By Chris Walker

With 2015 rapidly approaching, I thought I would share with you a number of things that I would like to occur over the next twelve months in the hope of making boxing a better place plus providing myself and countless others with plenty of satisfaction.  Some selections are selfish, others are personal but they should at least provide plenty of debate.

1.       The Era of Klitschko to End: Forget sell out events and rock star entrances in Central and Eastern Europe, the dominance of Wladimir Klitschko for the best part of a decade has largely been forgettable and made the 1980s Lost Generation age look like a peak period.  Klitschko is someone I hugely admire, but his safety-first style and lack of credible challengers has seen boxing’s once most-talked about division become a dwindling topic.  The winner of Deontay Wilder and Bermane Stiverne must be next for Klitschko—it’d please me to see either do their best Lamon Brewster impression against the giant Ukrainian.

2.       Commentators to Call and not Hype: This was largely a Sky issue for the majority of the year due to the relentless cheerleading of Nick Halling, but I noticed Boxnation doing their part during the Billy Joe Saunders-Chris Eubank battle in November.  When the house fighter takes a punch, it is surely the duty of the commentary team to recognise this success and not scream with glee because the home boxer has took it well.  We’ve seen a new wave of boxing fans appear this year due to the success of George Groves and Carl Froch at Wembley back in May, but these welcome additions are being misled on a repeated basis, usually on a Saturday night, because commentary teams aren’t doing their jobs properly.  Fans want to hear the story of the fight from a true angle.  Not the version that suits the broadcaster.

3.       A Reward for the Good Guys: It was unfortunate what happened to Anthony Crolla.  Robbed of a superb opportunity against outstanding Cuban, Richar Abril, due to the thuggish behaviour of mindless people, Crolla, now making a splendid recovery, missed out on world title shot.  Abril has already shown that he’s willing to travel to the UK, how about Frank Warren digging deep and luring the quality lightweight to the Liverpool Echo Arena in March to face the crowd pleasing Derry Mathews?  I’m certain that no one would begrudge the likeable Liverpudlian a seat at the top table due to his gutsy efforts throughout the last 12 years.  With a high WBA ranking already in place, there’d be no issue from the governing body—I’m certain both fighters would relish the scrap.  Who knows, a third meeting between Crolla and Mathews could have a high prize at stake.

4.       The Return of Domestic Battles: South American aplenty visited British shores last year for a vast amount of Intercontinental and International belt fights that most of us won’t remember yet alone talk about in 10 years time.  This can’t happen in 2015, I see it necessary that the British and European titles take priority over the aforementioned governing body bonus belts next year.  Just imagine this, David Price, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury fighting each other at least once in 2015.  Nathan Cleverly returning to cruiser to tackle Steve Simmons or Ovill McKenzie.  Callum Smith and Rocky Fielding giving the Echo Arena the chance to make huge noise plus Liam Smith and Brian Rose searching for supremacy in a joint main event.  The possibilities at lightweight are endless.  Josh Warrington and Lee Selby on what could be Leeds’ biggest ever boxing night.  These are just a few possibilities drafted up with a few minutes thought so I’m missing plenty off this list.

5.       Punishment for Judges: The amount of ridiculous scorecards handed in over recent years has been nothing short of scandalous and judges are not being punished for their mistakes.  I’m not after a major overhaul of the way a fight is scored as every idea contains several flaws, but asking a wayward judge to explain his actions, suspending him, or offering him refresher training is something all boxing boards should consider.  A dominant fighter can in no way shape or form relax until he knows the verdict of the fight and that is wrong.  Boxing needs efficient scoring so the right man always wins.  The format will never be perfect but it can be much improved on today’s model.

Chris Walker is a regular contributor to Boxing News and has also written for Boxing Monthly.