Ricky Hatton: British boxing is facing a big problem back home

In his latest column with Metro.co.uk, the British boxing legend previews Manny Pacquiao vs Yordenis Ugas, another big night for Fightzone and explores a big problem facing the sport.

Pacquiao will adapt to changes

Errol Spence Jr might be out of the picture now but it is still a big night for Manny Pacquiao against Yordenis Ugas this weekend.

It is disappointing from Manny’s perspective as he would have been really looking forward to the original fight. Spence is a great fighter and a great champion and Manny is always striving to take these fights and increase his legacy. He’ll be disappointed with the change in opponent but I’m sure he’ll be able to adapt to what Ugas will bring in there.

Manny will of course adapt, I have every confidence of that and he will find a way to win as he usually does. Ugas has a credible record and is world champion but hasn’t really fought at that elite level consistently.

Having said that, it is a potential banana skin for Manny – he has got to be careful at the same time.

I sympathise with Spence and I hope he’s back soon. At the same time, Manny will be disappointed but as the perfect professional he is, he will adapt to the new opponent. I’m confident he’ll find a way to win. It is a credible but safe opponent I think for Manny and I expect him to win by late stoppage or on points.

He has proven himself over and over again. He got beaten by Floyd Mayweather and he got beat by Jeff Horn but he always finds his groove again. Fair play to him.

Spence will be back stronger

My thoughts also go out to Spence, he wanted this as much as Manny and hopefully the injury is one he can recover from. We’ve seen people come from back from it before.

Frank Bruno suffered a detached right retina back in 1991, like Spence it was picked up in a routine check-up. There was concern over whether that would be it for him but he still went onto have an amazing career. And with the improvements in medical technology, hopefully it isn’t a career-ending injury.

Personally, I think Manny might have bit off a bit more than he could chew when he took the Spence fight. He will go down as an all-time great and you don’t like to seeing all-time greats or fighters we admire so much get hurt. Sadly, it happens. In the original fight against Spence, it might have been too big of an ask. Spence is top three in the world, he is an absolute class act.

The people he has beaten, Kell Brook, Lamont Peterson, Mikey Garcia, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, he’s proved that he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the best welterweights over the last 15 or 20 years. He deserves his right to have his name right up there along with Mayweather and Pacquiao.

Fightzone back in London

Fightzone heads back to London this weekend with another action-packed card in store.

Jez Smith and Scott Williams headline the card which includes six fights from boxing’s famed York Hall.

Fightzone card 21 August

Paul Roberts vs Reiss Taylor

Obi Egbunike vs Dale Arrowsmith

Amy Andrew vs Polina Golubeva

Nathan Mizon vs Matar Sambou

Lorenzo Grasso vs Kevin McCauley

Jez Smith vs Scott Williams

It’s a tough time for young fighters at the start of his career. It reminds me a bit of me of my own young fighter Ibrahim Nadim who has been making the transition from the amateurs to the professionals so it’s important to get them the right opportunities.

A secret crisis for British boxing

It is a strange situation at the moment. Because of Covid, a lot of young fighters who would have usually gone to the ABAs, which will now happen in September, have decided to go pro early with little opportunity to fight on the amateur scene. Now there is an abundance of kids turning professional. Kids with little or no amateur experience because of lockdown.

If you look through the divisions at the moment, there are loads of fighters who are making their debuts, there is lots of kids, who are 1-0, 2-0 or 3-0 and their managers and promoters are going to have to make meaningful fights right away for them. These kids will have to fight each other soon.

There are 42 shows planned for September but promoters and managers are finding it difficult to find opponents for these kids. And as a consequence, a lot of these kids are just going to have to fight each other right away. And some of them could get found out too soon.

There are a lot of kids who couldn’t fight at the national championships so there is a rich pool of talent coming through. Everybody wants to try and get out there at the moment and it is going to be a case where unbeaten records are forgotten, some kids are just going have to go out there and prove themselves and fight other bright young kids. It is still a difficult process bringing foreign opponents in still because of the restrictions that they face. And some of the journeymen who usually fill these roles have moved on during Covid.

We spent days trying to find a super-bantamweight for our fighter Ibrahim Nadim for his next fight – we couldn’t find one. It is a massive problem, there is a lack of journeymen, a lack of opponents for these kids coming through.

Of course it is great that there is talent coming through but I can see it down the line where a lot of undefeated kids are just going to have to go in there and fight people they might not be ready for.

It’s a situation where we might not even have enough officials to work the fights. It’s a bit of a crisis. It was a summer of triumph for boxing at the Olympics but this is the reality of the situation back home.

We’ve had it where the usual situation of fighters gradually turning professional have had to wait for boxing to start again. Now normality is returning, we’ve found ourselves with a massive problem. There just aren’t enough opponents out there. Especially for kids who are making their pro debut and the prospects who have one or two under their belt. Hopefully it will lighten as the year goes on but in boxing at the moment we have a big problem.

It helps that Fightzone are doing great work, finding the fights and putting on shows for those still coming through.

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