Stoke's Chris Edwards and Grimsby's Wayne Bloy line up for the vacant British flyweight title in Stoke on January 23.
Edwards has already held a British title - at super-flyweight - but his reign was short-lived and Doncaster's tall Andy Bell relieved him of the Lonsdale Belt in March last year in Barnsley on a unanimous decision. Both Bloy and Edwards have lost to Bell; Bloy, on a 10-round decision in Nottingham in December 2007. Bloy did outscore Bell, narrowly, in a four-rounder in Yorkshire in 2005.
Anyway, the squat, rugged, vastly experienced Edwards had outscored Doncaster's Jamie McDonnel to win the title in Wigan in December 2007 - a man who holds two wins over Bloy - but then came Bell, who floored Edwards in the third round and was generally the sharper man.
The same could be argued of Bloy, six years younger than Edwards at 26 and much taller. The former kickboxer is a quite inexperienced 5-3-1 (0), however, and on home turf Edwards has to be fancied to force his way to a decision and a second British title.
Also on the bill, Gary Buckland and Craig Docherty meet over 10 rounds for the Celtic Area lightweight title. Buckland holds the title, which he won with a decent 10-round decision over tough Scot Martin Watson in Newport in 2007. At 22 the Welshman looks a good prospect, although he looked a better one before Brighton's Ben Murphy outscored him (narrowly) at York Hall in a six-rounder in Portsmouth last June. Buckland lost his unbeaten record after 14 straight wins that night. This is his first fight since.
Docherty is 29, a pro over 10 years, but the former Commonwealth super-featherweight champion from Glasgow has been rebuilding some momentum and sharpness. He outscored Isle of Wight trier Jay Morris last year in Glasgow, his fourth fight since returning from a two-year absence in May 2007, three of them wins. Shopworn, he ain't.
This one could be tight but Buckland will surely be smarting from the loss of his unbeaten tag and looks to have the edge.
New English lightweight champ Scott Lawton defends against Henry Castle in a fine 10-rounder on the big Potteries bill.
Local man Lawton won the title last month in Nottingham with a sharp cuts stoppage of previously unbeaten Walsall banger Martin Gethin in nine rounds. Gethin struggled to come to terms with the height, the reach and the boxing ability of the clever Lawton, who has lost only to Amir Khan, Jon Thaxton, Dave Stewart and Alan Temple in 30 contests - all quality operators. Scott is a quality operator himself, currently on a winning run of five since Khan halted him in four rounds in October 2007. He lacks real power, though.
Salisbury man Castle does bring power at 19-4 (11) as he showed when he blew away faded Luton force Graham Earl in 69 seconds three months ago at York Hall to earn this shot. He also holds a quick win over Ryan Barrett. Like Lawton, Castle is on a winning run of five since unbeaten Londoner Ian Wilson halted him in five rounds in Dagenham in March 2007 (body shots). Henry has been upended a few times and looks remarkably similar to that man Gethin - dangerous yet mechanical.
Lawton is thus the pick.
Lancashire fireball Mark Thompson takes on Ghanaian southpaw Philip Kotey in yet another solid scrap on the bill, a 10-round final eliminator for Craig Watson's Commonwealth welterweight title.
Thompson has reeled off seven wins (five early) since South Africa's bigger Vincent Vuma stopped him in eight exciting rounds in Wigan in 2007. Thompson only took the fight after Salford light-middleweight star Jamie Moore pulled out, injured, and it remains the Heywood man's lone career setback to date (in 19 fights). At welterweight the 27-year-old Thompson poses a threat to anyone.
Kotey comes over with a solid 19-4-1 (12) tab and has lost to a South African himself, Joseph Makaringe, in 11 rounds in South Africa back in 2005, which evens things up on paper. Kotey, 27, is bound to probe strong, well-conditoned, durable and proud in the classic Ghanaian mould, and Thompson will probably have to settle for a good points win.
WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev returns to the ring in February in Germany in a 12-rounder against Costa Rica's unbeaten but untested Carl Davis Drumond.
Chagaev's title is not at stake. In fact the unbeaten Hamburg southpaw does not hold the full title any more. He goes by the ghastly tag of 'WBA champion in recess' because an Achilles tendon injury forced him on the sidelines last summer, and Russian man mountain Nikolai Valuev picked up the WBA belt in August with a 12-round decision over Puerto Rican bore John Ruiz. Such is the confusing state - just the state - of boxing in the modern era.
Anyway, Chagaev, who has beaten both Valuev and Ruiz, is guaranteed a crack at Valuev by the end of June and this constitutes an obvious and much-needed warm-up for the 30-year-old who has not fought since he outscored Britain's own Matt Skelton in Dusseldorf in January last year.
To Drumond, a 33-year-old with with only one appearance outside Costa Rica as a pro: an eight-round decision in America. Drumond's 26-0 (20) record looks good, and he obviously carries a bit of a dig, but he has feasted on a diet of blown-up cruiserweights and looks up against it. If "White Tyson" Chagaev can beat the hairy Valuev and the Bedford Bear, he can certainly beat the unknown Central American.
Nate Campbell defends his IBF & WBO lightweight titles against mandatory (IBF) challenger Ali Funeka in the States on February 14.
Campbell, a sharp-hitting stylist from Jacksonville in Florida, has turned his career round after a sticky patch earlier in the decade, when he scored just three wins out of eight. He could always whack, as his 32-5-1 (25) record testifies, but his dedication was not always total and he 'blew' a few fights he should really have won. Then he reached 30; time was running out for the man known as "The Galaxxy Warrior". Campbell knuckled down and worked his way up the rankings with a series of thrilling, imposing wins which culminated in an upset split decision over previously unbeaten Juan "Baby Bull" Diaz last March in Mexico for those two major world belts.
