THE QUEENSBERRY HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONS

Frank Warren’s Queensberry is, for very good reason, now known as ‘The Home of the Heavyweights’ and it is where three out of the four current world champions call home.

This glorious splurge on the heavyweight scene, as Frank Warren himself points out on a regular basis, is not just a happy coincidence.

It is a blueprint that was a long time in the making.

When Queensberry nailed its colours to the BT Sport mast back in 2017, a key pledge in the manifesto was to dominate the heavyweight constituency and become the place to be for the big fellas.

The signature of Daniel Dubois was already dry on his contract and the young man rumoured to have flattened Anthony Joshua in Team GB sparring actually made his debut on Queensberry’s maiden show on BT Sport.

Taking over the heavyweight division was never going to be a fast-moving mission because big things take time. Then, in 2018, the biggest thing in the business joined forces with Frank and Queensberry.

The Gypsy King was back and within 20 months of his return, Tyson Fury was world champion again after parting Deontay Wilder from his WBC belt at the second attempt.

Fury, of course, is bidding to bring another world title belt to the Queensberry table when he finally goes up against Joshua on December 11 in Cardiff for WBA honours.

Think back to 2019, which is when the heavyweight force was bolstered by the recruitment of Big Joe Joyce, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist.

Along with inflicting a first defeat on Dubois in the 2020 lockdown, Joyce would go on to become Interim world champion with the WBO with his spectacular KO of former world champion Joseph Parker.

But it was Dubois who would be first up to dine at the world title spread by snapping up the WBA Regular title on his recovery mission from the Joyce setback. In fact, just four fights after Joyce, Dubois was entering into battle for unified titles against Oleksandr Usyk in Poland.

In October 2023, Riyadh Season came into play and Queensberry’s heavyweight options became strengthened. Fury going up against Francis Ngannou brought the likes of Agit Kabayel and Filip Hrgovic into play on bumper undercards after they had previously been underworked and under-appreciated.

Soon enough, Kabayel would be mixing it with the likes of Arslanbek Makhmudov and Zhilei Zhang, while Hrgovic would be knocked off his unbeaten perch by Dubois, who became IBF world champ in the process.

Dubois would then seize the Wembley Stadium stage to demolish Joshua and effectively book himself a return visit against Usyk in July of last year, when he didn’t follow his script and took a second loss against the Ukrainian great.

Hrgovic went up against an all-British quad on his journey from Dubois defeat to IBF world title triumph. He inflicted losses on Joyce, David Adeleye, David Allen and, ultimately, Moses Itauma in August to become Croatia’s first ever world heavyweight champion.

After enjoying a treble-success in Riyadh, Frank Warren directed Kabayel back to his native Germany for an WBC Interim world title defence against Damian Knyba. The arena was booked and sold out within hours and Knyba was accounted for inside of three rounds.

Kabayel was subsequently upgraded to WBC world champion following Usyk relinquishing his belts and his first defence will take place in Dusseldorf in front of 60,000-plus fans on November 28 when Nelson Hysa will be in the opposite corner.

Now Dubois is settled into his status of being WBO world champion following his resounding rematch triumph over another Queensberry world champion in Fabio Wardley.

So three-quarters of the heavyweight cake are decorated in Queensberry colours and Tyson Fury could complete a full paint job in December.

Home of the Heavyweights? You better believe it.