Editor’s Letter: Although boxing appears to be thriving in 2024, that doesn’t mean we can’t address difficult issues

By Matt Christie

THIS WEEK’S version rightly paints an image of a sport that’s thriving.

There are struggle reviews from London the place Hamzah Sheeraz cemented his place as a future star and Reece Bellotti turned the newest to exhibit what it actually means to be British champion. There are interviews too, like with Mikaela Mayer, which is a superbly written piece by Anna Whitwham who highlights, amongst different issues, the optimistic affect fighters can have on youngsters.

There’s additionally lots about fights we could quickly be getting, and wow, what a interval that is shaping up to be. I don’t recall a yr starting fairly like this when so many fights we’ve been keen to see are in the works. Whisper it, however in just a few brief months we may be basking in the afterglow of Fury-Usyk, Beterbiev-Bivol and Buatsi-Yarde.

Not all skies can be blue. We additionally publish a fairly beautiful article on Gerald McClellan, the American boxer who was left mind broken after that unforgettable battle with Nigel Benn in February 1994. It’s all the time difficult to address that facet of our sport, however no person ought to be terrified of what they’ll discover inside that story. Boxing News’ Oliver Fennell, who not too long ago spent the day with McClellan, has executed a masterful job. In truth, thanks largely to the unconditional love of Gerald’s sister, it’s some of the uplifting items I’ve ever learn.

BN ought to by no means shrink back from these tales, regardless. It’s our job, I’ve all the time believed, to address the great and the unhealthy. And extra so at the moment when so many members of the boxing media are seemingly fixated on being mere microphones for his or her ‘friends’ in excessive locations. Never overlook that the purpose of addressing the unhealthy is simply ever born to need for the other to be achieved.

It was recommended to me not too long ago that my fixation with Ringside Charitable Trust is changing into a little bit tiresome. I perceive that however make no apologies for it. Every week, I hear about increasingly more ex-boxers who’re struggling.

The extra we discuss their plight, the much less taboo the topic turns into. Particularly if we can extra steadily spotlight what a great job we’re doing to take care of our personal.

Tris Dixon’s ebook, Damage, modified the panorama in some ways however nonetheless too many are terrified of addressing the problem. A coach I respect immensely instructed me they dare not learn that ebook, whereas additionally admitting in the event that they did, they could rethink sure coaching methods like the quantity of sparring they permit. Make of that what you’ll.

However, I do imagine we have seen boxers turn out to be more and more conscious that they want to plan for a life after boxing. Furthermore, boxers retiring on the proper time has been the norm in latest years, notably these on the high. For each Derek Chisora who carries on regardless, and that in fact is his prerogative, there are considerably extra like George Groves, Anthony Crolla and John Ryder who stroll away the second they realise they’re not fairly who they used to be. That doesn’t mean any of them have gotten out unscathed, nevertheless.

Their retirements are unlikely to be a consequence of anybody banging on a couple of charity designed to assist ex-boxers but when one 30-something boxer thinks twice about preventing once more due to an article they’ve learn, so be it. Shining a lightweight on potential mind accidents and the like just isn’t, let’s be clear, any sort of effort to hurt the game. Only those that shrink back from their tasks are doing that.

These days, one runs the danger of offending folks with the mere point out of one thing not designed to be a tongue up the bottom, like questions on failed drug assessments going unpunished or drug lords working amok with their drug cash. For too lengthy, the trade has been scared to address the reality that too many punches to the mind are unhealthy for you. One prepare of thought even suggests that doing so solely encourages those that need boxing to be banned. What utter garbage. Boxing will solely be banned if these inside the sport present fixed disregard for its potential penalties. What we ought to be doing, as a substitute of rolling our eyes at these attempting to assist, is admit there’s extra we can nonetheless do.

Boxing in 2024 is in a wholesome place. The dream is for the boxers of 2024 and past to stay lengthy and wholesome lives and for many who do fall on arduous instances – and, in other ways, lots will – there are techniques in place to assist. As a united fraternity, we can obtain that.

Though one wonders what would turn out to be of McClellan with out the care of his sister, his case is totally different to the boxer who fights on too lengthy. An terrible lot was realized from what occurred to G-Man that night time. However, as with every sport or enterprise that is hoping to progress, the training ought to by no means cease.

BOBBY KELSEY, RIP

IT got here to my consideration final week that Bobby Kelsey, the Londoner who represented Great Britain in the light-welterweight division at 1960 Olympics, handed away in January on the age of 85.

Kelsey, then boxing out of Monteagle BC, was one in all 5 British boxers competing in Rome that August and September, however he wouldn’t medal. In the third spherical of competitors, he misplaced to eventual silver medalist Quincey Daniels of the United States.

The workforce would return with three bronze medals, deemed as a disappointment on the time. Team supervisor John Henderson even criticised the trouble of the boxers, a view not shared by anybody else. “I’ve got a cut eye to prove that I tried,” Kelsey mentioned. “I would have been in hospital if I had not. We all did our best.”

Boxing News made a sage level on the time, lengthy earlier than the funding system we know at the moment was put in place. We wrote: “It must be borne in the mind that our amateur sportsmen, unlike those of many other countries, really are amateurs. And until such a time as a State scheme proves practical way of collective training for working lads, we must expect them to start at a disadvantage against sponsored sluggers.”

Top promoter Jack Solomons didn’t appear to share Henderson’s view both, as he made every of the 5 boxers friends of honour at Wembley Pool the next week for heavyweight Henry Cooper’s bout with Roy Harris.

Kelsey, of Forest Gate, would flip skilled, going 10-7-3 (5) earlier than retiring in 1963. Our ideas are along with his family and friends.