Is Great Britain Finally Achieving Dominance in the Sport it Invented?

Published

5 years ago

February 24, 2020

Is Great Britain Finally Achieving Dominance in the Sport it Invented?

It is one of those interesting facts that means everything, or nothing, depending upon one’s allegiance to a particular flag.

There are presently 193 member countries in the United Nations. At one time or another, the United Kingdom invaded 176 and controlled or ruled over each of them, including 13 rebellious British colonies in North America that in 1776 declared their intention to gain independence as a new and free nation. By and by, Great Britain’s global reach, which at its peak covered 13.7 million square miles, or 24% of the Earth’s surface, receded to a point where Britons no longer could proudly claim that theirs was “the empire on which the sun never sets.” And with the UK’s transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997, that empire, for all intentions and purposes, ceased to exist.

But even when the Union Jack flew over most of those far-flung lands, it had to be irksome for citizens of the island nation, where modern professional boxing was basically invented in the 19^th century, that for decades its finest pugilistic big men were routinely flattened by a succession of justifiably confident Yanks who came to view the heavyweight championship of the world as a sort of U.S. birthright. During one especially lengthy drought, British heavyweights went up against American titlists 13 times and lost every bout, most coming inside the distance

But that was then, and this is now. British heavyweight boxing is on such an upswing that it not only has gained parity with its American counterparts, but in many ways surpassed them. That should be obvious to everyone who saw the 6-foot-9, 273-pound Tyson Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) basically have his way with Deontay Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) en route to a seventh-round technical knockout that was justified, whether or not you believe Wilder’s co-trainer, Mark Breland, made the correct decision by tossing a towel into the ring to save his man from additional punishment. By that point in an increasingly one-sided beatdown, Fury had established himself as the superior fighter in the rivalry, their previous and controversial split draw of Dec. 1, 2018, notwithstanding.

Although Wilder has 30 days to decide if he wants to exercise his option for an immediate rematch, Fury-Wilder III is no longer the heavyweight megafight that most fans, on either side of the pond, most want to see. Nor should they get it as early as June or July, the projected target date for another do-over.

(Note: this story was written prior to Wilder announcing that he would indeed immediately enforce the rematch clause in his contract for a third fight with Fury.)

Contacted by Talk Sport shortly after Fury retained his lineal title and added the vacant The Ring magazine belt, Matchroom Sport’s Eddie Hearn, who promotes WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs), the 2017 super heavyweight gold medalist at the London Olympics and a fellow Briton, said Fury-Joshua cannot be put on hold because moments like this not only come along rarely, but virtually never.

“I’ve spoken to AJ and he wants to go into this (Fury) fight next,” Hearn said. “We have to make this fight happen. We will never, ever get the chance for two Brits to fight for the undisputed heavyweight world championship. I promise you we will do everything we can to make this fight. It has to happen.

“(Joshua) has no fear of fighting Tyson Fury. He has been through everything and he wants to be undisputed. This is the chance for our sport to have one of those legacy moments that we will never get the opportunity to have again.”

Logic, however, has a way of getting lost in the snarl of conflicting business interests and personal animosity. Joshua is aligned with the streaming service DAZN; Wilder is co-promoted by Frank Warren and Top Rank’s Bob Arum, which means his bouts are shown in America on ESPN+. A Fury-Joshua showdown for all the hardware would guarantee another sellout of 90,000 in London’s Wembley Stadium, but finding middle ground on any number of contract details could prove problematic, as would the fact that Hearn’s relationship with both Arum and Warren is frostier than a Siberian winter. Even agreeing on a start time could be vexing; 5 or 6 p.m. Eastern Time opening bell in the U.S. would suit stay-at-home British fans just fine, but a 3 a.m. London time start to benefit American TV viewers would not.

But if the drawn-out negotiations that led to the long-delayed pairing of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao in 2015 proved anything, it’s that if the public demand is great enough, any deal can be made if each side is willing to yield a little. For Fury-Joshua, however, the need to make it happen sooner rather than later raises the stakes considerably. No one should be so adamant about gaining every possible concession that discussions are drawn out four or five years before contracts can be signed. Even a facsimile of a Mayweather-Pacquiao repeat is a water-torture situation that simply won’t do.

