Frank Warren has been busy during this lockdown as hes signed three new boxers who will be fighting on his shows from now on. After the loss of some key members of his stable such as Billy Joe Saunders and Josh Warrington it was expected that he’d make an effort to acquire some more talent. Whats different about two of the new signings is that they are over 30 and have already had 10 or more fights. Normally fighters are signed straight out of the amateurs but its nice to see boxers that work hard on the small hall shows get big promotional contracts.

The first boxer he has signed is Nathan Heaney who is currently 10-0 as a professional. Hes won the Midlands Middleweight title and recently picked up an IBO ranking belt at super middle though i’m sure he can still make middleweight. Hes a good signing and has the potential for at least a British title in his future if not more. Hes also hugely popular which is always a positive in professional boxing.

The second boxer he signed was Ekow Essuman who is currently 13-0 and also the English Welterweight champ. I think this is an excellent signing and i’m not sure why Essuman hasn’t been more sought after by the big promotional companies as hes a very good fighter with a solid amateur background. He was part of Team GB which normally gets you signed to a promoter with a TV deal immediately but he seems to have gone under the radar. Hes already picked up a good victory over Tyrone Nurse a man who beat the current British Champion Chris Jenkins. Essuman said that he has been told he was going to fight Liam Taylor in a final eliminator for the British title which should be a great fight. I think Essuman can win a British title and perhaps progress on to European honors down the line.

The third signing is more of a traditional one for Frank Warren as hes getting Masood Abdulah straight from the amateurs. Abdulah won last years ABA’s (National title) and has also claimed gold at the GB Elite Tri nations tournament. What makes those achievements more impressive is that he had his first boxing match in February of 2017 and only two years later won a national title. He thinks he’ll be more suited to the pro game as he sits down on his shots a lot though we’ll have to see how he does in the ring first. I think hes a good signing and looks like he could be a decent prospect considering how fast hes moved in the amateurs.

I wish all three of them good luck and hope they get as many opportunities as possible now that their with a promoter with a TV deal

When looking back at the last decade in boxing its probably safe to say that Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao was the biggest boxing match to take place. Not in terms of attendance though 16,000 people is still a lot but more in terms of how it reached beyond even sports fans. It generated the most money a boxing match ever has and thats purely down to the fight being mainstream and not just boxing fans or even sports fans.

The fight didn’t live up to peoples expectations and I do wonder if this ended up hurting boxing as many people that watched would have turned their backs on boxing after paying money for a fight which most perceived to be boring. Why would they watch more boxing when even the biggest fight of the decade between two of the best boxers to grace the sport was a disappointment. You can’t really blame them for boxing not being where it used to be as its been on a steady decline as other sports took over and grabbed the imagination of the public. In the UK its still a major sport but in the USA its been slowly pushed out by the NFL and the NBA. Even in the UK they don’t really show boxing on national tv after a few boxers were badly injured in front of the entire nation.

This really was a fight that should have happened years earlier but unfortunately we can say that about a lot of big boxing fights recently which shouldn’t be surprising because boxing is more of a business than a sport.

As theres no live boxing at the moment I decided to pick five fights from the last two years that you can watch while in quarantine.

Starting off with Julio Cesar Martinez versus Jay Harris which took place on the 29th February 2020. This fight was fought at a frantic pace for the full 12 rounds and as it stands will go down as the fight of the year due to the Corona Virus cancelling everything. Martinez is an exciting fighter to watch normally but this was a particularly entertaining fight.

The second fight I’d recommend watching is Gennadiy Golovkin versus Sergiy Derevyanchenko. This was another 12 round war which went back and forth as the fight went on. It was also fought at the highest level between two of the best middleweights on the planet who put their all into the fight.

The third fight I would recommend watching is Patrick Teixeira versus Carlos Adames. This was a fight that I wasn’t expecting to be that good but turned out to be a really good watch. Both showed a lot of heart in the fight and it was very close in the end. I’d like to see them rematch at some point in the future.

The fourth fight to watch is Errol Spence Jr versus Shawn Porter. This was one of the best fights I watched last year and I think its one of those fights that people will go back to watch in 5 , 10 and 20 years it was that good.

