After watching Donovan win comfortably ( he did ) last night, I've been thinking about modern boxing levels. Generally, all things being equal, British fighters beat European fighters. Alternatively when British fighters step up to world level , they get beaten. Im thinking about guys like Noakes, Ball, Donovan etc. I know theres lots of exceptions but Britain seems to hold a just beneath world level place in boxing, outside the heavyweight division. We're kind of the Frank Bruno of world boxing, not quite elite. Am I right ?
Donovan hasn't lost a boxing match yet on my watch and Ball has won and lost at world level. Noakes no idea who he is.
Think the bigger issue is the four-belt era has watered down what “world champion” means compared to the one, two and even three-belt eras. The old route of British, Commonwealth, European and then World was tried and tested for a reason - by the time you got a title shot, you were usually the real deal. Nowadays you can get manoeuvred into a mandatory spot or pick up a belt without necessarily proving you’re world class in the old sense. Feels like what we used to call world class is now more what we mean by elite. Same in most walks of life really, once the pathway gets easier and there are fewer barriers to entry, the quality naturally drops.
Sam Noakes lost to Abdullah Mason in Saudi. Previously unbeaten with high KO percentages. There's quite a few. I completely agree about the many world championships but they are still hard to win if a champion is in situ. Vacant titles are slightly different. Tony Bellew knows about this.
You're not suggesting Crocker is world level by mentioning Donovan in the list of guys who fell short?
Donovan beat Crocker twice and then Crocker left @billy nelson he obviously felt deep down he lost them himself. He was hopeless.