Fury-Joshua necessarily would go onto the back burner, at least temporarily, if Team Wilder – unwisely, in more than a few people’s opinion — exercises its option for an immediate rematch. The “Bronze Bomber” would seemingly benefit from a longer than usual layoff, given all the damage he incurred in the most grueling test of mind and body he’s ever been in, and like many formerly undefeated fighters who get their first bitter taste of defeat, he could benefit, even in his mid-30s, from a confidence-rebuilding fight or two against less daunting opponents before trying his hand again vs. Fury. Oh, sure, the Alabaman still packs dynamite in his right hand, but the seeming friction between co-trainers Jay Deas, who saw hope for a miraculous comeback where little seemed to exist, and Breland, the compassionate realist, will need to be addressed if all parties are to remain on the same page going forward.

Certainly, the marked improvement in Fury’s offense justified his decision to replace on short notice more defensive-minded trainer Ben Davison with Javan “Sugar” Hill, the nephew and protégé of the late Emanuel Steward. Manny always instructed his Kronk Gym fighters to aggressively go for knockouts whenever possible, a mindset shared by Hill that clearly appealed to Fury, who didn’t want to risk another disappointment by pencil, or worse.

“Not bad for someone with pillow fists,” Fury said after he bloodied Wilder’s nose and left ear, raising some facial lumps along the way as well.

Steward, it should be remembered, was the chief second of lightly regarded Oliver McCall when he traveled to London to challenge WBC heavyweight champion and future Hall of Famer Lennox Lewis on Sept. 24, 1994. McCall stopped Lewis in two rounds, whereupon Lewis ditched trainer Pepe Correa for Steward. Manny’s makeover of Lewis made him a dangerous dude even more so, the most obvious improvement in his transformation of his new pupil’s soft, range-finding jab into a hard, accurate weapon that served to better set up a devastating overhand right. The long professional relationship of Lewis and Steward helped enhance each man’s legacy, as was the case when Steward made over another long-reigning heavyweight champ, Wladimir Klitschko, into a better version of himself. A couple more training camps together with Hill might have the same indisputable therapeutic effect on Fury.

But, even if circumstances are such that Fury and Joshua continue to peer at one another across an unbridgeable chasm, maybe even forever, the state of British heavyweight boxing is deep enough to withstand even that annoyance. Now that each has a victory, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if Joshua and Mexican-American Andy Ruiz Jr. got together for a rubber match. Dillian Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs), whose only loss was a competitive seventh-round stoppage against Joshua on Dec. 12, 2015, remains a top-five-type talent, and on April 11 two more Brit big men worth following, Joe Joyce (10-0, 9 KOs) and Daniel Dubois (14-0, 13 KOs), square off in London with the winner sure to draw a closer look from both Fury and Joshua.

Contrast the relatively robust health of British heavyweight boxing at this time to the wheezing state of the division in the U.S., now that Wilder has been so outclassed that he might require some rebuilding. There was an IBF heavyweight elimination bout on the Wilder-Fury II card between brief alphabet belt-holder Charles Martin, who lasted only two rounds against Joshua, and Gerald Washington, who somehow made it to the fifth round against Wilder. The quasi-contenders engaged in an exercise in tedium before Martin won on a one-punch KO in the fifth round. It is reflective of the severe lack of depth in U.S. heavyweight boxing that fighters such as this can turn up in world ratings that once featured names like Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe.

Until or if Wilder returns to form, the U.S. hopes this may have to be carried by the excessively fleshy Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller, a recent Top Rank signee whose dream shot against Joshua went to Ruiz after Miller tested positive for an illegal substance, and Polish-born, Brooklyn-based Adam Kownacki, whose fan base even in the New York borough primarily consists of displaced Poles waving that country’s flag.

In heavyweight boxing’s latest edition of Star Wars, it would appear that it’s what’s left of the British Empire that is striking back.

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

To comment on this story in The Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Bernard Fernandez

Up Next

A Peek Inside Justin Fortune’s Old-School LA Boxing Gym

Don't Miss

Kelsey McCarson’s HITS and MISSES (Wilder vs. Fury 2 Edition)

Late Bloomer Anthony Cacace TKOs Hometown Favorite Leigh Wood in Nottingham

Published

9 hours ago

May 10, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Late-Bloomer-Anthony-Cacace-TKOs-Hometown-Favorite-Leigh-Wood-in-Nottingham

Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions was at Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England, tonight with a card featuring hometown favorite Leigh Wood against Ireland’s Anthony “Apache” Cacace.

