British Boxing 2022 Year in Review

Published

2 years ago

December 28, 2022

For British boxing, it was a good year.

Here I select four categories: the British Fighter of the Year, fairly self-explanatory; the British Fight of the Year, that is the best fight contested by two men from the United Kingdom; the British Breakthrough Fighter of the Year, that is, the British fighter who breaks into the divisional top-ten for their division, often unexpectedly; and finally the British Prospect of the Year, that is the fighter who has boxed fewer than ten professional contests at the end of 2022 who I think will be worth watching in 2023.

Remembering the last time British boxing didn’t have a great year is becoming more and more difficult.

British Fighter of the Year: Joe Joyce

Tyson Fury, Sunny Edwards, Leigh Wood, and John Ryder might all be seriously considered for the British fighter of 2022 but in the end, Joe Joyce was the name I returned to. His April destruction of Christian Hammer had an almost routine feel to it, a step down after his 2021 ruination of Carlos Takam and Daniel Dubois – but in September, Joyce turned in a performance of genuine pre-eminence, bettering Anthony Joshua by becoming the first man to stop the New Zealander Joseph Parker. It took eleven rounds, but despite Parker’s excellent chin and competent boxing, there was an air of inevitability about this stoppage early and that is what “The Juggernaut” really had to prove: that he could bring the same ceaseless pressure against quality opposition that he could against fellow prospects and slipped contenders. The answer was a resounding “yes.”

See Parker attempt to bomb his apparently slower opponent early in the first. Joyce’s frame is immutable, he holds steady, his massive arms are set in place as Parker punches on and around them. Joyce can ride punches, not the same as defensive soundness in a sport that is scored by judges, but something more fundamental, an ability to avoid the worst attentions of an opponent he wants to punch at him – if Joyce can make opponents routinely exchange, he would expect to win.

And, of course, when someone get through, that chin, a mandible unshaken by the 250lb Parker landing a flush straight-right at the end of round three that Joyce didn’t really seem to notice. Joyce is huge at 6’6 and 270lbs, has an elite engine, astonishing for his weight and range, hits with power, has serviceable footwork that leaves him routinely in a position to punch, which makes his pressure style so allowable at the highest level. Tyson Fury greeted both Oleksandr Usyk and Joe Joyce at ringside after his most recent victory and it was Joyce who caught the eye of Fury’s father, John, who predicted that Fury would lose “at 98%, he’d need to be 100% for that fight” while Usyk would be too small. I agree. Suddenly, Joyce seems the most dangerous man in the heavyweight division.

A final thought: it’s completely unproven at this point and will never be settled completely but it is possible that in Joyce and Deontay Wilder the heavyweight division has the greatest chin and punch in all of history. How tragic it would be if the two never met – but don’t be surprised if they do not. Wilder is no coward, but Joyce is rapidly becoming the problem the division does not need.

British Fight of the Year: Leigh Wood vs Michael Conlan

Usually, identifying the British Fight of the Year is a glorious charge down this year’s memory lane but for 2022, this was not a requirement. The British Fight of the Year is also the fight of the year anywhere, Leigh Wood’s astonishing twelfth round knockout of Michael Conlan is a lock.

Conlan, out of Belfast, was a storied amateur, and were it not for Katie Taylor, he would have likely been the definitive Irish amateur of the modern era. He turned pro with much fanfare after expressing doubts about the amateur code in which he had become a world champion, and sure enough was fast-tracked to a minor alphabet strap in just fifteen fights.

Wood meanwhile, was in a strange twilight zone between never-would and sort-of-has, returning from a loss of his European featherweight title to surprise in picking up his own minor strap against Can Xu in the summer of 2021. Xu was a prohibitive favourite but was out-boxed for stretches and behind after twelve rounds when Wood stopped him – Conlan, then, was warned.

He posted a warning of his own on the bell of the first round, dropping his man with a winging left-hand creating absolute bedlam at the Nottingham Arena, but Wood seemed clear-eyed despite the close attentions of referee Steve Gray. Wood needed that clarity because the beating he absorbed in the second was substantial. He was battered, moved, and his legs seemed about to leave him. He survived and he chose a range just outside Conlan’s jab and he held it, moving competently, controlling his opponent’s offence, but all while losing rounds. He swallowed slingshot lefts from Conlan all night and somehow boxed his way back into the contest. His watch word was professionalism – Wood was a better professional. He never went away – he stayed in the fight and kept the fight in Conlan’s face. It is worth noting, also, that even in the second round when Conlan thrashed him, Wood insisted on continuing to target the body.