Campbell, now almost 37, showed all his experience as he dealt coolly with the early raids of the burly Diaz and dominated the later rounds. He won clearly, regardless of the split scores. It was a brilliant display from the new champion which ultimately scared off his first challenger, Joan "Lil' Tyson" Guzman, in September in the States. Initially, the unbeaten and usually brash Guzman tried to scupper the fight by coming in overweight. Campbell agreed to fight him at catchweight. Then Guzman pulled out altogether, a few hours before the fight, claiming he was unwell. Campbell lost out on a $300,000 payday.
Funeka might have to pay for all that. The once-beaten visitor, nicknamed "Rush Hour", hails from the coastal city of East London in South Africa and has never fought outside his home country up to now. He can fight. He earned his shot by crushing good American Zahir Raheem in four rounds last July and brings a hot 16-fight winning streak (14 early) to the challenge. Only Mzonke Fana has beaten him in 33 outings: on a 12-round decision way back in 2002. Fana, who had to climb off the floor that night, went on to lift the IBF super-featherweight belt.
The 31-year-old Funeka is obviously a threat but that lack of overseas experience might come back to haunt him. Campbell has to be the pick.
Unbeaten local star Don Broadhurst defends his Commonwealth super-flyweight title against Doncaster's former British champion at the weight Andy Bell in Birmingham on February 28.
Broadhurst won the title (the inaugural title) in October in Birmingham with a dazzling 12-round decision over Ghanaian iron man Isaac Quaye, who soaked up everything the classy, two-fisted, 25-year-old Don could throw at him. The new champion made the leap from eight to 12-rounders look easy. As an amateur Broadhurst picked up an ABA title and a Commonwealth Games gold medal. He looks set for at big future at 9-0 (1).
Bell will have his own plans, of course. This is a quick chance for him to get right back up there after dropping his Lonsdale Belt to Bristol's experienced and talented Lee Haskins on a 12-round decision in Wigan three months ago. Still only 23, Bell went into the Haskins defence, his first defence, on a hot seven-fight winning streak. He had won the British title, flooring and outpointing squat Stoke brawler Chris Edwards in Barnsley last March, but in the event southpaw Haskins proved a bit too clever in a messy, forgettable affair. Nevertheless, it is one of those experiences a young man can learn from. Bell is probably the best opponent Broadhurst has fought to date, although home turf gives the champion the edge.
Former WBC light-welterweight champion Junior "Hitter" Witter targets the big names again in a 12-rounder with unbeaten American southpaw Devon Alexander...
The winner gets a fight with Tim Bradley or Kendall Holt, if not with Witter's big domestic rival Ricky Hatton, inevitably.
Witter dropped his WBC title to Bradley on a narrow decision last year in Nottingham. The Bradford puncher had held the title for two exciting years and went in as favourite against the unbeaten but untested Californian but spent much of the night loading up as "Desert Storm" Bradley proved clever and sporadically dangerous. He dumped the usually elusive Witter on the seat of his pants in the sixth round with a big overhand right and in the end that proved the difference. One judge had Witter winning by three rounds while the other two gave it to Bradley by 114-113 and 115-113 respectively.
It was Witter's first loss since Zab Judah had turned the trick in 2000 and snapped a 21-fight winning streak (17 early).
Witter can certainly whack but he will be 35 by the night of the fight and the youngsters are rapidly snapping at his heels. Bradley was 24 when they fought; Alexander is just 21 (all of 22 by the night of the fight). He is almost young enough to be Junior's Junior.
From St. Louis in Missouri, Alexander turned pro barely past his 17th birthday in 2004 and in his 14th outing, still only 20, trounced fellow southpaw DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley over 12 rounds at Madison Square Garden last year, the man Witter had trounced over 12 rounds to win his WBC title at the Ally Pally in North London in 2006. Witter, it must be said, knocked much of the ambition out of Corley that night. Corley also lost to Londoner Ashley Theophane last year. Nevertheless, Alexander did well to lick such an established 'name' at such a tender age.
Theophane was 27.
Ranked No. 1 at light-welterweight by the WBC (Witter is No. 2), Alexander brings ambition, fast hands and boxing skills at 17-0 (10), if not a huge punch like Witter. He dominated fading Panamanian Miguel Callist in a recent 12-rounder in St. Louis and hurt Callist in all of the later rounds but failed to stop him, although he did have Callist down in the last. Alexander, incidentally, ventured all the way to China in November and stopped an unknown Korean in four rounds. He is not totally untested abroad.
For his part, Witter, 37-2-2 (2), came back from the Bradley disappointment with a crushing third-round knockout of outgunned Argentine Victor Hugo Castro at York Hall in November. Despite his age he looked as quick, as sharp and as unorthodox as ever, uncorking those heavy shots of his from unexpected angles, from either stance. His best win to date is probably a seven-round knockout of Guyana's "Vicious" Vivian Harris in defence of his WBC title in September 2007. Harris was poleaxed by a single left hook. (Bizarrely, Harris is ranked above Witter in the boxrec world rankings.)
One has to say that "Hitman" Hatton has never really fancied a set-to with Witter. The fight, a 'natural' between the aggressive, frenetic Hatton and the slick, counterpunching Witter, struggled with the inevitable boxing politics and the genuine personality clash between the two men. When Witter's trash talk descended into accusations of cowardice on the part of Hatton, it antagonised Hatton enough to walk away for good, all the way to the United States. Hatton is a friendly, open, down-to-earth guy; Witter, prickly, arrogant and aloof.
Alexander looks like a great prospect, not dissimilar to Bradley prior to Witter, but he is flattered by his top ranking and one wonders if he is ready for a step such as this. Witter's greater experience and power, coupled with a style the American will surely never have encountered before, a dangerous style, make him favourite to punch out a late stoppage.