BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT
By Frank Warren
ONCE AGAIN ON Friday night at York Hall, a clutch of our finest young talent demonstrated that the future of British boxing is in very safe hands.
A hugely successful era for the sport in this country is surely on the horizon if the likes of Moses Itauma, Royston Barney-Smith, Willy Hutchinson and Luke McCormack maintain their progression.
Moses, very typically, did another quickfire demolition job on his opponent, Dan Garber, to move to 8-0 in a classy and clinical fashion. He really could have got his man out even earlier, but held off a bit and this is something he needs to remove from his game.
If his opponent is on the brink, just do the job and finish him off. There is no room for sentiment in this business.
In keeping with his to date busy schedule, Moses will be out again in Riyadh on May 18 on the Fury-Usyk undercard and I will be looking to sort some sort of title for him to fight for to get his professional belt collection underway.
Our clever little whippersnapper Royston continues to ooze quality in each and every fight and he too now holds a record of 8-0. The noticeable thing with Royston is that he is now filling out and becoming a man.
His every move carries that little bit more venom and he is picking his punches and making them count. I have to say Ben Davison is doing a terrific job with him and the improvements are there to see.
Moses and Royston are never shy in sharing their ambitions. Moses wants to be the youngest ever heavyweight world champion and Royston wants to be Britain’s youngest one.
I wouldn’t recommend backing against either at this point, but it is still relatively early days and we won’t make any rash moves just for the sake of it.
Another one from Ben’s gym, Luke McCormack, finally got to make his professional debut and he is clearly going to quickly become a force at super welterweight.
Through no fault of his own, he has had to bide his time and keep working away in the gym, but he can now take his frustrations out under the bright lights and a big future awaits for this young man. That is clear for all to see.
Willy Hutchinson is really looking the part now and I believe he will be a force to be reckoned with at light heavyweight. He had to overcome adversity earlier in his career but he has proved he is willing to make the necessary sacrifices to succeed at the highest level and the work he is putting in over in Spain is clearly paying dividends.
He was unlucky last year with niggling injuries. If he can stay fit now we have got big plans in the pipeline for Willy and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he emulates his amateur achievements and becomes world champion as a pro.
The main event, unfortunately, didn’t go our way with Chris Bourke succumbing to a sixth round stoppage against Ashley Lane in his second attempt at winning a vacant British title.
While I am obviously disappointed for Chris, who will have to lick his wounds and decide what he wants to do moving forward, you couldn’t help but feel happiness for Ashley when you heard about his backstory and the trials and tribulations he has been through.
This really is a sport that can pick you up off the floor if you are prepared to put the hard graft in. Congratulations to Ashley and there is the obvious potential for a crackerjack defence against Andrew Cain in the near future, once Andrew has made his return from a serious hand injury on April 20.
That really would be one to look forward to.
