Is British boxing finished?

Ruthless-RKO
Welterweight
Posts: 100679
Joined: 24 Apr 2016, 11:59

Re: Is British boxing finished?

Post by Ruthless-RKO »

Riddick Bowie wrote: 01 Sep 2025, 02:15
Ruthless-RKO wrote: 01 Sep 2025, 00:43
gilgamesh wrote: 31 Aug 2025, 21:53

If I'm not mistaken he was only ever a WBA "Regular" Champion while Wladimir Klitschko was the WBA Super Champion. Meaning, Wladimir Klitschko was the WBA Champion all the while :lol:
Nope. Haye was the only genuine wba title.

Wlad never held the WBA belt til he beat him.

It was after Wlad won the WBA belt that they created the regular.
Sigh.

The WBA regular/super fiasco began all the way back in 2001.

Hopkins had all three belts and yet William Joppy and Howard Eastman fought for what? Their inaugural 'ordinary' belt. November 2001.

Wladimir already beat the WBA champ Ruslan Chagaev.

For some spurious reason the WBA belt wasn't on the line and his ex victim Valuev was elevated to WBA champ, who Haye barely beat.

Wlad was the Man and beat the WBA champ, Chagaev. He later easily relieved Haye of his ill-gotten WBA belt, who blamed it all on his little toe.

I mean in the HW division. the first regular champion was Povetkin. After Haye lost to Wlad.

It went like this.
--------------------------
Jones Jr. vacated the title to stay at light heavyweight.
47 John Ruiz (2)
(interim champion promoted) 24 Feb 2004 – 17 Dec 2005 2

48 Nikolai Valuev 17 Dec 2005 – 14 Apr 2007 3
49 Ruslan Chagaev 14 Apr 2007 – 3 Jul 2008 2

Chagaev tore his achilles tendon and was declared champion in recess.

50 Nikolai Valuev (2)
(def. John Ruiz) 30 Aug 2008 – 7 Nov 2009 1
51 David Haye 7 Nov 2009 – 2 Jul 2011 2
----------------

Chagaev never held the WBA title when he fought Wlad. Although that was considered #1 vs. #2. Chagaev never lost the WBA title in the ring.

We can't say Haye was not the sole genuine world champion. It's just like when anyone vacates a title.
mickey1975
Heavyweight
Heavyweight
Posts: 22935
Joined: 02 Mar 2009, 12:54

Re: Is British boxing finished?

Post by mickey1975 »

DAZN are the problem. Nobody watches it.
Riddick Bowie
Heavyweight
Heavyweight
Posts: 931
Joined: 19 Jul 2003, 07:25

Re: Is British boxing finished?

Post by Riddick Bowie »

Ruthless-RKO wrote: 01 Sep 2025, 03:01
Riddick Bowie wrote: 01 Sep 2025, 02:15
Ruthless-RKO wrote: 01 Sep 2025, 00:43

Nope. Haye was the only genuine wba title.

Wlad never held the WBA belt til he beat him.

It was after Wlad won the WBA belt that they created the regular.
Sigh.

The WBA regular/super fiasco began all the way back in 2001.

Hopkins had all three belts and yet William Joppy and Howard Eastman fought for what? Their inaugural 'ordinary' belt. November 2001.

Wladimir already beat the WBA champ Ruslan Chagaev.

For some spurious reason the WBA belt wasn't on the line and his ex victim Valuev was elevated to WBA champ, who Haye barely beat.

Wlad was the Man and beat the WBA champ, Chagaev. He later easily relieved Haye of his ill-gotten WBA belt, who blamed it all on his little toe.

I mean in the HW division. the first regular champion was Povetkin. After Haye lost to Wlad.

It went like this.
--------------------------
Jones Jr. vacated the title to stay at light heavyweight.
47 John Ruiz (2)
(interim champion promoted) 24 Feb 2004 – 17 Dec 2005 2

48 Nikolai Valuev 17 Dec 2005 – 14 Apr 2007 3
49 Ruslan Chagaev 14 Apr 2007 – 3 Jul 2008 2

Chagaev tore his achilles tendon and was declared champion in recess.

50 Nikolai Valuev (2)
(def. John Ruiz) 30 Aug 2008 – 7 Nov 2009 1
51 David Haye 7 Nov 2009 – 2 Jul 2011 2
----------------

Chagaev never held the WBA title when he fought Wlad. Although that was considered #1 vs. #2. Chagaev never lost the WBA title in the ring.

We can't say Haye was not the sole genuine world champion. It's just like when anyone vacates a title.
The only reason the super/regular rule hadn't been implemented in the heavyweight division was because the year before, in 2000, Lennox vacated the WBA belt rather than fight John Ruiz, which began the decade-long Ruiz/WBA crap-o-rama.

Chagaev was the WBA champ. Wladimir was the Man. Had the WBA not been corrupt that would have been the unification. The WBA instead gave his belt to (Don King-controlled) Valuev who he already beat. Haye barely beat Valuev, then lost widely to the Man, thus underlining my point that his claim to being heavyweight champion is as weak as most of our other 'heavyweight champs'.
tony1234
Heavyweight
Heavyweight
Posts: 2148
Joined: 15 Sep 2009, 10:02

Re: Is British boxing finished?

Post by tony1234 »

mickey1975 wrote: 01 Sep 2025, 03:51 DAZN are the problem. Nobody watches it.
And putting their best stuff on PPV on shows at Riyadh. If the Itauma v Whyte fight had been at the O2 and on SKY or TNT the hype levels would have been off the scale. Instead it's gone unnoticed by most except the hardcore and that won't build a mega star for mega PPV fights.

Joshua had the olympics and Fury got himself over on C5 calling out Bellew and David Price with the big plumber stuff .

The only ones now who've done that are Benn and Eubank
Post Reply