Wood, a former two-time WBA featherweight champion, known for dramatic comebacks in bouts he was losing, may have reached the end of the road at age 36. He had his moments tonight, rocking Cacace on several occasions and winning the eighth round, but he paid the price, returning to his corner after round eight with swelling around both of his eyes.

In the ninth, Cacace, an 11/5 favorite, hurt Wood twice with left hands, the second of which knocked Wood into the ropes, dictating a standing 8-count by referee John Latham. When the bout resumed, Cacace went for the kill and battered Wood around the ring, forcing Wood’s trainer Ben Davison to throw in the towel. The official time was 2:15 of round nine.

Akin to Wood, Northern Ireland’s Cacace (24-1, 9 KOs) is also 36 years old and known as a late bloomer. This was his ninth straight win going back to 2017 (he missed all of 2018 and 2020). He formerly held the IBF 130-pound world title, a diadem he won with a stoppage of then-undefeated and heavily favored Joe Cordina, but that belt wasn’t at stake tonight as Cacace abandoned it rather than fulfill his less-lucrative mandatory. Wood falls to 28-4.

Semi-Wind-Up

Nottingham light heavyweight Ezra Taylor, fighting in his hometown for the first time since pro debut, delighted his fan base with a comprehensive 10-round decision over previously undefeated Troy Jones. Taylor, who improved to 12-0 (9) won by scores of 100-90, 99-91, and 98-92.

This was Taylor’s first fight with new trainer Malik Scott, best known for his work with Deontay Wilder. The victory may have earned him a match with Commonwealth title-holder Lewis Edmondson. Jones was 12-0 heading in.

Other Bouts of Note

In his first fight as a featherweight, Liam Davies rebounded from his first defeat with a 12-round unanimous decision over Northern Ireland’s previously undefeated Kurt Walker. Davies, who improved to 17-1 (8), staved off a late rally to prevail on scores of 115-113, 116-112, and 117-111. It was the first pro loss for the 30-year-old Walker (12-1), a Tokyo Olympian.

In a mild upset, Owen Cooper, a saucy Worcestershire man, won a 10-round decision over former Josh Taylor stablemate Chris Kongo. The referee’s scorecard read 96-94.

Cooper improved to 11-1 (4). It was the third loss in 20 starts for Kongo.

A non-televised 8-rounder featured junior welterweight Sam Noakes in a stay-busy fight. A roofer by trade and the brother of British welterweight title-holder Sean Noakes, Sam improved to 17-0 (15 KOs) with a third-round stoppage of overmatched Czech import Patrik Balez (13-5-1).

Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Avila Perspective, Chap. 326: Top Rank and San Diego Smoke

Published

2 days ago

May 9, 2025

David A. Avila

Avila Perspective, Chap. 326: Top Rank and San Diego Smoke

Years ago, I worked at a newsstand in the Beverly Hills area. It was a 24-hour a day version and the people that dropped by were very colorful and unique.

One elderly woman Eva, who bordered on homeless but pridefully wore lipstick, would stop by the newsstand weekly to purchase a pack of menthol cigarettes. On one occasion, she asked if I had ever been to San Diego?

I answered “yes, many times.”

She countered “you need to watch out for San Diego Smoke.”

This Saturday, Top Rank brings its brand of prizefighting to San Diego or what could be called San Diego Smoke. Leading the fight card is Mexico’s Emanuel Navarrete (39-2-1, 32 KOs) defending the WBO super feather title against undefeated Filipino Charly Suarez (18-0, 10 KOs) at Pechanga Arena. ESPN will televise.

This is Navarrete’s fourth defense of the super feather title.

The last time Navarrete stepped in the boxing ring he needed six rounds to dismantle the very capable Oscar Valdez in their rematch. One thing about Mexico City’s Navarrete is he always brings “the smoke.”

Also, on the same card is Fontana, California’s Raymond Muratalla (22-0, 17 KOs) vying for the interim IBF lightweight title against Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev (20-1, 12 KOs) on the co-main event.

Abdullaev has only fought once before in the USA and was handily defeated by Devin Haney back in 2019. But that was six years ago and since then he has knocked off various contenders.

Muratalla is a slick fighting lightweight who trains at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy now in Moreno Valley, Calif. It’s a virtual boot camp with many of the top fighters on the West Coast available to spar on a daily basis. If you need someone bigger or smaller, stronger or faster someone can match those needs.