The fifth fight I recommend watching is Artur Beterbiev versus Oleksandr Gvozdyk. This was one of the more underrated fights of last year in my opinion though it did open peoples eyes as to how scary of a fighter Beterbiev is.

The WBC are normally ok with who they rank but recently i’ve noticed they are just picking and choosing who they want to put as the number one ranked fighter whether they deserve it or not.

At Light Fly they have Hekkie Budler as the number one contender even though he lost his last fight and hasn’t fought for over a year. He hasn’t done anything recently to be ranked so highly so I don’t understand why the WBC would effectively gift him another title shot. Rungvisai’s last fight was a loss to Juan Francisco Estrada so why is he the number one contender for Estrada’s belt? Don’t get me wrong I want to see the trilogy but I also know this allows the WBC to do what they want with the rankings if they get away with it.

At Bantamweight Nonito Donaire is the number one contender even though he lost his last fight. Yet again i’m happy we get to see Oubaali versus Donaire but this feels like the WBC putting big names in place to fight their champions so they can get bigger sanctioning fees. At super bantamweight Daniel Roman is the number one contender even though he lost his last fight. At welterweight Shawn Porter is the number one contender even though like the others he lost his last fight. At middleweight Sergiy Derevyanchenko is the number one contender even though he lost his last fight. At super middle Avni Yildirim is number one and guess what? he lost his last fight. At heavyweight Deontay Wilder is officially number one even though like the others his last fight was a loss.

Most of the WBC’s number one contenders are people coming off a loss. Even if those losses were in close fights it seems insane to me that these fighters are getting extra opportunities while others wait for their first chance. I think this is purely to maximize sanctioning fees and they also want their belt to be seen as the most prestigious even if their ranking system isn’t fair. I’m going to go more in depth on this tomorrow and also write about how bad their rankings for Light Flyweight are etc.

Jack Catterall had a very good 2018 which saw him become mandatory challenger for the WBO in January 2019. Over a year later and he hasn’t yet had his world title shot and it doesn’t seem like he’ll get it any time soon. The WBO and WBC belts were unified which has left Jose Carlos Ramirez with two mandatory’s. Hes dealing with his WBC mandatory Viktor Postol first which has left Catterall waiting. Ramirez and Postol should have already fought but their fight was cancelled twice because of the Corona Virus. This means Catterall won’t be able to fight for a world title until late this year at best.

Normally mandatorys fight for whatever title they have been ordered for within a year but for Catterall he may have to wait two years and effectively stall his career. Hes lost all the momentum he had as in 2019 he had two tuneup fights and no one really talked about him. He may have to wait until the undisputed fight happens between Josh Taylor and Ramirez as well because Taylor is with MTK and so is Catterall, so they may ask him to step aside while promising him he’ll get to fight for a vacant title afterwards. I expect that Catterall will want to fight a champion rather than getting a vacant title shot so may go ahead with fighting Ramirez late this year or more likely next year at this point.

Its a real shame for the 140 pound division as they were gaining some good momentum off the back of two unification’s and a potential undisputed fight happening late 2020 or early 2021. If they crowned an undisputed champion then it would be the second time there has been an undisputed champion at 140 in the last five years which is a remarkable feat in a sport which struggles to get champions to fight each other. Its also bad for Ramirez who after unifying the division will have had over a year out of the ring due to no fault of his own by the time he next fights.

I feel bad for Catterall who managed to get some good wins under his belt before having his career put on hold while he waits to get his deserved title shot. I also personally believe that Catterall should get his shot before Postol because hes been waiting longer.

Zamora won their first fight by controversial stoppage in what I at least saw as an upset. They were ordered to fight again and by accident their second fight became the biggest fight to take place in April of this year. The Corona Virus stopped all boxing events but Nicaragua still allowed this card to take place with them headlining. This got them a lot of international attention they wouldn’t have normally got.

The fight was very competitive but after 8 rounds Zamora was given the decision on all three judges scorecards. I wouldn’t mind seeing a trilogy because neither of them are prospects or contenders and with the travel bans in place its doubtful they’ll be brought in as opponents any time soon. I was happy that boxing took place but hope this doesn’t lead to any additional illnesses in Nicaragua.