BoxRec

Boxing by Steve Bunce
Independent, UK
30 December 2004

Best boxer in 2004: Amir Khan. Simple really. Started the year as an unknown student in Bolton and ended the year as one of the featured runners-up in the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year. He won a silver medal and nine million people watched him do it.

Best moment: Danny Williams in Louisville in July standing over a fallen and bloody Mike Tyson. It was a fistic fairytale and truly beautiful to watch.

Most significant development: Finally, after what seems like thousands of years, the amateurs and the professionals have agreed to work together. Both codes need each other - and it will be entertaining to watch the officials on fight night. I'd like to say that a bit of honesty will help the relationship, but that would be ridiculous.

Most needed in 2005: Fights, even though that might sound too simple. In Britain we have a serious dilemma because most of our best fighters in every weight avoid each other. In 2004 there were just one or two quality domestic fights, and that has to end. Also, men like Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe, who between them are unbeaten in nearly 80 fights, have to have a real contest.

Boxer to watch: Audley Harrison. Yes, he will be back, and he will finally deliver something a bit more meaty than a weary sound bite. The big fella will be, trust me, a force to be reckoned with.

Strangest and saddest incident: I've left this until the end because it is quite an unbelievable tale. Neil Port has been a boxing trainer for a long time and he's also been a doorman, a bricklayer and a bus driver. He was in the corner when Clinton Woods from Sheffield lost in an International Boxing Federation light heavyweight title fight to Glencoffe Johnson in February. "Porty", as he was known by his friends in Sheffield, was a genuine hard man. Six weeks ago he decided that he wanted to be known as "Penny", and from that moment on he started to wear women's clothes and put his name down for the sex-change operation. His pals in Sheffield stuck by him, which is not surprising considering he was a big lump at 6ft 2in and about 17 stone. More than that, he was their friend. Just before Christmas, Penny was stabbed to death, still wearing his dress, and that, to me, is both the strangest, and undoubtedly the saddest, story in the British boxing world in 2004.

Read that myself. The thing is, The Independent has a much better boxing writer in James Lawton (Their chief sports writer), author of 'Mission Impossible: How Lennox Lewis Unified the World Heavyweight Title'. I've long held him to be the best sports writer in the U.K. He clearly wants to write about boxing, but the demand isn't there for the average reader, which is a shame. For example, Lawton has made his admiration for Miguel Cotto apparent recently, voting him 'Throwback of the year' in his column this Tuesday.

He also wrote some outstanding pieces on Amir Khan during the summer. The guy is a superb sportswriter, and it's a shame he isn't allowed to write about boxing more often. When Lewis was champion, his pieces were placed at the front of the sports section, which I suspect was at his instigating.

It's a sad indictment of boxing in this country, I feel, when this nations best sports journalists (In my view, as I said, Lawton, and the fantastic Hugh Mcillvanney) really want to cover boxing, but the fights aren't there for them to cover: they're being sent to Old Trafford, or Highbury, because the time for huge events in this country seems to have passed. And it shouldn't. I watched Amir Khan this summer alongside a huge group of football fans, and they were captivated: I also watched Olympic showjumping, amongst other minority sports (which is how boxing has to be clasified these days, sadly) next to them, and no-one cared in the slightest. What should be a hugely popular sport in this country is being ruined, for reasons everyone here knows. I hope the people responsible can feel good about making money whilst they destroy the popularity of the sport in this country.

states - a fantastic post. Mainly because I agree with you.

Two of the many reasons why I buy The Independent - Jim Lawton and Ken Jones. Old school and very knowledgeable, they don't put up with shite and they are a great read.

Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote:states - a fantastic post. Mainly because I agree with you.

Two of the many reasons why I buy The Independent - Jim Lawton and Ken Jones. Old school and very knowledgeable, they don't put up with shite and they are a great read.

Exactly. Whilst I buy The Independent for a number of reasons, I'm still a bloke, and turn to the sports pages first. And their writers are second to none. I don't agree with everything they say (indeed, I'd be disappointed if I did), but I can't fault the way they put their cases across.