By Alexander Cruickshanks

Riyadh season and Turki Al-Sheikh have brought us some sensational fights. Canelo vs Crawford, Fury vs Usyk (twice), Ryan Garcia vs Devin Haney in times square. at the top level they have come in and put their money where their mouth is and given us the mega fights that we all wanted to see.

However, the top 1-2 percent of fighters and promoters isn’t all there is to the sport. Boxers coming through local gyms, in Britain work just as hard as the top level fighters. Sometimes even harder as they might have a job they need to support their family all while training almost full time.

On ‘One on One Boxing ‘ hosted by Adam Catterall, he sits down with former world champion Anthony Crolla who said:” For me British boxing is in a major crisis.”

Because of the likes of these incredible, large and extravagant events the local shows where young fighters make their names in the local halls have been greatly diminished. By the end of this calendar year there are due to be seven major boxing events in the UK whereas in 2016 there were 13 in that year. The amount of fights we are seeing on British soil is falling and with more and more investment in the sport from Turki it may get even lower.

On the positive side as aforementioned we are getting super fights which have British boxers. Joseph Parker vs Fabio Warldey is next month, Moses Itauma, the next big thing in the heavyweight division is British and is still yet to choose his next fight. Boxing promoter Dev Sahni spoke to me while I was working for ESBR Boxing and still believes British boxing is in a good place.

However, Elliot Scott of ESBR Boxing believes there are major issues with the big televised events saying:

” I think that a lot of the big fights are happening in Saudi. I understand that the likes of Beterbiev amd Bivol, Fury Usyk, those fights can only happen in Saudi becasue that’s where the money is” and added

“However a fight like Johnny Fisher vs Dave Allen is probably the best example I can give. Johnny Fisher is the best ticket seller in the UK. Dave Allen is a very well known fighter a very popular fighter. That fight should be happening in the UK. But it’s happening in Saudi where you’ve got a not very good atmosphere.”

In terms of Sahni’s points about the fights he used as an example Scott suggests:

“I think the fact he had to look into the past at Josh Taylor’s fight as an example tells a story. He can’t really look forward because there’s not much to look forward to“

As a final point he mentions how,

“He brought up Joseph Parker vs Fabio Wardley which is fair enough that’s a good fight. At the same time that fight costs £25 to watch on a platform that you already need to pay to subscribe to. These fights are not accessible.”