When you have that kind of preparation available, it’s tough to beat. Still, you have to fight the fight. You never know what can happen inside the prize ring.

Another fighter to watch is Perla Bazaldua, 19, a young and very talented female fighter out of the Los Angeles area. She is trained by Manny Robles who is building a small army of top female fighters.

Bazaldua (1-0, 1 KO) meets Mona Ward (0-1) in a super flyweight match on the preliminary portion of the Top Rank card. Top Rank does not sign many female fighters so you know that they believe in her talent.

Others on the Top Rank card in San Diego include Giovani Santillan, Andres Cortes, Albert Gonzalez, Sebastian Gonzalez and others.

They all will bring a lot of smoke to San Diego.

Probox TV

A strong card led by Erickson “The Hammer” Lubin (26-2, 18 KOs) facing Ardreal Holmes Jr. (17-0, 6 KOs) in a super welterweight clash between southpaws takes place on Saturday at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida. PROBOX TV will stream the fight card.

Ardreal has rocketed up the standings and now faces veteran Lubin whose only losses came against world titlists Sebastian Fundora and Jermell Charlo. It’s a great match to decide who deserves a world title fight next.

Another juicy match pits Argentina’s Nazarena Romero (14-0-2) against Mexico’s Mayelli Flores (12-1-1) in a female super bantamweight contest.

Nottingham, England

Anthony Cacace (23-1, 8 KOs) defends the IBO super featherweight title against Leigh Wood (28-3, 17 KOs) in Wood’s hometown on Saturday at Nottingham Arena in Nottingham, England. DAZN will stream the Queensberry Promotions card.

Ireland’s Cacace seems to have the odds against him. But he is no stranger to dancing in the enemy’s lair or on foreign territory. He formerly defeated Josh Warrington in London and Joe Cordina in Riyadh in IBO title defenses.

Lampley at Wild Card

Boxing telecaster Jim Lampley will be signing his new book It Happened! at the Wild Card Boxing gym in Hollywood, Calif. on Saturday, May 10, beginning at 2 p.m. Lampley has been a large part of many of the greatest boxing events in the past 40 years. He and Freddie Roach will be at the signing.

Fights to Watch (All times Pacific Time)

Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Anthony Cacace (23-1) vs Leigh Wood (28-3).

Sat. PROBOX.tv 3 p.m. Erickson Lubin (26-2) vs Ardreal Holmes Jr. (17-0).

Sat. ESPN 7 p.m. Emanuel Navarrete (39-2-1) vs Charly Suarez (18-0); Raymond Muratalla (22-0) vs Zaur Abdullaev (20-1).

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

“Breadman” Edwards: An Unlikely Boxing Coach with a Panoramic View of the Sport

Published

2 days ago

May 8, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Stephen-Breadman-Edwards-An-Unlikely-Boxing-Coach-with-a-Panoramic-View-of-the-Sport

Stephen “Breadman” Edwards’ first fighter won a world title. That may be some sort of record.

It’s true. Edwards had never trained a fighter, amateur or pro, before taking on professional novice Julian “J Rock” Williams. On May 11, 2019, Williams wrested the IBF 154-pound world title from Jarrett Hurd. The bout, a lusty skirmish, was in Fairfax, Virginia, near Hurd’s hometown in Maryland, and the previously undefeated Hurd had the crowd in his corner.

In boxing, Stephen Edwards wears two hats. He has a growing reputation as a boxing coach, a hat he will wear on Saturday, May 31, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas when the two fighters that he currently trains, super middleweight Caleb Plant and middleweight Kyrone Davis, display their wares on a show that will air on Amazon Prime Video. Plant, who needs no introduction, figures to have little trouble with his foe in a match conceived as an appetizer to a showdown with Jermall Charlo. Davis, coming off his career-best win, an upset of previously undefeated Elijah Garcia, is in tough against fast-rising Cuban prospect Yoenli Hernandez, a former world amateur champion.

Edwards’ other hat is that of a journalist. His byline appears at “Boxing Scene” in a column where he answers questions from readers.

