- The price of being a boxing fan
Loving this sport takes a toll, on the heart and the wallet. It’s not cheap being a boxing fan. Pay-per-view has left its imprint on the fabric of the sport this year. The price to watch Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquaio at home in the US was just under $100 and Britain had four Box Office events in total in 2015, all events that were hard to miss.
- Joe Joyce’s doomed heroics
Qualifying for the Olympic Games is a tough, tough business. GB super-heavyweight Joe Joyce put in some epic performances this year, only losing once in the World Series of Boxing, winning the inaugural European Games and scoring a bronze medal at the World championships. Epic stuff but Joyce is still without an Olympic place. At these Worlds a super-heavy needed to win the gold medal to qualify for Rio 2016. Joyce though is expected to qualify next year.
- The best missing in action
Andre Ward only boxed once in 2015, an easy victory over Paul Smith. Guillermo Rigondeaux only boxed once, against unheard of Drian Francisco. Some of the most talented fighters have been missing in action this year.
- Vasyl Lomachenko’s opposition
Lomachenko hasn’t been hugely active, he’s fought twice, relatively standard for a big name world champion, but his opposition has been humble in the extreme, Romulo Koasicha and Gamalier Rodriguez have not been setting the world on fire and given Lomachenko’s talent – he won a world title in just three pro fights – he ought to be in unification or at least big name fights.
- Ageing stars
Many of the biggest names in the sport have reached the end of the line. Floyd Mayweather, boxing’s biggest attraction, has announced his retirement. Manny Pacquiao expects to have just one more fight. In the UK Carl Froch retired. The next generation is going to have to unearth its new stars now.
- Fragmentation of heavyweight titles
We were so close to having a unified heavyweight champion of the world. For a glorious few moments, Tyson Fury had three of the titles, Deontay Wilder had the other but before you could say unification the IBF stripped Fury of their belt and will crown a third ‘world’ champion in January.
- The campaign against Tyson Fury
Tyson Fury has made offensive remarks. But it’s one thing to be offended and to challenge, argue with or criticise his views and another to try to have Fury banned from awards, denigrate his achievement or, bizarrely, complain to the police.
- Lack of opportunity for female boxers
2016 will be a big year for female boxers, with their World championships, Olympic qualifiers and the Olympic Games taking place in a packed few months. It’s a great shame then that outside of the European Games there have been no major events in 2015 for female boxers and as yet no category for them in competitions like the World Series of Boxing or AIBA Pro Boxing.
- Mayweather-Pacquiao fall out
It was the fight of the century, the two greatest stars fighting in the most lucrative boxing event of all time. The fight itself though did not live up to the hype and the sport felt the backlash afterwards.
- Punishment of drug cheats
It emerged that Tony Thompson had committed an anti-doping violation and yet his punishment was only revealed after his ban was over (apparently Thompson could have got a retroactive therapeutic use exemption). This is an example of boxing failing to get to grips with the issue. Doping is a major problem in sport and serious sanctions have to be put in place, such as lengthy bans.
