The amateurs go from strength to strength – and how good is that in the lead-up to the Olympics?
There are three Brits in the European finals in Moscow tomorrow – Khalid Yafai at 51kg, Ian Weaver at 57kg, and Tom Stalker at 60kg – the best British showing since 1961, when Frankie Taylor was a mere slip of a lad.
Yafai beat the German Ronny Beblik 5-0 – an unfussed and commanding performance from start to finish – but his brother Gamal, making his European title debut, has to settle for bronze after losing his semi 3-2 to the Russian Eduard Abzalimov.
Andrew Selby was left with too much to do after trailing the Ukrainian Georgi Chigaev 4-0 going into the final round of their 54kg semi. He too gets bronze, his second in a row at these championships.
Weaver did brilliantly to put 10 points on the awkward Irishman Tyrone McCullagh, conceding only three; Stalker saw off the German Eugen Burhard 5-2 in another tough fight.
Now, if they can just keep this momentum going for another 18 months or so ...
51kg: Khalid Yafai v Misha Aloyan (Russia)
57kg: Iain Weaver v Denis Makarov (Germany)
60kg: Tom Stalker v Albert Selimov (Russia)
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
LIGHTS OUT, MOUTH OPEN
fighthype.com
Enjoy that? It's a shame Toney didn't make more of his boxing career. For all the noise, there was a lot of talent.
IN MEMORY OF JACKIE TURPIN
this from the Leamington Observer
Amateur boxing is on a really good bounce right now, with the national squad doing great things in the lead-up to the London Olympics and really talented boxers emerging at all levels. It would be a shame if the grassroots started to wither because of lack of money.
I wonder what the new sports minister will have to say when confronted continually in the coming months and years with stories such as this, of a small club heading for extinction because they can't afford to turn the lights on or pay the water bills?
KHAN BACK ON THE STREETS
This week he was at a struggling club in a pretty tough part of north-west London, Stonebridge ABC. Years ago the streets around Stonebridge were no-go areas; the Stonebridge Park estate was once called the worst in the UK, with violent death among young people a growing concern. It's still no Disneyland, but it's getting better.
Which is why Khan's visit meant more than a chance for the kids to rub shoulders with a world champion – he was able to tell them that a boxing club is not just somewhere to learn how to jab and hook but a haven from the streets and a place to learn about discipline and respect.
"Forty or 50 kids a day come here," he said. "That's 40 or 50 kids not on the streets messing around. They have something to do here and also their parents know where they are."
It sounds simple. But it matters. Khan came from the streets, so those kids appreciate he knows what he's talking about.
DON'T GIVE UP THE DAY JOB
"I am a great believer that a job for a fighter is good for them because it stops boredom," Maloney says. "A fighter will train in the morning, once in the afternoon and get bored. When that happens they sit around eating, drinking and getting into trouble."
Kevin Mitchell, who has worked as a labourer in lean times, will know exactly what he's talking about.
Maloney's super-bantam Rendall Munroe has grabbed plenty of headlines for carrying on his job as a binman while putting himself in contention for a shot at the WBC world title later this year.
But there aren't many out there who have had "proper jobs". It wasn't always this way. The world light-heavyweight champion Bob Foster, famously, was a sheriff; Emile Griffith trained as a milliner; Paul Pender was a postman; among old-timers, Bob Fitzsimmons was a blacksmith, as was the great Les Darcy.
And, as they say, it didn't do them any harm.
Dallas, a former ABA champion who has been developing quietly, is looking for his 11th win on the spin at Brentwood on 25 June.
