Hello Gents, The over-saturation of Pac-May in General has driven me to expand my lurking to other areas of this site. I'm not too familiar with the British Boxing scene, so I was hoping to perhaps get an overview from some of the regulars who have time to take on a greenhorn. How is your amateur scene? Do your standouts have as difficult time making the transition to the professional ranks as US fighters? Aside from Kahn's run in the olympic games which received so much publicity, how do your fighters fare in the Olympics? Any hopefuls for the upcoming ones? What professionals are flying under the radar that you think should and/or will breakout soon? Would love to see any clips that stand out...and if there are any Scottish fighters in particular that you'd recommend checking out, it'd be great to learn more about them too. Thanks for your time. :bbb
British & Irish Divisional Rakings (June 8th 2011) Heavyweight (201lbs+) 1. David Haye (WBA World Champion)* 2. Derek Chisora (British & Commonwealth) 3. Tyson Fury (English) 4. Sam Sexton 5. Martin Rogan 6. John McDermott 7. Audley Harrison 8. David Price 9. Michael Sprott 10. Danny Williams 11. Tom Dallas 12. Larry Olubamiwo 13. Dave Ferguson 14. Coleman Barrett (Irish) 15. Richard Towers Cruiserweight (200lbs) 1. Ola Afolabi* 2. Herbie Hide 3. Enzo Maccarinelli 4. Terry Dunstan (English) 5. David Dolan 6. Matty Askin 7. Tyrone Wright 8. Ian Timms (Irish) 9. Tony Conquest 10. Jon Lewis Dickinson 11. Neil Dawson 12. Leon Williams 13. John Ibbitson 14. JJ Ojuederie 15. Michael Sweeney Light Heavyweight (175lbs) 1. Nathan Cleverly (WBO Champion)* 2. Danny McIntosh 3. Tony Bellew (Commonwealth) 4. Bob Ajisafe 5. Ovil McEnzie 6. Travis Dickinson 7. Tony Dodson 8. Steve McGuire 9. Darren Stubbs 10. Craig Denton 11. Tony Jeffries 12. Menay Edwards 13. Ciaran Healy (Irish) 14. Joe Smyth 15. Matthew Barney Super Middleweight (168lbs) 1. Carl Froch (WBC World Champion)* 2. Brian Magee* 3. George Groves (British & Commonwealth)* 4. James DeGale 5. Kenny Anderson (Celtic) 6. Tony Quigley 7. Paul David (English) 8. Rocky Fielding 9. Tobias Webb 10. Daniel Cadman 11. Paul Morby 12. Jermaine Smyth 13. Carl Dilks 14. Robin Reid 15. Jeff Evans Middleweight (160lbs) 1. Matthew Macklin* 2. Andy Lee* 3. Darren Barker (European & British)* 4. Craig McEwan 5. Martin Murray (Commonwealth) 6. Anthony Fitzgerald 7. Patrick Mendy 8. Paul Smith 9. Gary O'Sullivan (Irish) 10. Howard Eastman 11. Nick Blackwell (English) 12. Billy Joe Saunders 13. Matt Hainy 14. Tony Hill 15. Craig Denton Light Middleweight (154lbs) 1. Ryan Rhodes* 2. Prince Aaron (British) 3. Sam Webbe 4. James Moore 5. Tony Doran 6. Max Maxwell 7. Brian Rose (English) 8. Neil Sinclair (Irish) 9. Joe Selkirk 10. Brett Flournoy 11. Joe McNally 12. Martin Concepcion 13. Steve O'Meara 14. Kris Carlshaw 15. Thomas Costello Welterweight (147lbs) 1. Kell Brook* 2. Matthew Hatton 3. Michael Jennings 4. Denton Vassel (Commonwealth) 5. Lee Purdy (British) 6. Craig Watson 7. Yassine El Maachi 8. Colin Lynnes 9. John O’Donnell 10. Junior Witter 11. Kevin McIntyre (Celtic) 12. Adil Anwar 13. Bradley Pryce 14. Gary McMillian 15. Michael Lomax Light Welterweight (140lbs) 1. Amir Khan (WBA World Champion)* 2. Paul McCloskey* 3. Ajose Olusegun 4. Ashely Theophane (British) 5. Lenny Daws 6. Jason Cook 7. Nigel Wright (English) 8. Frankie Gavin (Irish) 9. Steve Williams 10. Darren Hamilton 11. Nicki Smedley 12. Lee McAllister 13. Karl Place 14. Barry Morrison 15. Tyrone Nurse Lightweight (135lbs) 1. John Murray* 2. Gavin Rees (European) 3. Anthony Crolla (British) 4. Andy Murray 5. Derry Matthews (English) 6. Alex Arthur 7. Willie Limmond 8. John Watson 9. Martin Gethin 10. Ryan Brawley 11. Gary McArthur 12. Ben Murphy 13. Dean Byrne 14. Tony Owen 15. Tomy Coyle Super Featherweight (130lbs) 1. Ricky Burns (WBO World Champion)* 2. Gary Buckland 3. Gary Skykes (British) 4. Nicky Cook 5. Stephen Foster Jnr 6. Liam Walsh (Commonwealth) 7. Carl Johanesson 8. Andy Morris 9. Paul Truscott 10. Paul Appleby 11. John Kays 12. Kevin O'Hara 13. Stephen Ormond 14. Troy James 15. Lee Selby Featherweight (125lbs) 1. Stephen Smith (British & Commonwealth) 2. John Simpson 3. Martin Lindsay 4. Patrick Hyland (Irish) 5. Ricky Owen 6. Kris Hughes 7. Chris Male 8. Joe Murray 9. Ryan Walsh 10. Terry Flannigan 11. Lee Glover 12. James Ancliff 13. Del Rogers 14. Mickey Convey 15. Martin Ward Super Bantamweight (122lbs) 1. Rendall Munroe* 2. Jason Booth (British & Commonwealth) 3. Willie Casey 4. Scott Quigg 5. Carl Frampton (Celtic) 6. Paul Hyland (Irish) 7. Robbie