Boxing is a sport of extremely fine margins.
You’ll often see the ultra-cliché ‘boxing is not a game’ printed boldly across some meme of a battered Ruslan Provodnikov. Now, whilst it doesn’t share its scoring system with golf; or mirror the risk involved in track-and-field; boxing is a game. It has winners and it has losers.
Last night, Matchroom Boxing’s rough diamond Lewis Ritson suffered defeat in front of a partisan Geordie crowd whilst attempting to capture the European title. Less than eighteen months ago, he’d been edging dangerously close to throwing in the towel, fed up with small hall boxing and the rigours of ticket-selling to cover personal costs and pay for his own opposition.
A few hundred miles away at London’s iconic York Hall, adopted Airdrie-based monster Martin Bakole was given the headline slot on terrestrial television. He was tasked with facing proven amateur and former cruiserweight World title challenger Michael Hunter. Bakole has come from Congo to chase his dreams, creating a stir across gyms in the United Kingdom and becoming one of the main sparring partners for Anthony Joshua.
Last night, however, he was bludgeoned by Hunter, a man who weighed in three-stone lighter than the Cyclone Promotions heavyweight.
Now, the word prospect literally means; ‘a person regarded as likely to succeed’. Simple, right? Sadly within British boxing we encounter various problems with what seems like an elementary concept…
‘The come-up’
Professional boxing is experiencing an increase in public interest, mainly due to high-profile figures such as Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. Boxers turning professional are doing so mainly on smaller promotions, fighting in leisure centres or in small theatres. If you attend these shows, like I do, you’ll notice the round-robin of Eastern European names appearing on the away corner’s team sheet. If it’s not those fighters, then it’s those trusty, durable British boys who were able to travel on any given night. Now, that’s okay. We need those guys.
For every meaningful victory on a young fighter’s record, I assure you there are seven or eight completely void of purpose. I’ve recently noticed fighters battling the same journeyman, as many as three times within their first ten contests. How are consumers supposed to get behind the progression of that young man or woman? When it comes to the acid-test, how can we continually be surprised when these undefeated ticket-sellers can’t cut the mustard? It doesn’t seem the most effective measuring-stick.
Martin Bakole had beaten DL Jones, Ali Baghouz and Kamil Sokolowski in his previous three outings. Did he win them all? Of course he did. The collective average BoxRec rating of the three is a whopping 274th in the World. We’d heard whispers from coaches and managers, stories of Bakole schooling fighters on trips to London and of course, the brash and over-stated social media workings of his trainer and manager Billy Nelson.
When the fighters returned to their dressing rooms after tonight’s contest, celebrations ensued on one side. The other side packed up and prepared to travel back to North Lanarkshire, shattered and despondent.
‘The hype machine’
Lewis Ritson is a tough, hard-working fella who has gritted his teeth and turned his life around. Let’s not overlook his achievement in winning the Lonsdale belt outright in record time, against decent, domestic opposition. I like him. I think he has an excellent attitude and he’s an exciting fighter, hence his undeniable attraction in the North East.
Ritson’s best win, arguably, was Scott Cardle. A former British champion himself, Cardle has recently been off the boil and fought with Kamikaze tactics in their clash, being stopped in the second round. No problem, that was his game-plan and it never paid off.
Why though, after beating Cardle, Robbie Barrett, Joe Murray and Paul Hyland Jr, are we calling Ritson the ‘Geordie Golovkin’? Why is he being compared to Lucas Matthysse at his destructive best?
Before facing Robbie Barrett, Ritson had faced nobody of note. Really, look it up. Now that’s not his fault – but to stir up such furore and have such high expectations of a man after a few excellent domestic wins seems unfair. We’ve set ourselves up for his disappointing result in Newcastle. We expected too much. People were claiming that he would ‘smash Luke Campbell’ and that World titles seemed inevitable, based on victories over those three opponents. It’s tough at the top.
‘Levels to this game’
As British boxing suffers two defeats it probably wasn’t expecting, is it time to assess the margin of class between our up-and-coming fighters and those of say; Mexico, USA, Russia, Ukraine or Japan? Those nations are producing champions consistently, at various weights. Are we holding onto our fighters too long, building up paper records before feeding them to the sharks?
The word prospect is thrown around like a rumour. The level of risk involved in building a fighter’s career currently, by top promoters and broadcasters, is minimal. If they can re-hash old opponents within the stable, they’ll do it. Look at Sean Dodd. If they fancy continuing to build the hype and reaping the rewards of media exposure or ticket sales, they’ll put the fighter on the card against a sub-standard opponent – early, to avoid widespread criticism. Look at Anthony Fowler.
It seems we need a re-assessment of who are truly our boxing prospects, and who are young fighters simply learning and making their way up the ladder. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s all part of the process. However, through excessive hype, poor matchmaking and a seemingly slower progressive style, our prospects are being derailed, one-by-one.
Article by: Craig Scott
Follow Craig on Twitter at: @craigscott209