BoxRec

Is this Britains worst ever period? In like 2 months 4 World champions have lost their belts (although Enzo-Haye was always going to mean one losing belts.)

But, heck, British Boxing has lost so much in such a short time.

A combination of padded records, and having to fight decent fighters is the problem.

Yeah, it has been shit. :(

Twinkle Toes wrote:A combination of padded records, and having to fight decent fighters is the problem.

true in one way, but we moan when our boxers don't face decent challengers, so its good we get to see them fight the best. Win or lose.

whicker wrote:Is this Britains worst ever period? In like 2 months 4 World champions have lost their belts (although Enzo-Haye was always going to mean one losing belts.)

But, heck, British Boxing has lost so much in such a short time.

And Ricky in December also.

And Joe was lucky IMO.

Twinkle Toes wrote:A combination of padded records, and having to fight decent fighters is the problem.

ze hammer hit ze nail

None of those champions losing were really surprising.

Woods won his IBF with a shaky dec. over Glen Johnson.
Maccarinelli won his WBO due to Nelson's retirement - beat Marcelo Dominguez in a gimme.
Witter beat Corley, a man previously beaten by genuine world-class Cotto and Mayweather.

They then lost them to...

Woods against Tarver - experienced, proven world-class southpaw.
Maccarinelli against Haye - best in the world.
Witter against Bradley - hungry, young, unbeaten American.

All about levels. Those guys were never what you'd call TRUE world champions. Not if we're talking number one in the world. That 'seven world champions' line was always nonsense.

It's not too surprising.

Witter, Macca and Woods did very well to pick up splinter belts with the limited talent they had.

Eraserhead wrote:None of those champions losing were really surprising.

Woods won his IBF with a shaky dec. over Glen Johnson.
Maccarinelli won his WBO due to Nelson's retirement - beat Marcelo Dominguez in a gimme.
Witter beat Corley, a man previously beaten by genuine world-class Cotto and Mayweather.

They then lost them to...

Woods against Tarver - experienced, proven world-class southpaw.
Maccarinelli against Haye - best in the world.
Witter against Bradley - hungry, young, unbeaten American.

All about levels. Those guys were never what you'd call TRUE world champions. Not if we're talking number one in the world. That 'seven world champions' line was always nonsense.

Woods won his belt by stopping Rico Hoye.

Eraserhead wrote:None of those champions losing were really surprising.

Woods won his IBF with a shaky dec. over Glen Johnson.
Maccarinelli won his WBO due to Nelson's retirement - beat Marcelo Dominguez in a gimme.
Witter beat Corley, a man previously beaten by genuine world-class Cotto and Mayweather.

They then lost them to...

Woods against Tarver - experienced, proven world-class southpaw.
Maccarinelli against Haye - best in the world.
Witter against Bradley - hungry, young, unbeaten American.

All about levels. Those guys were never what you'd call TRUE world champions. Not if we're talking number one in the world. That 'seven world champions' line was always nonsense.

The only one I was truly surprised with was Woods... I thought Tarver had slipped and I would have (and probably still would actually) favour Johnston to beat him. Johnston in their two fights proved that he was on Tarver's level at least... and I thought Woods had done that vs Johnston.

Although maybe, I should have gone more with my original thought that Woods looked like he was slipping vs Gonzalez in the rematch. Buncey's "career best performance" win was way off key - but I did in the end put it down to Woods wanting to put on a show.

I did think Maccarinelli was going to win, I thought Haye would rock him and then get caught flush going for the kill - but cannot say the result surprised me.

Neither tonight.

Max Molyneux wrote:

Eraserhead wrote:None of those champions losing were really surprising.

Woods won his IBF with a shaky dec. over Glen Johnson.
Maccarinelli won his WBO due to Nelson's retirement - beat Marcelo Dominguez in a gimme.
Witter beat Corley, a man previously beaten by genuine world-class Cotto and Mayweather.

They then lost them to...

Woods against Tarver - experienced, proven world-class southpaw.
Maccarinelli against Haye - best in the world.
Witter against Bradley - hungry, young, unbeaten American.

All about levels. Those guys were never what you'd call TRUE world champions. Not if we're talking number one in the world. That 'seven world champions' line was always nonsense.

Woods won his belt by stopping Rico Hoye.

Oh yeah, that's right. Good win for Woods at the time. World-title winnig fight, though? The fact Hoye received a dodgy dec. win over Montell Griffin beforehand and then since losing to Woods has been flattened by Diaconu suggests Hoye was not all he was cracked up to be. Definitely not in Johnson or Tarver's league.

It's a devastating time for British Boxing and even more so for my home town.
I'm a Sheffield lad and I cannot remember when we last had a time with no World Champ.
Rhodes is the only Sheffield boxer with a title.
At Wincobank now, in my view the finest gym ever, there's only Noble with a Masters title.
I just hope some of the young fledglings will come through and take on the mantle.

twenty six wrote:It's a devastating time for British Boxing and even more so for my home town.
I'm a Sheffield lad and I cannot remember when we last had a time with no World Champ.
Rhodes is the only Sheffield boxer with a title.
At Wincobank now, in my view the finest gym ever, there's only Noble with a Masters title.
I just hope some of the young fledglings will come through and take on the mantle.

Your Rhodes obsession is somewhat tedious
Witter and Woods have only just lost their world titles
Thaxton , Facey, Amar, Fehintola,Fewkes, David ,Khan, Brookes and Saddique have titles
Didn't Brendan Ingle train Rhodes for 20+ years ?

To be fair a lot of our "champs" held paper titles and were not really what I call world champs - I define world champ as the genuine best in the world. Enzo had a paper title IMO - he won a vacant title vs british champ Hobson. Rees should have never got the shot in the first place and was fighting a paper champion - M'baye was beaten clearly by Harris and won a vacant title - Hatton is/was the linear champ. Woods - now thats a bit different - he had beaten Johnson which is a genuine win and proved himself a true contender but Hopkins was the linear champ. I was the most dissapointed with Woods though - really sad to see him go out so meekly against Tarver. Woods is the kinda guy you really root for.

Sorry just read what Eraserhead and Stu said but same thing.

I said in December I had a feeling Boxing was gonna have a bad period. Since Haye beat Mormeck, no Brit has beaten a foreign opponent for a "proper" world title.

I think the UK has had a great run, and our fighters and promoters have proven that we're a force to be reckoned with. Even our "paper titlists" had genuine world class victories (Rees v Mbaye, Macca-Braithwaite, Witter-Harris, Woods-Johnson III) in the last year. 2 of those fights were dominations, one a brutal KO and the other was a classic.

Although they have been dethroned, there's plenty coming though to prevent ppl from feeling too depressed. Khan and Froch are #1 in world title organisations, and there are some cracking prospects and contenders in the UK. While Lockett and Arthur look in for beatings, at least they will be gunning for togh champions.

I'm still not convinced by Froch, especially with the talent 168 has nowadays.

I think British boxing will have to wait 3-4 years for the current crop of Amateurs to make a dent in the pro world.

We may have lost more world title belts in the last few months, but on the other hand Britain have never had as many world titlists at one time before.
2 of the the fighters who lost, Witter and Woods, were in their mid 30s, and probably past their peak