Elliot Worsell

Like any name given to a newborn, the name Campbell would have started its life on a shortlist, deliberated over, and measured against other contenders before then being assigned to the child. They at that point would have said: “Yes, he looks like a Campbell. It suits him.”

· Uncrowned · 18 min read Not unlike birth, or the end of some other form of captivity, for two and a half hours he

The season in focus here is for once not Riyadh Season. It is instead spooky season, or Allhallowtide, and there can be no better of way to celebrate it than by taking a look at the 10 scariest fighters currently competing in boxing

Twenty-eight years since its release and 50 years since the Rumble in the Jungle, "When We Were Kings" remains as powerful of a touchstone as ever.

Save for being knocked out in round one, or badly injured, there aren’t many worse ways to lose than the way Liam Davies lost against Shabaz Masoud last night (November 2) in Birmingham. It wasn’t that the defeat was particularly punishing, or that Davies was humiliated, but more that the disparity in skill between the two unbeaten rivals throughout the 12 rounds they shared left Davies with more questions than answers. Wounds, of course, can be licked and will in time heal. But doubt, especially in one so confident, is sometimes the far greater affliction.

After knowing exactly what to do with himself, and indeed his opponent, on Saturday night, there is a certain irony to the fact that Shabaz Masoud, less than 48 hours later, finds himself now all out of ideas.

To stand out in women’s boxing today is no easy task, especially when those at the top are so dominant, the best fight the best, and the policy of the best fighting the best just so happens to deliver some of the most entertaining fights of the year.

To watch Nikolai Valuev prepare to strip down and weigh in for the final time was to watch a man attempt and fail to find a hiding place inside his own body. Surrounded but alone, the giant Russian had been dragged to a Nuremberg shopping centre on a Friday afternoon for the sole purpose of attracting eyeballs and was now, as he waited, doing his best to avoid them. When not bowing his head, the heavyweight could be seen cowering in an alcove, attracting, despite the futile effort to make himself small, the attention of all the people his promoter knew would be there. Some presumably recognised Valuev as the boxer, that tall one, whereas others were drawn to him simply because he was so much larger than everyone else in the shopping centre that day.

Honesty in boxing is often viewed as a flaw as serious and detrimental as having a weak chin, slow feet, or a moral compass. Seldom, in fact, will you hear a boxer be completely honest about either their training camp or their concerns ahead of a fight and only on special occasions will they drop the façade and deliver a version of the truth in the aftermath of one. Even then, however, honesty on the part of the loser is usually a synonym for justification – that is, an excuse – and should be seen as merely an attempt to save face rather than reveal one.

For weeks Jaron “Boots” Ennis will have prepared to win a no-win situation while ignoring the collective sigh of fans, each of them as frustrated as him to have to endure what was set to take place. He would have considered how to make the best of a less-than-ideal situation and how to beat his opponent, Karen Chukhadzhian, in a way that was both different from and an improvement on last time. Last time, of course, Ennis had beaten Chukhadzhian by unanimous decision, winning every round, which meant the only way to better that result was by now stopping Chukhadzhian in their rematch.