Wood won the tenth; in the eleventh he was hurt to the body by sickening punches but continued to try to position his left foot inside Conlan’s southpaw right and with forty-five seconds remaining the Northern Irishman took his dominance as a signal to make war. This was a mistake. Seconds from the bell, Conan found himself on the ground looking up, immediately insisting he had slipped, but only after having been driven back by that never-erring two-handed attack of Wood.

The roof nearly lifted at the beginning of the twelfth. Let it drown out the “boxing is dead” doomsayers. Wood went one better in the final round, knocking Conlan unconscious and out of the ring.

“I can’t really remember [the knockdown],” Conlan said after the fight. “I’ve got to watch it back. Hopefully it was a good fight for tv.”

It was the best fight fought in Britain since the first Chris Eubank-Nigel Benn contest from 1990.

British Breakthrough Fighter of the Year: Liam Davies

At the beginning of 2021, Liam Davies was a six-round preliminary fighter, blowing out professional losers in what barely passed for a workout. By the end of the year he was fighting over ten rounds and had selected his alphabet on-ramp – now, as 2022 comes to a close, he is the British and European 122lb champion and ranks the tenth best fighter of his weight class in the world according to TBRB. Marc Leach was a significant favourite over Davies when they met this summer over twelve, a first for our British Breakthrough Fighter of the Year, but he looked huge in the ring, dwarfing Leach and apparently stepping into the ring closer to the lightweight limit of 135lbs. Davies looked for the one-two from the first and flashed Leach after mere seconds to take a lead he never surrendered. All three judges made him the winner. Davies boxed through some serious blood after a cut caused by a clash of heads, and although there was a move in some quarters to diminish the significance of this result after what was seen as an unrepeatable lightning start, Davies dispelled these notions by getting back in the ring just a few months later against Ionut Baluta.

Baluta is a well -known name on these shores for his performances against Michael Conlan (a narrow decision loss) and Brad Foster (who he beat over ten in May). It is fair to say that Baluta represents the style that most troubles Davies, a swarming, aggressive, brawling attack that introduces chaos and uncertainty against a fighter who wants to control distance. The result was a lo-fi classic of hard exchanges and urgent tactical tussles but Davies, despite ceding the territory often, won exchanges with speed, quality and composure, to take a clear decision and become perhaps the world’s most unlikely ranked fighter. He currently has nothing slated, but 2023 will be a huge year for him one way or the other.

British Prospect of the Year: Ben Whittaker

There is a fascinating rematch in Ben Whittaker’s future.

Now 2-0 as a professional light-heavyweight, it was in the 2021 Olympic finals of the same weight-class that the twenty-five-year-old ran up against the legendary Cuban amateur Arlen Lopez. Lopez, already an Olympic and World champion, added a second Olympic title and both men turned professional, perhaps to contest the big prizes in the paid code at some point in the future.

That Olympic final exposed Whittaker’s two great weaknesses. Accurate, quick of foot and hand, tall for the weight-class at 6’3”, he was criticised during his amateur career for a low workrate, preferring to admire his work or await a countering opportunity when his natural distance gives him a chance at a lead-jab. If he slips behind, as he did against Lopez, Whittaker has a dearth of power that may prohibit any come-from-behind dramatics, whatever the ruleset.

That’s plenty for his training team to be going on with, but the training team is headed by the man who turned Tyson Fury from a slickster seeking a decision to a monolith who dominates opponents with meaty punches, SugarHill Steward. “I don’t need a yes man,” Whittaker commented on Steward’s appointment. “He’s a teacher of the sport.”

“I like what Ben wanted,” is Steward’s own comment. “He wanted the hard road. He wants to be taught; he wants to learn…I believe this man is going to be a superstar.”

For now, Lopez will have to wait, and has his own progress to worry about, his professional record also just 2-0. If both he and Whittaker keep winning though, these two may meet as superstars somewhere around 2025.

