British boxing's biggest winner of 2024 was Daniel Dubois, but it was a painful year for its biggest stars Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
Defeats for Dubois' heavyweight rivals Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have left Dubois head of the queue to face Oleksandr Usyk in an undisputed world heavyweight title showdown, if he can defend his IBF world title belt against New Zealand's Joseph Parker on Feb. 22.
Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs), 27, sent two-time world champion Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs), 35, spinning to the canvas four times in front of 96,00 fans at Wembley Stadium in September, a year after he was knocked out by Usyk in a previous world title attempt. Victory over AJ completed a quick revival for Dubois, who is among three U.K. and Northern Irish boxers to finish the year as full world champions (the other champions are Nick Ball, WBA featherweight, and Anthony Cacace, IBF junior lightweight.
In women's boxing, Natasha Jonas is one of six world champions from the U.K.: Jonas, IBF-WBC welterweight; Lauren Price, WBA welterweight; Ellie Scotney, WBO-IBF junior bantamweight; Caroline Dubois, WBC lightweight; Terri Harper, WBO lightweight, and Savannah Marshall, IBF super middleweight. Chantelle Cameron is also the WBC interim junior welterweight champion, and the highest ranked female boxer in the latest ESPN pound-for-pound rankings (No. 4), in front of No. 5 Jonas. No U.K. fighter appears in latest men's pound-for-pound top ten rankings.
This time last year it was the same number of men's world champions from the U.K. And Northern Ireland: Fury (WBC heavyweight); Chris Billam-Smith (WBO cruiserweight) and Joe Cordina (IBF junior lightweight). While the number of men's world champions remains modest in comparison to previous years, especially 2016 when there were 14, some British boxers have benefited from the new riches to be earned on events staged in Saudi Arabia. Dubois vs. Joshua (held in London), and both Usyk vs. Fury fights, were among the biggest world title fights worldwide in 2024.
Biggest winners
Dubois-AJ was certainly the biggest event on British soil in a year which has seen fewer significant fights happening in the U.K. as they are now being staged in Saudi Arabia, where both Fury vs. Usyk fights were.
Dubois's inspiring story of dusting himself down following defeat and quicky rising to the top again so quick makes Dubois the biggest achiever in British boxing of 2024. Not many would have predicted Dubois, rather than superstars Fury and Joshua, would be the one to finish 2024 with a world title belt.
Both Ball and Cacace won their world titles in Saudi Arabia, lower down the bill on high-quality bills in Riyadh. Like Dubois, Ball and Cacace admirably rebounded from setbacks earlier in their careers to triumph in 2024. 'The Wrecking' Ball (21-0-1, 12 KOs), 27, from Liverpool, became the world's leading 126 pounds boxer after he battered Ronny Rios in ten rounds of a first defence of his WBA world featherweight title in October.
Ball, who was held to a controversial points draw against WBC champion Rey Vargas in March, ended the unbeaten record of Ray Ford to win the WBA belt by a split decision in June. Cacace (23-1, 8 KOs), 35, from Belfast, pulled off a shock, eighth-round TKO win when he overwhelmed Joe Cordina for the IBF world junior lightweight title in May, then sent former champion Josh Warrington into retirement with a convincing points win in September.
In women's boxing, there was no bigger win than Jonas's points triumph over Mikaela Mayer in January. The Liverpool-based boxer sealed a career-best win with a split points decision over the American to defend her world welterweight title. Mum-of-one Jonas (16-2-1, 9 KOs), 40, then cruised to a unanimous points win over Ivana Habazin in a world welterweight title unification fight in December. On the same bill in Liverpool, Price (8-0, 2 KO), 30, made a convincing first defence of her WBA welterweight title to set up a clash with Jonas in 2025.
Cameron (20-1, 8 KOs), 33, made up some ground by winning an interim junior welterweight title with a unanimous points win over Patricia Berghult in November and putting herself back in the frame to once again fight Katie Taylor.
