Southern Area titles

[Brit Ryan]

Can someone explain to me why there is so little BBBC southern area activity? For example - at Middleweight - the current area champion is steve Ede. As I understand it he hasn't defended his title since he won it in January 2009 and actually hasn't fought since June last year.

[Old bones Ian]

The english and masters titles seem to have taken over from the area titles.

We do have the heavyweight area fight between Larry Olubamiwo v Colin Kenna coming up in May

[whicker]

There are too many titles, thats the simple answer.

[Horse]

Do Area champions get stripped if they win the English or Celtic title?

[Adamj1987]

lee purdy and peter mcdonagh had a good little run as southern area champion

mcdonagh is a 2 weight southern area champ i do belive

[terrez]

Southern Area and other area belts are iconic of British Boxing and I think they should be held in higher regard and be feeders for the English/British.

I do feel there are too many belts in boxing today, having too many belts opens alternative routes to success and allows boxers who should be fighting over the same straps and proving their ability against one another, to sometimes skip each other until later on in their career when there is a better pay day in it?

The masters belt I'm not a fan of, Area belts all the way!

[Brit Ryan]

I am curious about the dearth of southern area fights. Is this because of the amount of money required to pay for referees, officials etc... and also the slightly higher purse. Would be interested in the views of the promoters who post on here (as well as others).

[ourkid1984]

Steve Ede did have a defence scheduled a little while ago against Paul Morby but Ede injured himself just days before the fight. I was hoping that they would reschedule it but haven't as yet.

The other problem is there isn't much in the way of promotions in the south apart from in London.

[saturday_kid]

Southern Area and other area belts are iconic of British Boxing and I think they should be held in higher regard and be feeders for the English/British.

I do feel there are too many belts in boxing today, having too many belts opens alternative routes to success and allows boxers who should be fighting over the same straps and proving their ability against one another, to sometimes skip each other until later on in their career when there is a better pay day in it?

The masters belt I'm not a fan of, Area belts all the way!

Whate he said

[stevegoodwin]

I am a new promoter. The cost of promoting an area title is cheaper than for a Masters Title. The problem is getting people to fight for them. Yassine El Maachi was asked by the Borad to fight for the Light Middleweight title but we could not find anyone in the South who would fight him so the belt stays vacant. He fights for an International Masters title on 24th as Frenchman Bertrand Aloa was the only one who wanted to fight him and obviously this was the only title he could fight for. Yassine still wants to win an Area title but he needs an opponent.

So in answer the Area titles need promoting but we need boxers who want to fight for them.