Boxers who are dead to me, meaning I cannot muster any interest in the remainder of their careers:

Dillian Whyte, Daniel Jacobs and Danny Garcia.

What is going on at PBC with the slew of chronic inactivity?

Almost all of their big names fought just once in 2022, and so many of those were behind a PPV paywall.

If you have a spare hour or so, I highly recommend checking out this forgotten heavyweight title bout between Lamon Brewster and Luan Krasniqi from the mid 2000s:

https://tinyurl.com/brewsterkrasniqi

This Rafe Bartholomew piece for The Athletic is also worth reading for added context:

https://theathletic.com/1181044/2019/09/03/legendary-nights-for-all-the-wrong-reasons-lamon-brewster-luan-krasniqi-and-the-night-of-the-17-second-count/

The turd of a referee, Jose Hiram Rivera, is still working to this day and recently reffed the Brandon Glanton-David Light fight.

Looking back at my monthly Judging the Judges pieces from 2022, the question emerges of who were some of the worst repeat offenders of the year?

Donovan Boucher and John Latham share the unenviable #1 position amongst referees & judges with the most total citations for poor officiating.

Steve Weisfeld (can we stop pretending he is one of boxing’s best judges now?) and Victor Loughlin were close behind.

Dishonourable mention must also be made of:

• Obvious fixed fights in Ghana, and a case of boxer identity fraud facilitated by a Ghana Boxing Authority official (possibly a Callum Simpson bout in February) resulting in a BBBofC ban.
• The German Boxing Association and Albanian Professional Boxing Commission for licensing 49 year old Danny Williams to box in 2022.
• Adalaide Byrd still out there fucking up scorecards.
• Carlos Padilla admitting he gave a slow count to Manny Pacquiao when he was dropped by Nedal Hussein in 2000 and the WBC making excuses for him.
• The BDB, German Boxing Association, Polish Boxing Union and the Czech Union of Professional Boxers for sanctioning the likes of Pavel Siska, who has 50 knockout losses.
• The Tanzania Professional Boxing Regulatory Commission for myriad unsafe ring conditions and other sanctioning gaffes.
• Ian John-Lewis, after nearly 30 years as one of the worst officials in world boxing, for finally been shamed into obscurity after his Josh Taylor-Jack Catterall 114-111 scorecard in February. He has now left the BBBofC and joined fringe governing body BIBA.

How did my prospect of the year picks for 2022 perform?

Pound4poundireland’s 2021 Fight, Knockout, Round, Prospect, Upset and Trainer of the Year

Jesus Ramos Jr. had two fights by May, but has been inactive since. Those wins were solid however: a stoppage of Vladimir Hernandez (who had recently beaten Julian Williams and Alfredo Angulo) and wide decision versus Luke Santamaria (holder of wins over Mykal Fox, Devon Alexander and Abel Ramos).

Ginjiro Shigeoka notched two wins over nondescript opposition to advance to 8-0 while picking up the Japanese 105lb. title. His D-day is three days from now when he fights Daniel Valladares for a world title.

Top pick Conor Benn had an absolutely nightmarish year. He started off by destroying Chris van Heerden, only to see his domestic super fight with Chris Eubank Jr. cancelled at the eleventh hour due to multiple failed drug tests. It’s still unclear how long he will be banned for, if at all.

9 of the 13 potential bouts I highlighted for 2022 took place, which is a surprising number for a year which has often felt like a down one for the sport.

Fights to look forward to in 2022?