Taylor seems to be everybody's target in women's boxing, being the brightest star, and like Cameron and Jonas, Dubois hopes to fight the Irishwoman in 2025 after being elevated to WBC lightweight champion in December. Dubois (10-0, 5 KOs), 23, like her brother Daniel, had a big year in becoming world champion and she fights Jessica Camara in a first defence on Jan. 11.
Scotney (9-0) only boxed once in 2024 when she unified two versions of the world junior featherweight title and ended the unbeaten record of Segolene Lefebvre in April.
Other U.K. boxers who were big winners last year included Galal Yafai (WBC interim flyweight) and Joshua Buatsi (WBO interim light heavyweight) who both put themselves on the brink of a world title shot in 2025. Buatsi (19-0, 13 KOs) confirmed his class by flooring Willie Hutchinson twice in a points win on the undercard of Dubois vs. Joshua and will face English rival Callum Smith for the WBO interim light heavyweight title on Feb. 22. The winner of Buatsi vs. Smith gets a shot at the winner of the undisputed title fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Yafai, meanwhile, stormed to a sensational sixth-round stoppage win over former world flyweight champion Sunny Edwards, who afterwards announced his retirement on Nov. 30. Yafai (9-0, 7 KOs), 31, an Olympic gold medallist in 2021, is due a shot at Japan's Kenshiro Teraji (24-1, 15 KOs), 32, the WBC world flyweight champion, next, while Ball defends his belt against TJ Doheny in his home city on March 15.
British heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley had a good year, inflicting a brutal first round stoppage defeat on Frazer Clarke in a rematch in October, following an entertaining draw in March. Another rematch saw Jack Catterall avenge his controversial points loss to Josh Taylor in 2022 with a unanimous decision victory over the Scot in May, and followed that up wide a wide points win over Regis Prograis in October.
Another memorable all-British fight was Harper's unanimous points victory over Rhiannon Dixon for the WBO lightweight title to become a three-weight world champion in September. Harper (15-2-2, 6 KOs), 27, of Doncaster, dropped three weight divisions to revive her career in style against her English rival.
Biggest losers
But some lost ground in boxing's snakes and ladders of 2024.
Not that Dubois will see it this way, but defeats for Fury and Joshua were blows for British boxing. Fury and Joshua are the biggest names in British boxing, but their last performances have left us wondering whether their best days are behind them. Fury disputes the judges' unanimous verdicts that he lost his rematch with Usyk by four rounds on Dec. 21, but the result leaves a trilogy fight with the Ukrainian for his WBC, WBA and WBO belts seem unlikely. Fury also lost a split decision to Usyk in May, when he was floored and on wobbly legs in Round 9.
Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs), 36, and Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs), 35, are both in losing form, and without world title belts, but there is still interest in the U.K. to see these long-time rivals share a ring together. Despite setbacks this year, both Fury and AJ can still earn millions from fighting each other next year in what would one of the biggest events of the year.
But it was a damaging defeat for Joshua, probably worse than when he was stopped by Andy Ruiz in 2019, and another setback in 2025 will see him slide further away from the top level and closer to retirement.
Defeats for former world champions Warrington and Edwards meant the end of the road for them, while there are doubts that former undisputed junior welterweight champion Taylor can be the same force again.
Billam-Smith was well beaten in a title unification fight versus Gilberto Ramirez in November, while Smith was wiped out in seven rounds by Beterbiev nearly a year ago; another defeat next year could send both into retirement. Similarly, heavyweight contenders Joe Joyce, down during a gruelling points loss to veteran Derek Chisora in July, and Clarke need big wins in 2025 if they are to land lucrative pay days in Riyadh. Chisora will close out his eventful and unpredictable career with two more fights in 2025, to bring his tally up to 50.
Others may not have lost, but lost momentum by their inactivity or low profile fights. Leigh Wood, the former WBA world featherweight champion, has not fought since October 2023, while Eubank Jr. once again ends a year without a meaningful fight. Benn, similarly, needs a big fight after being banned from fighting in the U.K since October 2022. They both need each other and perhaps we will finally get to see the fight in 2025.
