The Third British Empire

The tiny Islands of Great Britain conquering the world is not a new phenomenon, it has happened twice in our long and distinguished history already. In December, Tyson Fury and Billy Joe Saunders collected World Title Belts at Heavyweight and Middleweight (historically the #1 and #2 glamour divisions), swelling the roster of Great British World Champions to twelve men, and prior to the IBF’s crazy decision to strip Fury of its title around a week after he won it, a total of FIFTEEN of the world title belts. But in this world of fragmented, where does that see the British Empire stand against the American’s and Russian’s, and of course the lower weight superpowers Mexico and Japan? Looking just at the four main recognised world championship bodies, the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO, and the all important Ring Champion’s, we should see five belts per weight division. Sadly the WBA deem that five world champion’s per division is not enough and so have three belt’s available at each weight class, Super/Unified, Regular and Interim World Championship’s are on offer, bloating us to the potential of seven “World” champion’s per division ,so across the seventeen weight’s there are a total of 119 belts available. At present, twenty four belts are vacant, bringing our total down to 95. Fourteen of these belt’s presently reside in the UK, with Tyson Fury holding WBA Super, WBO and Ring Heavyweight titles, James DeGale holding the IBF portion of the Super Middleweight title, the aforementioned and newly crowned Billy Joe Saunders as WBO Middleweight Champion, Liam Smith holding the same title at Light Middleweight, Kell Borrk’s IBF Welterweight title, WBA and WBO Lightweight title’s for Anthony Crolla and Terry Flanighan respectively, Welsh Wizard Lee Selby waist is adorned by the IBF Featherweight Belt, and then we have two titlist’s at both Super Bantamweight and Bantamweight in Carl Frampton (IBF) and Scott Quigg (WBA) at the higher weight and Jamie McDonnell (WBA) and Lee Haskins (IBF) at the lower weight. This impressive haul becomes even more impressive when you tally up the belts for the other nations, the UK stands proudly at the top of the list, followed by Mexico with ten belts, and Japan and the USA sharing third place with nine belts apiece. Given that few people accept that the WBA “interim” title is a genuine “World” title, and that the Ring Magazine Title is not a belt that has a governing body behind it, my analysis saw me set these two belts aside. This would leave us with 85 titles across the 17 divisions, of which just 11 are vacant, meaning a total of 74 belts. By country the results are equally startling: Exc. Ring & WBA Interim UK 13 18% Japan 9 12% Mexico 8 11% USA 8 11% Russia 7 9% Cuba 3 4% Thailand 3 4% Germany 3 4% Puerto Rico 3 4% Kazakhstan 2 3% Philippines 2 3% Domincan Rep. 2 3% Argentina 2 3% Ukraine 2 3% Venezuela 1 1% Nicaragua 1 1% Canada 1 1% Poland 1 1% South Africa 1 1% Sweden 1 1% Uzbekistan 1 1% 74 Almost one-in-five of the current “World” titlists hail from the British Isles, for such a tiny portion of the world’s population to hold such an inflated portion of the is truly remarkable, and something that could actually increase with the prospects that are coming through in Britain. The likes of Callum Smith and Anthony Joshua would be expecting their futures to be adorned with large, shiny belts, and the likes of Tony Bellew, Nathan Cleverly, George Groves, Martin Murray, Chris Eubank Jnr and Amir Khan are set to be joined by the returning David Haye as people that will be aiming for a title shot in 2016. Indeed Callum’s brother Stephen has a tilt lined up for March to become the second “Smithy” to collect world honours. You’d be a brave man to bet against the Scouse family holding 3 belts by the time Big Ben chimes away 2016. That would put their family joint sixth behind just; the UK, US, Mexico, Japan and Russia! The slogan has often been, “The Brit’s are coming!” The Brit’s are now here. And they are, once again, ruling the World.