A Yugoslavian fighter called Mate Parlov was the first man to win the World Amateur Boxing Championship, an Olympic gold medal and then a professional world title. Almost half a century later, it is still an elite achievement.
On Thursday, at 11am, the boxing will start in Liverpool at the M&S Bank Arena when the latest version – now called the World Boxing Championships – begin; more than 580 boxers from nearly 70 countries will try to follow in Parlov’s footsteps. It is a bigger field than the boxing at the London 2012 Olympics.
It is also the first worlds under the control and guidance of World Boxing, the new global governing body recently given the right to organise Olympic boxing in Los Angeles in 2028. This is its big test, make no mistake.
The British squad is young and includes a lot of untested men and women. In fairness, any big tournament the year after the Olympics, and the inevitable defections to the professional business, is always difficult. The Uzbeks and Cubans – the best amateur nations in the world – never have that problem.
There are also a lot of young veterans in the GB team, boxers with a short and hard history of fights in as many as six countries over the last year or so. Sacha Hickey, on an unbeaten sequence of over 30, has won two European titles and fights at 65 kilos.
Hickey, who is 21 and represents the Fisher club in Bermondsey, London, has fought in Brazil, Poland, Spain and Bulgaria recently. She was also part of the super-camp held at GB HQ in Sheffield last month, when about 160 boxers from nearly a dozen countries held a joint event to prepare for Liverpool. The Uzbeks and Americans were just two of the leading nations to be involved in the three-week camp.
At the other end of the scales is Damar Thomas, the latest British super-heavyweight hopeful. Thomas is just 20, a smart southpaw and one of two boxers from the Powerday Hooks club in north London representing GB in Liverpool.
During the last 25 years, British super-heavyweights have delivered medals in all the major amateur championships and at all levels. Thomas would be an ideal candidate for the LA 2028 Games, assuming nobody in the professional business can persuade him to turn his back on the Olympic dream. There are plenty of good whisperers on the fringes of the pro game, whose job is to convince the top amateur boxers that they are wasting their time fighting in the unpaid ranks.
At 70 kilos, Liverpool’s Odel Kamara is relishing the prospect of winning a medal in front of his hometown fans. Kamara, another kid of just 21, fights for the legendary Salisbury club in the great boxing city. “This is the place to win a major medal – my city, my time,” he said. Kamara, like so many of the GB team, is already on the radars of professional managers and promoters. He understands that major medals translate to more money when a boxer turns professional; it is a simple transaction.
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Back in 1972 at the Munich Olympics, Parlov won gold at light-heavyweight, and then surged to victory at the world championships in Havana in 1974. He turned professional in 1975 and won the world title in 1978. It is a beautiful triple, and Oleksandr Usyk is one of only a few boxers to have pulled it off since. There is another candidate, and he is the favourite at 60 kilos.
Having earlier won the world title, Abdumalik Khalokov won gold at the Olympics last summer in Paris at 57 kilos, one of the five gold medallists from Uzbekistan. He is 25, a dashing hero in his home country and unbeaten in two fights as a professional. The Uzbek winners from Paris all received $500,000 and a home from their government. Khalokov is worth the £15 admission fee on his own.
The Cubans will be in Liverpool, probably not dominating like they did at the inaugural world championships in Havana in 1974; they won eight medals in the 11 weights, including five golds. They were untouchable back then, but last year in Paris, they claimed just two Olympic medals, including one gold.
However, they will have a genuine living legend and true Cuban boxing icon in their team. Julio Cesar La Cruz, now 36, has won the world title five times and fought at four Olympics, winning two gold medals. He is Cuba’s latest super-heavyweight dreamer. He has fought over 300 times as an amateur and is unbeaten in four as a pro. A medal is a possibility; greater glory is also achievable. He might yet get to walk in Parlov’s shoes.
It will be 10 days of history in Liverpool, and dozens of those competing will feature in professional world title fights over the next decade. It will be a glorious window into boxing’s future.