatest male American hope since Andre Wards gold medal in 2004 has fallen at the final hurdle. Shakur Stevenson boxed well but was eventually outworked by now two time Gold medalist Cuban Robeisy Ramirez. Stevenson drops to 26-1 in international competition and was distraught after the decision but at only 19 he has a bright future ahead. The financial lure will likely turn Shakur professional before the end of the year and he will still return home a hero and possibly a millionaire by the years end as promoters vie for his signature.

Being a silver medalist was no disgrace against Ramirez. Being from the UK it reminded me of 2004 when 17 year old Amir Khan lost in the final to Mario Kindelan, he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a professional boxing as an amateur, a multiple world champion that never was, Robeisy Ramirez could be the same so should he turn professional?

The WBA heavyweight situation

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By Gav Duthie: Despite the World Boxing Association organizing a tournament in the heavyweight division to establish a single champion within their establishment the situation at present is more complicated than ever. Tyson Fury is the Super champion but the regular title is very much up for grabs. In the last 10 years the ‘Regular’ title has been held by Nikolay Valuev, Ruslan Chagaev, Alexander Povetkin, David Haye and briefly by Lucas Browne before it was stripped from him for failing a drugs test.

The predicament seemed simple, the title was handed back to Ruslan Chagaev but after failing to respond to requests to face mandatory challenger Fres Oquendo, Chagaev expressed that he has decided to retire from boxing. As a result the WBA can do one of two things:

Do the Eubank’s really want Golovkin?

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By Gav Duthie: “Gennady Golovkin I’m coming for you”, the message from Chris Eubank Jnr post fight on Saturday was clear and concise. Promoter Eddie Hearn has said if they want the fight its there. GGG doesn’t seem to be a hard man to deal with and Eubank Jnr is ranked #1 with the WBA so this should be easy right? The problem is nothing is ever easy when Eubank Snr a.k.a English is involved. He is the middle man that we don’t need in this scenario, he is the guy who eccentric personality would delude him into making his son the A-list fighter and he never fought any of the number 1 fighters in the 90s in his division unless they were British.

Unpredictable career so far

Despite only being the British champion and relatively unknown outside the UK Eubank Jnr’s career has been hard to predict. He started it surprisingly on terrestrial TV on Channel 5 with Mick Hennessey and has linked up with Frank Warren and Box Nation and now twice with Eddie Hearn.

The battle for welterweight supremacy

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By Gav Duthie: It’s been a throwaway comment for years now that the welterweight division is the best in boxing. After only one year after the highest grossing fight of all time between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao the division has completely transformed with those two retiring, a new set of champions and a fresh batch of competitors.

With the heavyweight division gaining excitement after arguably two decades of decay and a solid cruiserweight division it is up to the new batch of fighters to restore welterweight glory and crown a new king.

This piece assesses the current situation, the top contenders and their willingness to fight each other as well as provide predictions as to the new dominant force. The auditions start next week with Keith Thurman facing Shawn Porter.

Scotland has a new Burns night to celebrate

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By Gav Duthie: Like a movie script the man who thought he’d lost it all found triumph through adversity. Generally in sport and in life it is uncommon to roll back the years and succeed when failure is expected. It is certainly the norm as a Scot painfully watching the tragic heroes fall at the final hurdle in football, rugby or whatever we seemingly take our hand to.

Ricky Burns Riches to rags, bankruptcy, fallen idol story seemed all too familiar for Scots but his determination to succeed embodies everything a small nation stands for. Criticize his opponent, question the legitimacy all you want but the fact remains Ricky Burns is now one of less than 50 men who have won world titles in 3 different weight divisions.

An era defined

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Floyd MayweatherBy Gav Duthie: With Manny Pacquiao officially retired after outclassing the next best welterweight in the world it really did feel like the end of an era. With Floyd Mayweather hanging up his gloves 7 months previous, a complete new set of welterweight champions and emerging pound for pound greats it makes sense to define the era we have just witnessed and celebrate it.

Number 1 of 25 years (Courtesy of ESPN)