1 For the survival of Jimmy’s Corner

Few venues warm the hearts of educated boxing fans more than Jimmy’s Corner, located a few meters away from Times Square in Manhattan. So it was distressing to hear that the famous bar, opened by the great Jimmy Glenn and now managed by his son, is under threat of closure. Keeping it open is certainly a cause for the entire industry to get behind.

2 For sparring to be regulated

Perhaps this one is impossible given the amount of sparring that takes place in gyms all over the world on a daily basis. The best we can hope for is increased awareness on the dangers of sparring too many rounds with strict guidelines – with medical facts provided on the consequences of breaking them – drummed into all who operate in those gyms.

3 For Gervonta Davis to focus on the boxing

Boxing needs its stars and US boxing needs stars. Here's hoping Davis can keep his mind on the job and start landing the superfights we are still led to believe he covets – while staying out of trouble.

4 For serious investment into looking after the fighters

Imagine how much the $10m spent on a couple of lavish gala dinners, or even the $100m+ in purses for Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul could have done for the sport had it been invested in structure, grassroots, amateur programs etc. Think of what it would have meant to the charities like Ring of Brotherhood and the Ringside Charitable Trust, who fight so hard for a few dollars in donations here and there to look after former fighters or damaged boxers. 

5 More care for former boxers

The stark stories of Reggie Johnson and Donald Curry were just a couple that saw care workers and relatives take to GoFundMe to raise money to help look after their loved ones and they were not the only ones you would have heard about. More needs to be done to look after boxers at the end of their retirement from the sport.

6 For the Ricky Hatton Foundation to really take off

The shorter list would be who was not shocked, stunned and saddened by the tragic passing of Ricky Hatton. In his honor, the Foundation was set up and has been created to help those struggling, as Ricky so openly did.

7 For cheats not to prosper

How many drug cheats fail tests and come back in more lucrative matches than the ones they had previously? All of them, just about. So much more needs to be done with positive tests; bans, suspensions, uniformity across the board. Perhaps this is something TKO will introduce, but let’s see.

8 For the Professional Boxers Safety Act to remain largely as it is

Okay, so TKO – it appears – just needs their proposed amendments rubber-stamped and they are good to rock and roll in 2026, how they want to rock and how they want to roll. 

Rather than object to their proposals wholeheartedly, and insist on what we have already and say the Ali Act shouldn’t be changed, let’s operate in that grey area in the middle instead of being black and white. Why don’t they keep things as they are, but add the best of the new proposals, such as improved fighter pay at the lower end and more drug testing (and while we’re on it, make all tests and findings transparent).

9 For Top Rank to land a hefty TV deal

Some are holding on and hoping, some have given up. But the sport – particularly in the US – will be in a far healthier position for it. No one is saying Top Rank’s shows were flawless, but the schedule has taken an almighty hit since they parted ways with ESPN.

10 For PBC to hit their stride

If PBC didn’t have bad luck in 2025, they would hardly have had any. Fighters missing weight, failing PED tests, getting injured… and that was just the last card! They have almost, at times, seemed to be breaking into their stride but it’s not happened yet. It would be great for all concerned if that was the case in 2026.

11 For Turki Alalshikh to keep playing Championship Manager with big fights

Sure, we haven’t had every fight we’ve ever wanted, but there have been plenty of them. Sure, there have been some that weren’t much good, either. But that’s the sport. But fighters are getting paid – and it’s a bloody hard sport, and the fans are being entertained. Let’s hope that wealth filters into matters addressed in 4, 5, and 7.

12 For Boxxer to keep their talent and make a serious go of it on BBC

It’s been an exceptionally rough period for Ben Shalom’s promotional outfit. And while he’s not got the results he would have wanted from his first two main events – with Frazer Clarke and Callum Simpson both losing – he’s put on competitive main events and that, really, is what it’s all about. It’s easy to forget, too, that the BBC carries a huge online presence and boxing being back on the Beeb is long overdue. Boxxer’s success would be a boon for British boxing and provide boxers with a healthy outlet in competition with other broadcasters.

13 For the return of Sky Sports and TNT Sport in the UK

While DAZN have done their best and have become the most prolific broadcaster in the sport, the lack of polish, clout and the viewership offered by the ‘big two’ in the UK is missed, including the attention to detail, critical eye and neutrality in broadcast and shoulder programming.

