The first British Boxing Board of Control circular of 2024 was recently released and, as is the norm, a number of British, English, and European title fights were announced. Some were already known to the public and others were not. There was, however, more than a few involving fighters from Frank Warren’s stable at Queensberry Promotions.
Boxing News caught up with Warren to find out which of these will happen and which won’t.
BN: Gavin Gwynne has vacated his British lightweight title. Does that mean Sam Noakes’ Commonwealth title defence against Lewis Sylvester will also be for the vacant British title on the undercard of Hamzah Sheeraz-Liam Williams on February 10?
FW: I hope so.
BN: Will Gwynne defend his European title against Yvan Mendy?
FW: It’s possible. I’ll have to talk to the team but that is possible.
BN: There was no mention of Liam Davies and his next European bantamweight title defence in the Circular. I’d heard Dennis McCann had a fight lined up against an unbeaten fighter. Any chance it’s Davies vs. McCann?
FW: We’re working on something. Dennis jumps the gun a bit.
BN: Has an agreement been reached for Nathaniel Collins to defend his British featherweight title against Hopey Price?
FW: Yep, I understand that’s been done. No date but we’re working on it.
BN: Sean McGoldrick has vacated his British bantamweight title. Will Chris Bourke fight Ashley Lane for the vacant title on your March 29 show at York Hall?
FW: That’s correct.
BN: The Board circular have put forward Solomon Dacres to defend his English heavyweight title against Moses Itauma. Will that fight happen?
FW: I don’t know yet. They’ve made a match and there’s been no consultation. Sol Dacres has got a fight lined up in March anyway. Moses fights next month. So, we’ll see.
BN: Is Ethan James vs. Owen Cooper for the vacant English welterweight title happening?
FW: They’ve said that’s made, have they?
BN: The Circular said the Stewards decided to approve a request from yourself for that contest.
FW: Excellent. That’s good.
BN: Other than that, are you looking forward to this year?
FW: Yeah, we’ve got some lively domestic fights lined up. We’re doing another Magnificent Seven show which will be in the first quarter of this year in Birmingham. We’ve got a good card with Hamzah [Sheeraz] headlining against Liam [Williams] and we’ve got the Riyadh show which we’re involved with, so it’s a good start to the year.