SAD DAY FOR THE BOXING WRITERS' CLUB
1951 WAS a great year for boxing. Over the water at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, ‘Jersey’ Joe Walcott landed a short lefthook, one of the most famed punches in ring history, to stop arch-rival Ezzard Charles and so become, at the age of 37, the oldest man then to hold the world heavyweight championship; back in London, in front of 18,000 fans packed into the Exhibition Hall at Earls Court, Randolph Turpin scored an even bigger shock, arguably the greatest upset by a British boxer, by having his arm raised after 15 rounds against the legendary ‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson; and the Boxing Writers’ Club was formed by a group of Fleet Street’s finest who wanted to celebrate our sport away from the ring in more convivial surroundings.
Alas, just like Walcott, Charles, Turpin – the first winner of our ‘Best Young Boxer’ award – and Robinson, the Club is about to be confined to a place in boxing’s history book.
Just four months after our 70th Anniversary Betfred-sponsored Dinner at a sold-out Savoy, hailed by many who were there as one of the best Dinners of them all, the Club’s committee has decided to go out on that high.
It was a tough decision, reached only after many hours of deliberation. But the writing had been on the wall for some time. The Club’s roll, which at one time numbered nearly 100 members drawn from the United Kingdom and the United States, had dwindled to just 25 as boxing, like so many other sports apart from football, was pushed to the fringes of coverage by newspapers pummeled by financial woes.
And when no replacements were forthcoming after treasurer Colin Hart, the doyen of boxing writers soon to celebrate his 89th birthday, and secretary David Smith, elected to stand down from office at the next AGM, the committee reluctantly concluded that now was the time to take a graceful bow from the centre of the ring.
Boxing Writers' Club
BOTTLENECK IN SAUDI?
ARE we seeing an early problem with Saudi Arabia taking over boxing?
After the initial excitement, that I felt too, there seems to be something of a bottleneck situation with the top fighters announcing their next contests.
I wonder, as we approach March, why fighters like Terence Crawford and numerous others from divisions other than light-heavy and heavyweight, are yet to announce their next outing? This is pure conjecture but I wonder if some of them are waiting for a date to be made in Saudi, or are stalling on other sites because those sites can't match the wages widely reported to be on offer in the Middle East. Ellis Jones
John Ryder (Former Canelo rival)
It is long overdue. I know he’s been making the 168lbs limit and had a good win against Demetrius Andrade, but he’s been a bit lacklustre at times rather than the monster that he is. No one’s beaten Beterbiev or Bivol, but opponents have caused them problems and someone like Benavidez can go in there and cause an upset for sure.
Liam Davies (EBU champion) Yeah. You can’t wait on these opportunities forever. He’s been at 168lbs long enough and who's to say the fight with Canelo will come. He wants the big fights now; he feels like he’s in his prime and he’s big enough. He has a shout of beating Beterbiev and Bivol. That’s the kind of test they need against someone with that size, power, and ability.
Callum Smith (Former WBA titlist)
As a fighter you want to be a world champion. If one man holds the belts and doesn’t want to fight anytime soon then he can’t really waste his best years and stall his own career for one fight if he feels he’s big enough to move up. He does deserve the fight, but I think it’ll be later down the line when it suits Canelo and it’s on his terms.
Callum Simpson (Super-middle contender) No, I don’t believe he is right. I think he should keep his ambition at supermiddleweight and clean up at that weight. I don’t know how long the wait to fight Canelo would have been, but I reckon it would have been worth it. On the other hand, he can always come back down and fight Canelo when the time’s right for the fight to be made.