Month: October 2025

Wardley defeats Parker in thudding brawl

In a pulsating encounter in London, Fabio Wardley of Ipswich found a way to stop Kiwi Joseph Parker in the 11th round and in doing so positioned himself as Oleksandr Usyk’s next opponent for the Undisputed Heavyweight title. Wardley’s rise from the anonymity and peculiarities of White-Collar boxing to the cusp of such opportunity is both romantic in its appeal and astonishing in its reach.  

He boxes in a way that both highlights his lack of Amateur experience and demonstrates strong, natural intuition and a sense he is empowered by liberation from any pursuit of technical excellence. The evidence of tough moments, spread across several of his recent fights at increasingly elevated levels, substantiates the idea that technical proficiency, while admirable, is not the sole arbiter on Fight Night. Wardley, in another of his erudite post-fight interviews, spoke of his resilience of spirit and aggressive style that cares little for prevailing convention and the reliability of his instinct and willingness to trade.  

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Four forgotten British Heavyweight World title challenges

First published at Roundtable

As Fabio Wardley prepared for the weekend and his fight with New Zealand’s smiling bomber, Joseph Parker, he becomes the latest British puncher to challenge for a version of the world title. His, like many others, is a tale of the unexpected given the Ipswich man had no Amateur fights and started his pugilistic life on the ‘White-Collar’ circuit. 

History fondly remembers the great British heavyweights of course; Lennox Lewis, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury – all ultimately successful on the world stage – chief among them. Henry Cooper, famous for his brave but doomed challenges to Muhammad Ali, is still revered, along with the eternally popular Frank Bruno who won the title at the third attempt.  

But there are British heavyweights who challenged for versions of the world title, the memory of which often remains trapped in the pages of time.  

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Dave Allen. Good fighter.

First published at BigFightWeekend.com

Inside Dave Allen, he of the self-deprecation and tales of humility, regret and over hand right, lives a capable heavyweight. One of much greater boxing acumen than his lack of preparation invariably exposes to the watching public. Much of his enduring box-office appeal is founded on whimsical charisma, improbable durability and, well, man-child Yorkshireness. An area of England known for its grit, community and truculence.  

The son of a professional fighter, Allen has grown up in the shadows of a punch bag. He has seen all that the sport can offer and steal away; the broken promises, the sweat, tears, success, the failures, the damage and the indifference of everything in between. 

This weekend a refined, more physically prepared incarnation of Dave Allen the fighter, tackles the man mountain Arslanbek Makhmudov at the Sheffield Arena over 12 rounds. It won’t be the first time the Doncaster born slugger has been presented with an opportunity to catapult himself from the comedy fringes toward more significant opponents, but it may be the first time he’s appropriately prepared. 

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Boxing. Home to heroes and hope.

Article first appeared at BigFightWeekend

As footage showed Ricky Hatton’s funeral cortege rolling through Manchester on Friday, blacked out limousines shining like poured Guinness, the route was lined by Mancunians clapping and cheering, it was natural to wonder whether boxing would ever see his like again.

A monochrome image of him in retirement, his fighter’s frame made stout by middle age, appeared above the ring the following night in Sheffield for the show topped by Dave Allen and his heavyweight slug fest with Arslanbek Makhmudov. Applause accompanied the boxing custom of striking the ring bell 10 times when a former champion has passed away.

I’m sure I could hear Ricky saying Kostya Tszyu in that broad accent of his in the fog of my mind and the image of him entwined with his trainer Billy Graham in that moment of absolute joy when he’d beaten the veteran champion swirled into view. Hatton beat many capable men in a distinguished career, but Tszyu remained his pinnacle.

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40 Years on from Murphy v Mutti double knockdown

Larry Hazzard counts over Murphy and Mutti as both hit the canvas in the 12th round of their 1985 fight.

Article first appeared at BigFightWeekend.com

The moment Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed fell to the floor simultaneously in final round of the fictional Rocky 2 rematch, Balboa rising to beat the count and win the title, fight fans could be forgiven for a wry smile at Stallone’s improbable script writing.  

But just five years later, on October 19th 1985, Chicago’s Leroy Murphy and Zambian Chisanda Mutti both found themselves on the canvas in the 12th session of their 15 round IBF Cruiserweight title fight in Fontvieille, Monaco.  Murphy, who had been the favourite pre-fight and was promoted by former contender Ernie Terrell and the then up and coming Cedric Kushner, was behind on all three judges’ scorecards at the time of the double knockdown. 

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Liddard outsmarts Conway for British title

As is customary for British title fights at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, a venue situated in the heart of London’s East End and steeped in fight history, Kieron Conway and George Liddard offered a compelling fight for those who gathered, and the handful of customers DAZN hasn’t yet ostracised. 

Champion Conway entered the ring as the tried and trusted, Liddard as the upstart in a rush. That was how the fight was characterised. Conway appeared the bigger man, at 29 and having matured in to the classic Middleweight division. His young challenger, still just 23 and reckoned to be the youngest ever champion was he to succeed, sported a D’Artagnan moustache and a Jack Nicholson grin. 

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Conway faces upstart Liddard – British title fight

Article first appeared at BigFightWeekend.com

In the unrehearsed punk opera of boxing, beguiling and bewildering such as it is, lurching from the sublimity of Terence Crawford’s victory over Saul Alvarez to the absurdity of Tank Davis versus Jake Paul, there is much to be said for listening to an old standard or two to nurture the soul. 

A British and Commonwealth Middleweight title fight at the York Hall, Bethnal Green is just such a song. Northampton’s Kieron Conway, 23-3-1 (7) enters as the champion with much at stake. Across the ring will be the ‘Billericay Bomber’, George Liddard, he of the Olly Murs grin and the urgency of youth. 

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Money. Lewis, Usyk and Jeremy Bates

Article first published at BigFightWeekend.com.

Usually, it comes down to money. That is the ‘why’ of every fighter’s inability to retire at the zenith of their respective careers, with their personal peaks, however modest, conquered. Pugs and champions in their thirties and forties have always scrambled to resist the slope that waits beyond that crescendo since first they donned gloves.  

Lennox Lewis spoke to Sky Sports this week about his hope that Oleksander Usyk would follow his own rare example and depart the sport at the very top.  

“When a guy retires, it’s really down to him. He’s got to feel that push that he wants to retire.” Adding, “I would say to him to retire at your own time but retire on top. Like I did.” 

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There are no more miracles. Ali and Holmes 45 years on

Ali and Holmes. The sad decline of Ali exposed to the world.

Article first published at BigFightWeekend.com

October 2nd 1980. The Last Hurrah.  

45 years ago, Larry Holmes beat up his hero. A fight which sickened those watching on who loved his hero too. Muhammad Ali had reached into his deep reserves of magic and found there were no more miracles to summon. Aged 38, Ali’s feet were now slow, his energy sapped by a decade of grueling encounters with Frazier, Foreman and Norton, weight drained by misuse of Thyroid pills and the first creep of neurological demise becoming ever more evident. Ali was no longer the quicksilver punisher of the 1960s, the lion-tamer of the early 1970s or even the stubborn old warhorse of 77 and 78.  

That he would fight again a year later against Trevor Berbick ghastly evidence that those who loiter in a champion’s orbit are rarely there for love.

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