LEAVING A LEGACY

I JUST want to pay tribute to Nicola Adams following her recent decision to retire. Seldom will you find someone who brought such a vast amount of honour, pride and professionalism to the sport we love. Nicola also brought a substantial level of decency to boxing across the world. She’s a credit to the sport. With Katie Taylor also flying the flag, women’s boxing is going from strength to strength. Nicola helped with the push into the mainstream. She deserves our respect. I hope she now becomes a pundit – I think she would do well. I wish her all the best for the future.

Paul Wickes

Nicola Adams and promoter Frank Warren

TIME FOR A BIG ONE

CALLUM SMITH is quite rightly considered one of Britain’s best after his overwhelming victory over George Groves last year earned him super-middleweight supremacy. However, after a period of inactivity before fighting a small super-middle in Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam, you sense that a big fight is needed after his upcoming John Ryder fight. There’s nothing wrong with a mandatory defence, but maybe afterwards his team could pursue the likes of David Benavidez or Billy Joe Saunders.

Shaun Rye

Callum Smith
Smith has the gold but needs testing (Action Images/Andrew Couldridge)

THANK THE BOXING GODS

I FEEL we must take a step back and thank the boxing gods. Over the last few weeks we have been treated to various crackers. Errol Spence Jnr-Shawn Porter, Gennady Golovkin-Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Artur Beterbiev-Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Lewis Ritson-Robbie Davies Jnr, Naoya Inoue-Nonito Donaire and Josh Taylor-Regis Prograis.

Credit must be given to Taylor and Team McGuigan. Without the backing of a major promoter, Taylor has developed away from the mainstream and deserves all the praise in the world for the part he played in a truly classic fight. In the future, surely Taylor and Prograis will face off again. However, before that rematch, how about Taylor against Jose Ramirez, followed by Terence Crawford.

Jamie Ingleby

Inoue vs. Donaire was as good as it gets (Naoki Fukuda)

CLASSY CUSTOMERS

JOSH TAYLOR against Regis Prograis – what a great fight between two very well-matched boxers. Prograis showed his class in defeat and quite literally took it on the chin. And well done to Taylor for putting Scotland back on the world boxing map. I must say, though, the Muhammad Ali Trophy looks cheap and unworthy of the work the winner has put in to win such a prestigious competition like the World Boxing Super Series!

John Carlin

Josh Taylor pound-for-pound
Taylor and Prograis went to war in London (Action Images/Reuters/Andrew Couldridge)