Turley 8. Rhys Roberts 9. Gavin Ried 10. Mark Moran 11. Josh Warrington 12. Davey Savage Jnr 13. Josh Warrington 14. Paul Economides 15. Marc Callaghan Bantamweight (118lbs) 1. Jamie McDonnell (European & Commonwealth)* 2. Stuart Hall (British) 3. Ian Napa 4. Gary Davies 5. Craig Lyon (English) 6. Josh Wale 7. Michael Walsh 8. John Donnelly 9. Martin Power 10. Kid Galahad Super Flyweight (115lbs) 1. Lee Haskins (British & Commonwealth) 2. Andy Bell 3. Ross Burkinshaw 4. Don Broadhurst 5. Mike Robinson 6. Jamie Conlan 7. James Mulhern 8. Phil Smith 9. Kevin Satchell 10. Paul Butler Flyweight (112lbs) 1. Shinny Bayaar 2. Paul Edwards (British) 3. Ashley Sexton (English) 4. Chris Edwards (Commonwealth) 5. Luke Wilton 6. Usman Ahmed 7. Kevin Colgan 8. Jamie Dickens 9. Kyle King 10. Brad Watson
Amateur scene is as good as its ever been. we got 3 medals at the last olympics (james degale - gold, tony jeffries & david price - bronze) out of 7 qualifiers. we should beat that for 2012 olympics which is in london. the current coach is rob mccracken who is carl frochs trainer. we have 5 current world champions. haye, cleverly, froch, khan and ricky burns who is scottish. ryan rhodes and matthew macklin have world title fights this month. other fighters close to world title fights would be darren barker, kell brook and the winner of john murray vs kevin Mitchell which takes place in July. the best prospects currently in my opinion would be. David Price, George Groves, James DeGale, Billy Joe Saunders, Frankie Gavin, Stephen Smith, Joe Murray, Scott Quigg and Carl Frampton are the best prospects all with around 10-15 fights. Many would expect these guys to compete at world level eventually. the main advantage british boxing has over other countries particularly the US is that we have a proper route towards winning a world title as the domestic titles are taken very seriously by fans, promoters and most importantly Sky TV the only broadcaster of boxing in the UK apart from the odd show. its very rare that a british fighter will get to world level without at least winning one of the British/Commonwealth or European titles.
I had no idea...boxing gets so little press on this side. That's great your amateurs are doing so well, I will certainly keep an eye out for the names you gave me. Your note about exposure is really interesting. It seems like it's a much more "unified" front in terms of rites of passage. You're lucky you get to see the progression of your fighters as we generally only get to see them when they are breaking out, or have already broken out. So it sounds like there's a strong following in Britain for the sport in general? I can only find very small pockets of interest where I am, and that's on the individual basis. Is there a way to access Skye via the internet? I used to enjoy seeing the young up and comers back when USA Tuesday Night Fights when I was a kid. Thank you for the wealth of information...look forward to following a new side of the sport.
I like the enthusiasm!:bbb Looks like he has a tough one coming up next month. If there is any way to catch these fights online, it'd be great to check him out. Thanks.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAPpVNdbeLw&feature=related[/ame] our 2008 olympic bronze medalist in a fight with another undefeated preospect, ill post the whole fight (2 rounds:yep) when its up on youtube:good he was being sarcastic about burns, he won a world title with a career best performance if a fight where he was the under dog and on the 16th he has his 3rd joke defence on the trot
This content is protected he moves awkwardly but he get the job done so far. he loosk like he willget beaten soon. i just hope he can cash it in with another world champion. that way if he does get lucky he can keep the ball rolling instead of being stopped on cuts in a leisure centre somewhere to a commonwealth ghanian, who will come in with a record of 17-3-2 8koes. ANNNYWAYS yeah our domestic scene has the lonsdale a belt (if you defend the british belt 3 times) which you get a retirement fund at the end of your career.. it's not a lot but a lot of world champions have regretted not going for it. it's considered prestigious and every fighter who has got it but 1...which i wont name, has a history.
Yes, if you know someone with a Sky subscription. Then you use their username and password. But, there is a hell of fights posted on youtube. So just type in some of the names and I'm sure you'll see them. Also type in "Ringside" into youtube. A British boxing program, many episodes are uploaded.