Boxing

 

British Boxing

Sean Campbell

27.08 - What a state British Boxing is in. There is no way we can keep up with the American fighters of today. We have only one very good fighter and that is Lennox Lewis. In the heavyweight division alone USA have the likes of Tyson, Holyfield, Byrd, Ruiz and McCall. In the other divisions
the Yanks have Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley, Roy Jones Jnr. Vernon Forrest, Floyd Mayweather, the list can go on. In Britain we have a true great in Lennox Lewis and we have Joe Calzaghe and
Ricky Hatton who are just beginning to get recognised in America. We also have Naseem Hamed
but since his loss against Marco Antonio Barrera and his bust up with Emmanuel Steward, people are beginning to lose faith in him.

You only have to look at the British top ten in each division to see how bad we really are. Who has heard of the likes of Keith Long or Glenn Catley? Boxers are considered 'good' if they have a
British title, but that can't be that difficult if you look at the competition.

Maybe our best chance of glory is with the amateur boxers. Having just seen the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, I think we have some great young boxers. Britain had six finalists, five English
and one Welsh, and ten medals in all to celebrate. With television coverage they had the opportunity to show the whole world their talent and skills. This can only give them confidence and the self belief needed to go right to the top. OK the Games didn't have the Cubans and Americans but still, they all did fantastic. Hopefully we Britain will have more glory at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and World Amateur Championships.

One boxer who will not be competing in any more amateur competitions is the quite brilliant David Haye. Still only 21, he won a silver medal at the World Amateur Championships in Belfast and was
tipped to win gold at this years Commonwealth Games but had to withdraw after the first round due to a bicep injury. Haye turned professional after the Commonwealth Games and pundits around the world have tipped young Haye to go on to great thing in the future. But lets not get too excited. Audley Harrison won gold for Britain at the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000, and was tipped to net a world title. But since 2000, Harrison has only fought six times. Although winning them all, he has been less thean convincing against these nobody fighters.

But if we look to the future, with Lottery funding, hard work and a bit of luck, Britain could have many world champions.

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