Sandy Ryan (7-2-1, 3 KOs), 31, had a mixed year. After a good fourth-round win over Harper in March, Ryan felt aggrieved to lose her WBO welterweight title to Mayer by a majority points decision in the U.S. in September. Hours before the fight in New York, the English boxer had paint thrown at her and police investigated the incident.
Savannah Marshall (13-1, 10 KOs) has not boxed since winning three world super middleweight titles in July 2023 and this year saw her launch her MMA career. However, she still holds the IBF super middleweight title even if there are no plans for her to box again.
Expectations for 2025
As well as Dubois vs. Parker and the prospect of Fury vs. AJ, there is also much more to look forward to for U.K. boxing in 2025, with good reason to be hopeful there will be more world champions in a year's time.
The hugely impressive Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0, 17 KOs), 25, from Ilford but who trains in California, challenges Carlos Adames for the WBC belt in Riyadh on Feb. 22 and is the U.K.'s best hope of a new world champion in 2025.
Sheeraz is in destructive form and the last opponent to deny him a KO was six years ago. Also at middleweight, Eubank Jr. has perennially been calling for big fights, but not getting them. He might have to wait until later in 2025 for Benn, now clear to fight in the U.K. after a doping ban was lifted, in a fight that would be huge. Denzel Bentley may even beat Eubank Jr. to a world middleweight title shot, and face IBF and WBO champion Janibek Alimkhanuly, ESPN's No. 1 in the division, in a rematch.
Bentley may have to travel to Kazakhstan to take on Alimkhanuly, who unanimously beat him on points in 2022 after the Londoner took the fight at short notice. Bentley boxed well in a points win over Brad Pauls in December.
Buatsi vs. former world super middleweight champion Smith is an excellent fight, but focus will very much be on whether we finally get to see Eubank vs. Benn, whose fathers produced two epic encounters. Benn, whose career has suffered while he has been absent from British rings for over two years, is also being lined up to challenge Mario Barrios, the WBC welterweight champion, in a first world title fight. Victory would set up a summer showdown with Eubank Jr. in what would be the biggest fight for U.K. boxing, whether in London or Riyadh, outside of AJ versus Fury.
Fury may wait until the outcome of Dubois vs. Parker on Feb. 22 and may be tempted to challenge Dubois for the IBF world title instead of fighting Joshua next summer.
Another potential blockbuster is Cameron vs. Katie Taylor in a trilogy fight, if the Irishwoman does not face Amanda Serrano next, also in a trilogy fight. With the score at 1-1, Cameron will be high on the list if a deal cannot be struck with Serrano following the biggest women's fight in history in November. In order to get the fight she wants above all else, Cameron may have to travel to Dublin and silence Taylor's home crowd.
Jonas will battle Price for three versions of the world welterweight title, possibly in the 40-year-old's final fight at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on March 7 in what will be one of the biggest fights in 2025 for the women's game. If Ryan gets the rematch with Mayer she desperately wants, their bad-blood rivalry could eclipse any other fight in all of women's boxing in 2025 not involving Taylor or Serrano.
Catterall faces Arnold Barboza in a WBO junior welterweight title eliminator in front of his home fans in Manchester on Feb. 15, with the winner progressing to face Teofimo Lopez, while Wardley can expect to fight a top ten contender after progress made this year.
If there was something to wish for in 2025 (for U.K.-based fight fans anyway), it would that more big fights happen in the U.K. rather than Saudi Arabia. Dubois-AJ was a Riyadh Season event on the road in London, just as there was a similar event in Los Angeles, but fights that would have normally packed out British venues are now taking place in Riyadh. The return of Benn to a British ring is well needed, and if we get a long-awaited showdown with Eubank Jr three years after it was cancelled when Benn tested positive for a banned substance, it could come close to the size of Fury vs. Joshua.
There are big fights on the horizon in 2025, which promises to be even more exciting for British boxing than 2024.