It’s an eclectic bag of questions that Breadman addresses, ranging from his thoughts on an upcoming fight to his thoughts on one of the legendary prizefighters of olden days. Boxing fans, more so than fans of any other sport, enjoy hashing over fantasy fights between great fighters of different eras. Breadman is very good at this, which isn’t to suggest that his opinions are gospel, merely that he always has something provocative to add to the discourse. Like all good historians, he recognizes that the best history is revisionist history.

“Fighters are constantly mislabled,” he says. “Everyone talks about Joe Louis’s right hand. But if you study him you see that his left hook is every bit as good as his right hand and it’s more sneaky in terms of shock value when it lands.”

Stephen “Breadman” Edwards was born and raised in Philadelphia. His father died when he was three. His maternal grandfather, a Korean War veteran, filled the void. The man was a big boxing fan and the two would watch the fights together on the family television.

Edwards’ nickname dates to his early teen years when he was one of the best basketball players in his neighborhood. The derivation is the 1975 movie “Cornbread, Earl and Me,” starring Laurence Fishburne in his big screen debut. Future NBA All-Star Jamaal Wilkes, fresh out of UCLA, plays Cornbread, a standout high school basketball player who is mistakenly murdered by the police.

Coming out of high school, Breadman had to choose between an academic scholarship at Temple or an athletic scholarship at nearby Lincoln University. He chose the former, intending to major in criminal justice, but didn’t stay in college long. What followed were a succession of jobs including a stint as a city bus driver. To stay fit, he took to working out at the James Shuler Memorial Gym where he sparred with some of the regulars, but he never boxed competitively.

Over the years, Philadelphia has harbored some great boxing coaches. Among those of recent vintage, the names George Benton, Bouie Fisher, Nazeem Richardson, and Bozy Ennis come quickly to mind. Breadman names Richardson and West Coast trainer Virgil Hunter as the men that have influenced him the most.

We are all a product of our times, so it’s no surprise that the best decade of boxing, in Breadman’s estimation, was the 1980s. This was the era of the “Four Kings” with Sugar Ray Leonard arguably standing tallest.

Breadman was a big fan of Leonard and of Leonard’s three-time rival Roberto Duran. “I once purchased a DVD that had all of Roberto Duran’s title defenses on it,” says Edwards. “This was a back before the days of YouTube.”

But Edwards’ interest in the sport goes back much deeper than the 1980s. He recently weighed in on the “Pittsburgh Windmill” Harry Greb whose legend has grown in recent years to the point that some have come to place him above Sugar Ray Robinson on the list of the greatest of all time.

“Greb was a great fighter with a terrific resume, of that there is no doubt,” says Breadman, “but there is no video of him and no one alive ever saw him fight, so where does this train of thought come from?”

Edwards notes that in Harry Greb’s heyday, he wasn’t talked about in the papers as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. The boxing writers were partial to Benny Leonard who drew comparisons to the venerated Joe Gans.

Among active fighters, Breadman reserves his highest praise for Terence Crawford. “Body punching is a lost art,” he once wrote. “[Crawford] is a great body puncher who starts his knockouts with body punches, but those punches are so subtle they are not fully appreciated.”

If the opening line holds up, Crawford will enter the ring as the underdog when he opposes Canelo Alvarez in September. Crawford, who will enter the ring a few weeks shy of his 38^th birthday, is actually the older fighter, older than Canelo by almost three full years (it doesn’t seem that way since the Mexican redhead has been in the public eye so much longer), and will theoretically be rusty as 13 months will have elapsed since his most recent fight.

Breadman discounts those variables. “Terence is older,” he says, “but has less wear and tear and never looks rusty after a long layoff.” That Crawford will win he has no doubt, an opinion he tweaked after Canelo’s performance against William Scull: “Canelo’s legs are not the same. Bud may even stop him now.”

Edwards has been with Caleb Plant for Plant’s last three fights. Their first collaboration produced a Knockout of the Year candidate. With one ferocious left hook, Plant sent Anthony Dirrell to dreamland. What followed were a 12-round setback to David Benavidez and a ninth-round stoppage of Trevor McCumby.

Breadman keeps a hectic schedule. From Monday through Friday, he’s at the DLX Gym in Las Vegas coaching Caleb Plant and Kyrone Davis. On weekends, he’s back in Philadelphia, checking in on his investment properties and, of greater importance, watching his kids play sports. His 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son are standout all-around athletes.

On those long flights, he has plenty of time to turn on his laptop and stream old fights or perhaps work on his next article. That’s assuming he can stay awake.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!