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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

Published

2 days ago

May 6, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Arne's-Almanac-The-Good-the-Bad-and-the-(mostly)-Ugly-A-Weeend-Boxing-Recap-and-More

Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

It’s old news now, but on back-to-back nights on the first weekend of May, there were three fights that finished in the top six snoozefests ever as measured by punch activity. That’s according to CompuBox which has been around for 40 years.

In Times Square, the boxing match between Devin Haney and Jose Carlos Ramirez had the fifth-fewest number of punches thrown, but the main event, Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero, was even more of a snoozefest, landing in third place on this ignoble list.

Those standings would be revised the next night – knocked down a peg when Canelo Alvarez and William Scull combined to throw a historically low 445 punches in their match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 152 by the victorious Canelo who at least pressed the action, unlike Scull (pictured) whose effort reminded this reporter of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – no, not the movie starring Paul Newman, just the title.

CompuBox numbers, it says here, are best understood as approximations, but no amount of rejiggering can alter the fact that these three fights were stinkers. Making matters worse, these were pay-per-views. If one had bundled the two events, rather than buying each separately, one would have been out $90 bucks.

****

Thankfully, the Sunday card on ESPN from Las Vegas was redemptive. It was just what the sport needed at this moment – entertaining fights to expunge some of the bad odor. In the main go, Naoya Inoue showed why he trails only Shohei Ohtani as the most revered athlete in Japan.

Throughout history, the baby-faced assassin has been a boxing promoter’s dream. It’s no coincidence that down through the ages the most common nickname for a fighter – and by an overwhelming margin — is “Kid.”

And that partly explains Naoya Inoue’s charisma. The guy is 32 years old, but here in America he could pass for 17.

Joey Archer

Joey Archer, who passed away last week at age 87 in Rensselaer, New York, was one of the last links to an era of boxing identified with the nationally televised Friday Night Fights at Madison Square Garden.

Joey Archer

Archer made his debut as an MSG headliner on Feb. 4, 1961, and had 12 more fights at the iconic mid-Manhattan sock palace over the next six years. The final two were world title fights with defending middleweight champion Emile Griffith.

Archer etched his name in the history books in November of 1965 in Pittsburgh where he won a comfortable 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson, sending the greatest fighter of all time into retirement. (At age 45, Robinson was then far past his peak.)

Born and raised in the Bronx, Joey Archer was a cutie; a clever counter-puncher recognized for his defense and ultimately for his granite chin. His style was embedded in his DNA and reinforced by his mentors.

Early in his career, Archer was domiciled in Houston where he was handled by veteran trainer Bill Gore who was then working with world lightweight champion Joe Brown. Gore would ride into the Hall of Fame on the coattails of his most famous fighter, “Will-o’-the Wisp” Willie Pep. If Joey Archer had any thoughts of becoming a banger, Bill Gore would have disabused him of that notion.

In all honesty, Archer’s style would have been box office poison if he had been black. It helped immensely that he was a native New Yorker of Irish stock, albeit the Irish angle didn’t have as much pull as it had several decades earlier. But that observation may not be fair to Archer who was bypassed twice for world title fights after upsetting Hurricane Carter and Dick Tiger.

When he finally caught up with Emile Griffith, the former hat maker wasn’t quite the fighter he had been a few years earlier but Griffith, a two-time Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the BWAA and a future first ballot Hall of Famer, was still a hard nut to crack.

Archer went 30 rounds with Griffith, losing two relatively tight decisions and then, although not quite 30 years old, called it quits. He finished 45-4 with 8 KOs and was reportedly never knocked down, yet alone stopped, while answering the bell for 365 rounds. In retirement, he ran two popular taverns with his older brother Jimmy Archer, a former boxer who was Joey’s trainer and manager late in Joey’s career.

May he rest in peace.

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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Published

3 days ago

May 4, 2025

David A. Avila

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Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.

Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.

“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.

Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.

After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.

Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.

One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”

Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.

“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”

Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.

A real fight was happening.

Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.

Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.

In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.

“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”

Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.

In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.

“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”

Espinoza Wins

WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.

“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.

Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.

Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.

It was Espinoza’s third title defense.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

Published

4 days ago

May 4, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.

The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.

The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.

Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.

Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.

A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.

In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.

Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.

Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.

In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.

Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.

Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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