Three All-British Fights To Make In 2023
Britain is continuing to the lead the way on the world scene in both men’s AND women’s boxing and in this blog, we’ll be having a look at three all-British fights that we hope to be made over the next 12 months.
Callum Smith vs Joshua Buatsi
Comfortably two of the best light-heavyweight boxers on the planet currently without a world title, Callum Smith and Joshua Buatsi have never really been on a collision course to fight each other until late, with both signed to Matchroom and on the verge of securing a world title shot.
Smith has campaigned at super-middleweight for most of his career. He won the World Boxing Super Series at the weight and became the Ring Magazine champion before been dethroned by Canelo Alvarez in late 2020.
Since that defeat, he’s been faultless in his two fights at 175lbs with highlight reel stoppage wins coming over Gilbert Castillo and Mathieu Bauderlique.
Meanwhile, 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Buatsi hasn’t looked back since turning professional in 2017.
Having been touted as one of the UK’s best prospects since his transition into the paid ranks, Buatsi has built himself a reputation for being one of the most exciting fighters in the light-heavyweight division with 13 stoppage victories coming from his 16 career wins as a professional so far.
With both men ranked in the top six with the WBA, WBC and WBO, this fight could well turn out to be the perfect final eliminator for a shot at the undisputed titles with it looking increasingly likely that Dmitry Bivol will take on the winner of Artur Beterbiev vs Anthony Yarde in May for all of the straps at 175lbs.
Alternatively, they could just wait and hope that one of those titles becomes vacant after the undisputed fight but this is certainly an all-British clash that doesn’t need a world title on the line to sell it.
Joe Cordina vs Zelfa Barrett
A battle of the super-feathers, this is a fight with a strong narrative behind it.
Having enjoyed a stellar amateur career, Welshman Joe Cordina represented Great Britain at the 2016 Olympics before turning professional in early 2017. Since then, his journey has very much been in the spotlight, which shined at its brightest last June when he produced the knockout of the year to stop Kenichi Ogawa and claim the IBF Super-Featherweight world title in front of a packed out home crowd in Cardiff.
His potential opponent, Zelfa Barrett, served his professional apprenticeship on the smaller shows in the north-west of England before finally getting his world title shot at the back end of last year against Shavkat Rakhimov in Abu Dhabi.
This is where the narrative for this fight appears.
The world IBF title Barrett fought for that night was cruelly stripped from Cordina after he sustained a hand injury in preparation for the first defence of the belt, which was meant to be against Rakhimov in Abu Dhabi. Barrett was a late replacement for Cordina in that fight and more than held his own when dropping his Tajikistani opponent before getting stopped on his feet after suffering a perforated ear drum. Even more heartbreaking for Barrett when you take into consideration the fact he was probably up on the cards.
Cordina is now set to take on Rakhimov in the coming months and if he wins that fight, an all-British world title clash against Barrett has the potential to be a fight of the year contender between two stylish boxers who can both undoubtedly bang.
Terri Harper vs Natasha Jonas 2
A fight of the year candidate in 2020, these two rivals have met before, albeit at a weight 24lbs lighter than the one a potential 2023 rematch will be made at.
The pair battled it out to a split-decision draw at Matchroom Boxing’s fight camp that day in a fight in which both fighters believed they had won comfortably.
Since that contest, their journeys have taken them down fairly different paths.
Harper defended her WBC World Featherweight title in her next fight when stopping Katharina Thanderz before losing in emphatic style to Alycia Baumgardner in November 2021. She has since brushed herself off and claimed back-to-back wins with her most recent coming against Hannah Rankin in her first fight at super-welterweight where she claimed the WBA World Title.
After the draw, Jonas set her sights on becoming undisputed at 135lbs but came up just short against Katie Taylor before making the decision to step up to super-welterweight.
Clearly a lot smaller than her opponent Chris Namus, Jonas produced a career best performance to stop the Uruguayan in the second round to become WBO champion of the world.
She has gone on to pick up the WBC and IBF belts in her next two fights and currently sits at the top of the tree in the women’s super-welterweight division.
So why does this fight make sense? Well, for starters, it’s an all-British clash for undisputed. Any undisputed fight is massive but even more so when it’s between two fighters born less than 100 miles away from each other. The second reason is the controversy that surrounded the first fight. Clearly, according to that fight, these two ladies are very closely matched and undoubtedly both want to prove that they are the better boxer.
Whether this fight happens or not is the big question. They are both now with rival promoters which makes it tricky, and this difficulty was made even more evident when Jonas’s team turned down an offer from Matchroom for the Harper fight after her victory over Marie Eve Dicaire.
Either way, it’s a bout that needs to happen. After all, the fans, as well as the fighters, want to know who comes out on top.