50 MOST POWERFUL Ranking the most influential figures in boxing today JANUARY 7 2021 THE WORLD’S BEST FIGHT MAGAZINE EST. 1909 WWW.BOXINGNEWSONLINE.NET WWW.BOXINGNEWSONLINE.NET THE YEAR THAT WAS Crowning the best fights and fighters of an unforgettable 2020 £3.99 VOL. 77 NO. 01 BRITISH & WORLD RATINGS / STEVE BUNCE’S CRYSTAL BALL / FRANKIE RANDALL SUBSCRIBE TO BOXING NEWS PRESENTS Six brand new bi-monthly 100-page souvenir GREAT REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE bookazines from the award-winning Boxing News Receive all six issues straight to your door team. We started with the Muhammad Ali vs Joe PLUS your FREE Ali-Frazier cult t-shirt Frazier special. The second edition brings you worth £24.99! Pay just £40.94 by annual 27 exclusive interviews with legends including DD – saving 15% on the cover price. Hagler, Leonard, Foreman, Ali and Holyfield. ORDER TODAY Call 01959 543 747 & quote: BXPTM for size medium, BXPTL for large or BXPTXL for x-large. Visit: shop.kelsey.co.uk/BXPTM free cult t-shirt worth £24.99! Alternatively, to only order the Ali-Frazier bookazine for £7.99, visit shop.kelsey.co.uk/BXP1 *UK Direct Debit offer only, available until September 30, 2020. No cancellations within the first 12 months. Gifts are subject to availability and if the product goes out of stock an alternative product will be offered at a similar value. Colour of t-shirt may differ from photograph. Discounts are calculated on the full cover price. For overseas and UK credit/debit card offers, visit our website at shop.kelsey.co.uk. For digital subscriptions, visit shop.kelsey. co.uk/boxingnews. Calls charged at your local network rate. Order lines open 8.30am-5.30pm, Monday-Friday. Full T&Cs can be found at shop.kelsey. co.uk/terms. Kelsey Publishing takes your privacy seriously and will only use your personal information to administer your account and to provide the products and services you have requested from us. We will only contact you about our special offers via the preferences you will indicate when ordering and you can update these at any time by emailing us at [email protected] or by calling us on 01959 543 747. ContentsJanuary 7, 2021 FIGHTER OF THE YEAR 12 Which boxing star shone the brightest in 2020? REVIEW OF THE YEAR HIGHLIGHTS >> 14 FIGHT OF THE YEAR 14 >> 5 JOHN SCULLY There were some captivating contests Sorting out the sanctioning bodies and thrilling tussles to choose from >> 8 STEVE BUNCE >> 16 WOMEN’S BOXING Time to dust off the old crystal ball Selecting the best fighters and fights >> 10 BOXING MEDIA >> 18 KNOCKOUT OF THE YEAR Reviewing the previous 12 months Who scored the most sensational KO? >> 26 THE POWER LIST >> 20 EVENT OF THE YEAR The 50 most influential figures in boxing Standout shows and blockbuster bills >> 34 WORLD RATINGS >> 22 PROSPECT OF THE YEAR Ranking the top boxers on the planet Knocking on the door of the big time >> 36 BRITISH RATINGS SAVE £££ WITH A SUBSCRIPTION Every active fighter in Britain ranked >> 40 ROBERT McCRACKEN For more details visit The impact of COVID on amateur boxing WWW.BOXINGNEWSONLINE.NET/SUBSCRIPTIONS >> 44 HISTORIC VENUES The longest-established UK fight halls >> 46 VLADIMIR SHISHKIN The super-middle contender speaks www.boxingnewsonline.net JANUARY 7, 2021 l BOXING NEWS l 3 EDITOR’S LETTER Photo: AL BELLO/GETTY IMAGES AMAZING: Time to Randall stuns the subscribe great Chavez l THERE are numerous ways to subscribe, including special offers. l YOU can get a print and online Cover photography AL BELLO, GETTY IMAGES, subscription MIKEY WILLIAMS/TOP RANK, for £8.50 per MARK ROBINSON/MATCHROOM & ED MULHOLLAND/MATCHROOM month (special price available until the end of January), or digital only for just £4.99. l FOR more information on all the subscriptions DON’T FORGET FRANKIE plus our special bookazines, The plight of Randall is all too common in the land of the ex-boxer please visit www.shop. kelsey.co.uk LL around us are a tight split decision. It should have been Chavez, Juan Martin Coggi. He will be or call 01959- boxers who used clear and unanimous. recognised for those accomplishments. 543-747. to be somebody. In the rematch, promoted by Don King, Everybody loved Frankie. Too often they’re Randall lost the WBC super-lightweight “We had fond memories in training l THE next A pushed to the side title in exceptionally controversial camp. He was a mechanic and liked to issue will be because their broken circumstances. The fight was stopped in work on cars. He loved to work with his in shops on bodies do not suit the eighth round and went to the cards hands. His favorite saying was, ‘I love my January 14 and the narrative we’re due to a cut over the Mexican’s right eye. job! I train because I love to do it.’ Even available to trying to promote. Under absurd WBC rules, Randall lost a when he was in training camp for some of download on We must not forget point despite the head-clash that caused his biggest fights he still wanted to work January 12. them. the wound being confirmed as accidental. and just be around people. It’s just what he Frankie Randall, The deduction resulted in Chavez, one of did, and he loved it.” The the former world King’s cash cows, winning a technical split Randall, like so many, was addicted to Opening Matt champion who died decision. Randall would bounce back to fighting. In the end, as he passed away in Bell... Christie at the age of just twice win the WBA championship. But care home, there was not an ounce of fight 59 two days before several drugs like cocaine and theophylline left in him. Brain damaged and ravaged by l The Boxing @MattCBoxingNews Christmas, was were found in his system after he beat Juan Parkinson’s, the fog thickened until there News podcast, Editor among the sport’s Martin Coggi for the second time in three was no way out. available every final casualties of bouts. But Randall, with his adoring family Wednesday 2020. The man who shocked the world Randall’s relationship with drugs close by, was one of the lucky ones. Too night, is when he became the first to beat the great blighted his career. He was released from many end up alone and forgotten. As attracting Julio Cesar Chavez in 1994 was getting prison in 1990 after serving 17 months we enter a new year, we must of course thousands of beaten up time and again by the turn of on drug charges. Chavez himself would focus on the future. Rebuilding the sport listeners. the century. Antonio Margarito stopped tumble into addiction as his own career after arguably the most difficult year in its l Every week him in the year 2000 before fighters like dwindled. They would fight one last time. history remains a huge task. we tackle Peter Manfredo and Marco Antonio In 2004, two deteriorating old men But think, too, of those fighters of the the biggest Rubio used the old man’s name to pad with marketable names creaked their way past who still need our help and who gave subjects, ask their records and his body to sharpen through 10 slow motion rounds in Mexico so much. Look at the long, long list of the difficult their weapons. By the time he retired in City. Chavez, the less damaged of the two, fallen heroes in this week’s issue (pages 25 questions, 2005, aged 44, his record read 58-18-1 won the decision. Randall should not have to 27) and raise a glass to them all. preview and (42). Thirteen of those losses occurred been anywhere near a ring by then. Old review, while after 1999, with 10 of them coming inside and eroded boxers often need saving from l THIS week’s issue went to press on looking back schedule. themselves. But the Morristown, Tennessee December 24. For those who do not through boxing At his peak, “The Surgeon” was a resident loved to fight. have access to our website, we will catch history. sublime and tenacious technician. Chavez “One thing we can remember is the up on the fights and news that occurred was slowly slipping from his peak when great times,” his trainer Aaron Snowell told between then and now in the January 14 l Listen (& rate Randall went to work on him. The 89-0-1 BoxingScene’s Jake Donovan. issue. Happy New Year, one and all. & subscribe) via Mexican was dropped in the 11th, the first “He was in a lot of great fights and won Apple, Spotify Follow us and keep up to date time he’d been put down in his career, a lot of great fights. Edwin Rosario [whom and all major before Frankie – a 15/1 underdog – won Randall split two bouts with], Julio Cesar @BoxingNewsED BoxingNewsOnline 4 l BOXING NEWS l JANUARY 7, 2021 www.boxingnewsonline.net GUEST COLUMN FIVE STEPS TO A BETTER SPORT Photo: CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES Each of the steps lead to one thing: Sorting out the sanctioning bodies OR this column that needs to happen is that the four declare, “Oh boy! I’ve dreamed of outlined, my fourth wish is to ban the my instructions major bodies, the WBC, IBF, WBA and being the interim champion ever introduction of any more sanctioning were quite WBO, would have to actually follow since I was a kid!” bodies.