BoxRec

winning the european belt (EBU) used to be a massive event second only to a world title but now with so many "world titles" the E B U belt has lost some of it's glitter .looking at a list of ebu title holders only carl frampton looks like a world class fighter . once all the good fighters would want the british ,commonwealth and euro belts before going for the world belt fighters like mcguigan and honeyghan did it that way now the EBU belt doesn't seem to mean much .

even an old training mate of mine Ted Bami won the EBU belt a few years back with out being in the top 5 in britain how can that be . i mean good luck for ted but european champs used to be guys like cleverly who now pick up a WBO belt instead of defending a EBU belt .

Just about every belt in boxing has lost its prestige mate. Bar one; the lovely lonsdale. Four wins at British title level doesn't come easy.

The European title is like the FA Cup. Less revered since the emergence of other titles but still offers an incentive for the winner (Europa League qualification/a top 10 WBC ranking).

The EBU title has definitly lost its prestige mainly due to the world governing bodies.

In the old days fights like Benn v Eubank would have been for the British and European title.

Mind you, the EBU has never done itself any favours by constantly stripping newly crowned champions.

for me, it's a lottery. I don't like it when you see guys fighting for it and there's a bloke 100 miles down the road, or less, who he doesn't want to fight.

also.....many a time, the European won't be that good. Then every now and then someone good comes along who you've never heard of. It's a lottery. Carl Johanneson had some bad experiences flirting with it, and he was a very solid Brit Champ.

It used to be a guaranteed way of getting into WBC ratings, and defending it over and over would soon see you right up there in the ratings. The intercontinental titles and the WBC international title then came along to give another method of doing this. Now there are so many intercontinental and international titles with all 4 sanctioning bodies that you have to concede it has lost it's luster. Fighters can choose so many other avenues to get rankings if the European title is held by someone really good.