BBN writer Sina Latif Shabgahi reflects back on the year of boxing in 2022
2022 was an eventful year in boxing, but how will we reflect back on it?
As usual, for a boxing community that frequently complains about the lack of the biggest fights and the inconvenience of politics, there was enough heart-stopping moments to remind us all why we fell in love with this most dramatic and gripping of sports during an exciting 2022.
Leigh Wood’s final round knockout victory against Michael Conlan was pulsating from start to finish, with tremendous heart and courage shown by both men in one of the best fights to ever grace British shores.
Just as we thought the beautiful brutality between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano could not be matched, Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall locked horns and produced a momentous fight and occasion worthy of being a flagship carrier of women’s boxing in any era.
In Japan, Kenshiro Teraji stopped Hiroto Kyaguchi in an absolute thriller, and Naoya Inoue stopped Paul Butler in the 11th round to become undisputed bantamweight champion.
In America, Dmitry Bivol, Shakur Stevenson and Jessie “Bam” Rodriguez emerged as current and future pound-for-pound stars, giving the boxing world a preview of the immense talent it will be witnessing in the years to come.
‘Bam’, in particular, was the real breakout talent of 2022. Brilliant southpaw jab, angles, great footwork and feints, the technicalities match his fan-friendly style to make him a real potential future superstar.
Another potential future star and pound-for-pounder in Jaron “Boots” Ennis was inactive for a young contender seeking a welterweight title shot with only one appearance in 2022, but that sole appearance was an immensely impressive blow-out of Custio Clayton, followed by a call-out of Errol Spence Jr, sitting ringside, teasing hopes of a dream future match-up.
In the main event of the same fight card, Jermell Charlo stopped Brian Castano in a real Fight of the Year contender following their thrilling draw in 2021, and Charlo became the first undisputed champion at 154lbs in the four-belt era.
Spence unified his welterweight titles against Yordenis Ugas to create clamour for that generational showdown against Terence Crawford for all the welterweight marbles.
Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez also concluded their historic trilogy with an absorbingly close majority decision victory for Estrada.
Back in the UK, Tyson Fury marked his return to home soil with a dominating performance against Dillian Whyte, which prompted some to start mentioning him in the same sentence as heavyweight legends of the past.
A few months later, Oleksandr Usyk defeated Anthony Joshua in their rematch in Jeddah to ensure a match-up between Fury and Usyk is the fight boxing needs to establish the greatest heavyweight of this era and the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999.
Joe Joyce also became the first man to stop former heavyweight champion Joseph Parker with a savage 11th round stoppage to send shockwaves through the blue-ribbon division and establish himself as a serious contender.
Of course, such is the nature of boxing, it wasn’t all positive and exciting, with controversy never too far away. The Chris Eubank Jr – Conor Benn rivalry, so unexpected and left-field prior to the announcement, had captured everyone’s attention. It was one of those cross-over events that had a rare aura of anticipation surrounding it. Eubank, having never fought below 160lbs as a professional, had to strip himself down to 157lbs, which did not seem entirely fair, but this only further added to the intrigue against a career-welterweight. The adamant belief that being only “60% baby” will suffice and the public showing of his steady diet of cakes and KFC buckets added to the promotion all that much more. The public just could not wait. Of course, the fight was cancelled in fight week following Benn’s failed drug test, and soon after, we found out there had been two of these failed drug tests.
We later discovered the promoters were fully aware of these brace of failed tests whilst glamorously promoting the fight in the lead-up. The British Boxing Board of Control knew too. Perhaps from a legal standpoint, the Board were unable to act, even after prohibiting the event from taking place, but that only further added to the shambolic nature of the situation. In Athletics, Ben Johnson had his Olympic 100m gold medal at the 1988 Games stripped after testing positive. Dwain Chambers failed a drug test in 2003, and was subsequently banned from the sport for two years, and from the Olympic Games for life. In boxing, a risky sport which involves actual physical contact with another individual and one in which the consequences can be life-threatening, there was attempts to find loopholes to stage this fight and charge the public on a pay-per-view show.
There was also the Fury vs Dereck Chisora trilogy catastrophe earlier this month, which involved a fighter punching a clearly outclassed opponent entirely at will for 10 uncomfortable rounds. After the fight, those who made the fight happen stood in the ring, smiling, laughing and clapping, happy after a successful event at a packed 60,000 capacity Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Perhaps more figures in boxing, if they can bring themselves to do so, and if they care about the wellbeing of fighters, should have a read of Tris Dixon’s book, “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” to learn about the consequences of boxing on fighters beyond retirement. This was a match-up that should have never occurred.
Another very recent talking point of the year has been the increased possibility that boxing could be dropped from the 2024 Paris Olympic Games due to poor governance of the sport.
Spence and Crawford failed to come to terms in order to establish the best welterweight of this era, yet again. With young, hungry lions like Ennis and Vergil Ortiz Jr coming through, and Spence outgrowing the weight, with Crawford now 35 years of age, it won’t be long before their time is up, and the 147lbs division will belong to a new crop. Time is running out for that showdown, sadly.
After Joshua’s loss to Usyk in the rematch, Fury called Joshua out and it appeared that, against all odds, just as it looked like hopes for that fight to materialise had vanished forever, the dream all-British heavyweight dust-up we have yearned for so many years looked like it just might be on the horizon. Disappointingly, these talks never amounted to anything, and we got the Fury vs Chisora trilogy instead.
In terms of hopes for 2023, we need boxing to deliver the goods. Fury vs Usyk, Joshua vs Deontay Wilder, Crawford vs Spence, Taylor vs Serrano 2, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs David Benavidez, Ryan Garcia vs Gervonta Davis, Devin Haney vs Vasiliy Lomachenko and Dmitry Bivol vs Artur Beterbiev are all fights we must see. If boxing wants to compete in a packed sporting market, with the UFC consistently producing the goods, the best must face the best. Fans cannot constantly be given iffy bouts with promises of the next one being the much-anticipated fight. Eventually, people will be turned away.
Let’s also hope that Ennis is more active in 2023. Going into 2022, Ennis had voiced his expectations and ambitions to become a world champion with two or three fights this year. That didn’t happen. Ennis is a high risk, low reward proposition for the champions as things stand, but with activity, and being ranked inside the top three by all of the major sanctioning bodies, including No.1 with the IBF, a title shot surely cannot be too far away. The switch-hitting Philadelphian seems destined for the top. At 25 years of age, let’s hope to see a much more active Ennis making serious waves in the sport and fighting for a world title at 147 lbs in 2023.
Also, just one more thing. Ditch the alphabet belts. 17 weight classes and four major sanctioning bodies that award world title belts, with the potential for 68 separate world title bouts, and that’s before counting the ‘Interim’, ‘Regular’ and ‘Gold’ champions. With less belts, genuine world title fights would have more meaning and significance, and as a result, would also be more financially lucrative in the long run. Better fights, and a healthier sport.
2022 had some sensational fights, and it also had its shortcomings. The great fights will be remembered fondly, and the shortcomings provide opportunities to learn from.
BBN Awards 2022
