SO LONG 2025, A YEAR TO REMEMBER

THE YEAR 2025 is now fast drawing to a close and, from a Queensberry perspective, it is one that I believe is deserving of a place in the memory bank.

It has had a bit of everything when it comes to our great sport. A new broadcasting partnership with enormous growth potential to massive stadium events to bumper cards at the biggest arenas and a dash of Riyadh Season for good measure.

At the start of 2025 we concluded our successful collaboration with TNT Sport before linking up with DAZN and we finished strongly with Dereck Chisora clocking up fight No.49 at the fantastic Co-op Live in Manchester with victory over Otto Wallin.

We then broke new ground by fighting Ryan Garner in Bournemouth with a European title success and it is a territory we will be exploring further in a big way in the middle of 2026 as our little Piranha swims into deeper and more dangerous waters.

Interestingly, and not especially by design, our 2025 slate took place largely outside of London. We have rebooted our influence in Liverpool thanks to the exploits of Nick Ball and Paul Stevenson’s Everton Red Triangle empire, plus the pool of exciting young fighters we have in the city is consistently growing.

We have also made a welcome return to Glasgow, initially with Josh Taylor and subsequently with Nathaniel Collins. I am delighted that our Scottish contingent has been future-proofed with huge young talents such as Drew Limond, Alex Arthur Jr, Reese Lynch and Marcus Sutherland.

Our 2025 journey also took in Nottingham, three stops at the Co-op Live in Manchester and one in nearby Altrincham.

The biggest night of all, of course, did happen in the Capital at the grandest sporting cathedral in the country, Wembley Stadium, in July.

At Queensberry, we are incredibly heavily invested in the heavyweight division and we carry a responsibility to keep the division cooking.

Of course, because we had an undisputed champion in Oleksandr Usyk, it can and does have a stalling effect when it comes to the multiple contenders. Usyk fought once in 2025 and undisputed kings tend to fight twice a year at most anyway.

So our mission was to keep things interesting while the future champions sat impatiently in the waiting room.

We were largely successful in this quest, serving up matches such as Joe Joyce-Filip Hrgovic, Fabio Wardley-Justis Huni, Moses Itauma-Dillian Whyte, Hrgovic-David Adeleye and Joe Parker-Wardley.

The last fight on this list resulted in Fabio becoming WBO world champion after Usyk declined to defend against him. Fabio has had a terrific year, what with having his dream fight at Portman Road in June and his dramatic stoppage of Huni and then jumping in and defeating the man who most considered to be the principal threat to Usyk’s dominance.

Fabio’s next moves will deliver major highlights of 2026.

When Usyk did fight it was under the Queensberry flag at Wembley when he took on a second challenge from Daniel Dubois, who held the IBF world title. It was the first time an undisputed heavyweight world title collision had taken place in this country, so history was made and 90+ thousand fans turned out for the magnificent event.

The outcome didn’t go our way, but the occasion will never be forgotten and Daniel will be back in business soon in more big fights that will capture the imagination.

A lot of groundwork was put in across 2025, foundations that will result in the delivery of major events over the next 12 months. Hamzah Sheeraz put himself in pole position in the super middleweights with his bludgeoning of Edgar Berlanga and now he has been put forward for world title challenges by both the WBO and the WBC.

The previously mentioned Ryan Garner added the British title to his European success in July and he will fight for a world title, barring any unlikely mishaps. I also believe that Moses Itauma will win a world title in 2026 and, at the same time, become the Poster Boy of British boxing.

The groundwork also included strengthening our influence over the light heavyweight division and ensuring major fights will take place moving forward involving Joshua Buatsi, Anthony Yarde, Lyndon Arthur and Zach Parker plus the next generation in Willy Hutchinson, Ezra Taylor, Lewis Edmondson and Brad Rea.

Obviously, all of the above only represents a snapshot of what took place in 2025 and those who were involved with making it such a memorable period of time.

What I can confidently predict and pretty much guarantee is that 2026 will be even bigger, better and quite probably one of the best ever.