14 For Terence Crawford to stay retired

Some might have wanted the Boots Ennis fight, but Boots is a year or two behind where he needs to be to make that fight make financial sense to anyone with the exception of Turki Alalshikh. But Crawford against anyone else from 154-168 just doesn’t do a whole lot for business, and it certainly doesn’t top what he’s done against Canelo. Sure, being undisputed at 160lbs would be cool, but there isn’t a fight there that would improve his legacy.

15 Fewer freak shows given oxygen

While being all for activity, let’s not forget what really matters in the sport which is the top fighters facing one another or, at least, equally matched boxers fighting. Mismatches, sideshow attractions, the sport wasn’t built on them in the past and shouldn’t be built around them now.

16 Fighters operating in weight classes more natural to them

Missing weight used to be far more taboo than it is now. There needs to be more understanding when someone misses weight – as long as a fighter has given it their all – but more acceptance from a fighter, their teams and the sanctioning and governing bodies that they are often competing in weight classes that leaves them too depleted. The WBC recently discussed the possibility of bringing back same-day weight-ins; one hopes that the opinions of every doctor in the room that day – same-day weigh-ins will be safer than the current system – are not ignored.

17 For Oleksandr Usyk to retire undefeated

This new trend of elite boxers retiring unbeaten is wonderful and we’re here for it. It’s a shame more don’t, once their legacy is intact and their financial future is assured, but it’s in Usyk’s hands to join the likes of Floyd Mayweather, Andre Ward, Terence Crawford, and Joe Calzaghe. What we don’t then want, however, is to have to wait 25 years for the next all-conquering king to come along following the fracturing of belts.

18 To hear from officials after controversial moments

Now we’re not proposing we put officials up in front of hungry packs of journalists, but at the very least a prepared statement should be filed via respective commissions – with officials made to explain bizarre scorecards or calls made on the fly in the ring.

19 For Brendan Ingle to get into the International Boxing Hall of Fame

By the way, there is not a single British trainer in the IBHOF. The Sheffield guru took five, yes, five, kids from not having put on a glove before to world titles; Johnny Nelson, Naseem Hamed (already enshrined), Kell Brook, Junior Witter, and Kid Galahad all became champions at the Wincobank Gym. That is before you get to their title contenders, European and British champions. Maybe the movie about his relationship with Naz, Giant, due for release in January will strengthen his claim. With this in mind, Enzo Calzaghe should at least be on the ballot, too. He didn’t just train Joe, you know? But even if he did….

20 To get to know more ‘characters’ in boxing

We often hear that there are either no storytellers left in boxing and no great characters. Well, by the time Brian Norman fought Devin Haney in November we could tell you who was on his Mt Rushmore, what he thought of Devin Haney’s outfits and who he felt would win the other fights on the bill. We couldn’t tell you much about the man himself. When Terence Crawford retired, by our counting, there was one excellent written interview about him through his career – by Mark Kriegel. More needs to be done to tell some exceptional stories. That includes better access, too. But maybe that is something of the past.

21 For the balance in boxing media and promoters to be more central

Too often it’s a case of a promoter asking a reporter to jump and then answer being, how high? Criticism, even warranted criticism, seems to be unwanted and unwelcome. Same thing goes for curious lines of questioning. It seems to have trended heavily away from that. 

22 For Garry Jonas to get his due

Okay, banging the drum for the owner of this website might seem to contradict our journalistic integrity. But look at what he achieved in 2025 with his never-a-dull-moment ProBoxTV outfit and the fighters he moved towards world championship opportunities (the likes of Angelo Leo, Trevor McCumby, Lester Martinez, Lamont Roach) and beyond. Jonas ‘gets’ boxing like few others, so, in 2026, pay close attention to what comes next.

23 For Naoya Inoue to face Junto Nakatani at the Tokyo Dome
It seems like this could be on tap. Let’s hope neither slip up beforehand – we’ve seen that happen before. Nakatani has already narrowly dodged a bullet against Sebastian Hernandez.

24 For broadcast times to be more audience-friendly
This is a tough one because you can’t please all the people all the time. But main events going on beyond midnight are surely not in anyone’s best interests. If you’re trying to capture a casual or lapsed fan, bear in mind they might not be ready to sit through a five-hour undercard or watch a team of four or five pundits spend countless hours ‘padding’ in the build-up; consider striking while the iron’s hot, perhaps?

25 For Ring/Riyadh Season to stop attempting to censor the media

C’mon. Let’s all be friends.

26 Goodwill to all men and women

This is the fight world. It’s tough, it’s brutal, here’s hoping 2026 sees the fighters all through the year as safely as possible.