Reflections – 2026 has begun really, really well… but will it continue?
I may walk funny, but I don’t have crystal balls… Donald C Stewart reflects on starting 2026 with a bang, and looks ahead to the rest of the year
Happy New Year, or as we say up here in wintry Scotland, a Guid New year tae ane an aw!
2026 is no longer on the horizon, it’s with us. And with that, as we luxuriate in the performance of Dalton Smith, having become the WBC World super lightweight world, meaning that we now have five male world champions holding belts across the spectre of the five awarding bodies; the women have four.
2026 has begun really, really well. Will it continue?
I’m not a great one for predictions or resolutions however, I have had a little think about what it is that I believe might be hot topics over the next 12 months.
And so here they are…
Let’s start with the broadcasting landscape.
There’s a couple of things in here that I think are going to be interesting. Firstly, Sky. They have continued to offer boxing online in terms of their written product. They have also continued their Toe 2 Toe podcast, meaning that I think Sky are still interested in returning to boxing. I know that in Boxing Scene, they’re suggesting a couple of casualties like Top Rank disappearing so I wonder if Sky see an opportunity or will remain focused on the UK?
But who are they going to tie up with?
I also think, at least one promoter is going to be headline, amongst the boxing media, news. Whether that be BOXXER unable to fulfil the BBC contract, unlikely, or Wasserman Boxing moving away from Misfits – hopefully – or Matchroom selling, as it was suggested in the Netflix documentary, possible? I don’t know, but the landscape has become very comfortable.
The inclusion of Dana White, along with Turki Alsheikh is likely to be a part of that.
I have consistently been against the involvement of the Saudi Arabians in boxing, in fact, against the Saudi Arabians in any form of sport at all. I do believe that the long held appalling human rights records has led them to see sport as a way of redeeming themselves with loads of money like a 21st Century tragic rather than a 1980’s comedic character on the world stage.
Boxing along with other sports has fallen over itself to indulge them. I think that as the months and years go on we are going to see that emergence being increasingly questioned, but for the moment and for the next 12 months I am fascinated to see what’s going to happen with Dana White and boxing. How are Matchroom, Queensbury and the rest going to respond?
That leads me neatly to small hall boxing. There are two camps here. One camp sees it in trouble, and the other camp sees it thriving. The small hall promoters are the ones who are complaining that they are finding it increasingly difficult to make any kind of profit out of it. I think that that is going to increasingly be the case. The same pressure exists further down the betting industry, where independent bookmakers in the UK operate on thinner margins than the groups that dominate the high street.
The fact that the number of headliners that are being taken away to Riyadh Season to become undercard fights is being keenly felt within the small hall scene. I can see a number of small hall promoters giving up the ghost even though their love for the sport is something they constantly tell us about.
As for boxers themselves, I think the obvious two big names which are likely to answer questions are Moses Itauma and Katie Taylor. One, I think is going to be a world champion, and the other will retire.
The heavyweight scene should sort itself out – if it ever has done before – and Oleksandr Usyk will pick his fight with Deontay Wilder and then sail off out the ring.
AJ-Fury? I know that my colleague Tim Rickson has suggested that there have been rumblings and news from his family that AJ has retired himself, following the death of his close friends. Who can blame him?
Along with Katie Taylor and Usyk, they have got nothing left to prove. As for Taylor, even a homecoming fight at Croke Park might not alter that decision. And for me, she is the GOAT. I think staying in her lane, proving that the two minute rounds as well as staying at the weights that she has been in and around for all of her career has proven that she is a generational great.
Finally, I think that Jake Paul’s influence will wane, though we will probably see him return to the ring at some point. I think the Netflix numbers of his fight against AJ, against those they got for his daft exhibition/“real contest” with Mike Tyson demonstrates that there is now a downturn in interest. It might still be a higher level of eyes on the sport than headliners elsewhere, but I do think MVP have some serious business to concentrate on in women’s boxing, which is more worthy of their undoubtedly skilled attention.
I really hope that he doesn’t just put his money where his mouth is, by calling out another big men’s fight for himself, but what they put their eyes where the money has been spent and build a bigger and deeper stable of very good female fighters to start as the next generation as fighters as Katie Taylor and Claressa Shields etc. start to wander off into their own sunset.
I’ve got every expectation that every single prediction that I have made is going to become untrue because I’m absolutely terrible at them. However, I can see myself over the next 12 months and 50 odd weeks coming back to each one of these several times to reflect upon whether or not the boxing fraternity has found a way of dealing with all and each.
2026 has started well and I cannot wait for the rest of this month setting the agenda for the 11 months thereafter.
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