British Boxing's Big Winners and Losers in 2024

In 2024, British boxing saw some major ups and downs. Daniel Dubois emerged as the biggest winner, while Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua suffered painful defeats. Here's a look at the year in British boxing and what to expect in 2025.

Biggest Winners

Dubois' inspiring story of bouncing back from defeat to become a world champion makes him the biggest achiever in British boxing in 2024. He sent two-time world champion Joshua spinning to the canvas four times in front of 96,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in September. 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.

Nick Ball (L) finished an eventful year as WBA featherweight champion. Richard Pelham/Getty Images

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 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.

Oleksandr Usyk beat Tyson Fury twice this year. Getty Images

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.

Chantelle Cameron vs. Katie Taylor could be a potential blockbuster. Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images

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.