Given the endless nonsense that continues to surround the Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua fight, it’s no surprise that it has dominated all the recent headlines in boxing.
Will they? Won’t they? Does anyone even really care any more? Is it happening in the UK? America? Saudi Arabia? Maybe on the moon? For a gazillion dollars?
It felt like a degree of certainty had been reached last week with the announcement that the fight will go ahead at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff in December.
That was until Dana White, the UFC supremo and one of the fight’s chief promoters, said only a few days ago that he ‘doesn’t know’ if it will go ahead.
Perhaps we will get a clearer picture tomorrow afternoon, with Fury and Joshua set to face-off at a media conference in London.
Either way, this tiresome circus act involving two fighters long past their prime continues to be pretty much the only thing anyone is speaking about in boxing right now.
Josh Taylor is dominated by Jack Catterall in Leeds as his ring supremacy is left in ruins
Nathaniel Collins had been Scotland’s biggest hope until he suffered two successive defeats
Taylor’s rise to the top of the fight game was an incredible achievement that will long be lauded
It perhaps escaped your attention, then, that Scotland’s Nathaniel Collins was back in the ring last weekend. Quite an important fight it was, too.
Taking on European featherweight champion Liam Davies in Birmingham, this was supposed to be Collins’ comeback fight after he lost to Spain’s Cristobal Llorente in Glasgow in April in their world title eliminator.
It did not go well. Collins was floored in the first round and never really recovered, before his trainer put a stop to it all and said enough was enough at the end of the seventh round.
There was a sadness to it all. Not only that Collins had suffered a second successive defeat, but also in terms of the wider implications for himself and for Scottish boxing as a whole.
The defeat to Llorente at The Hydro had been the first loss of Collins’ career. It had been a tough night, albeit not disastrous. There was a chance to bounce back and come again.
But, in terms of challenging at world level, he now looks further away than ever. The same would surely apply to Scottish boxing as a whole after this latest blow.
Not so long ago, Scottish boxing felt like it had a pulse. Josh Taylor climbed the mountain and was, in his pomp, one of the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet.
The Tartan Tornado put together one of the greatest runs by any British fighter in history to become our first undisputed world champion in the four-belt era. Achieving that in just 18 fights was truly phenomenal.
When Taylor’s career then fizzled out due to a combination of burn-out, inactivity and promotional mismanagement, it had been hoped that Collins would be the next cab off the rank.
The late Ken Buchanan won multiple titles at lightweight and fought between 1965 and 1982
The Nightmare, as he’s known, was supposed to be the fighter who kept the lights on and continued to fly the flag in the post-Taylor era.
That’s not to say he was ever going to be quite as good as Taylor. That always looked unrealistic. But there was genuine hope that Collins could at least be a contender for a world title.
The brutal yet stylish manner in which he dismantled fellow Scot Lee McGregor at The Hydro in May 2025 gave the look of a fighter with all the credentials to go on and box at world level.
But the defeat to Davies in Birmingham last weekend has surely ended that conversation. In the post-Taylor era, the cupboard is depressingly bare for Scottish boxing. Completely and utterly empty.
No one is selling out arenas in Scotland. No one is forcing their way on to Sky Sports and the likes. No one is even close to holding box-office appeal or appearing on pay-per-views.
The amateur and club scene are still doing their bit. The numbers are OK, even if a lot of people use boxing clubs as fitness classes these days rather than having any desire to actually enter a ring.
But when you speak to people involved with boxing clubs across Scotland, the majority of them all share a similar concern.
Plainly, that we have no one even remotely close to following in Taylor’s footsteps and fighting at the top level of the sport. The outlook is bleak.
Listen, Scotland is a relatively small country. We do not have an endless pool of talent. Boxing is not a mainstream sport like football or rugby.
The two successive defeats for Collins have signaled a barren period for Scottish boxing
Kids learn to play football in various different ways; at school, at coaching sessions, or with a club. Maybe even down the local park or on the streets in some very rare and old-fashioned instances.
Rugby is a non-negotiable for those in private education. Even golf now has far more reach and appeal with the younger generation than boxing.
With the awareness around long-term brain damage now greater than ever, you can hardly blame any parent if they aren’t overly enthused by the idea of their kids being involved in a sport where they get punched in the head.
When a generational talent like Taylor comes along and then leaves, the gap is enormous. There is no conveyor belt of world-class operators waiting in the wings.
Sadly, it also now appears that Scotland can’t even offer up any fighters in the bracket just below world level either.
Collins has already come through a serious health scare – a life-threatening twisted bowel caused by infant scar tissue – that put much more than just his boxing career at risk. He has shown heart. No one questions that. He gave it a good go.
But his latest defeat is emblematic of the wider malaise that continues to be so prevalent across Scottish boxing as a whole.
There have been lean times in the past. After Ken Buchanan and Jim Watt, there were quiet periods. After Scott Harrison’s turbulent reign at featherweight the scene thinned out again until Ricky Burns and then Taylor arrived.
Cycles exist. The problem now is that the cycle feels stuck in the downward phase with no obvious sign of it moving back up again.
Where is the next boxing superstar in Scotland? It is beginning to feel like the sport is dying a death. That is the uncomfortable truth.
When Collins fought Llorente at The Hydro in April, it wasn’t even close to being a sell-out. The whole top tier of the arena was closed. Make of that what you will.
And that was a world title eliminator involving the guy who was supposed to be our next big hope. Taylor himself has acknowledged the lack of young fighters breaking through.
The Tornado’s retirement left a void. Collins’ latest defeat has made it wider and deeper. The Hydro still stands ready for big nights, but it’s hard to see a major promoter going back there any time soon.
The Scottish public still loves a fighter who will dig in and go to war. But the fighters of genuine world-class pedigree are simply not here at present.
These are the lean years. The barren stretch. And that should worry anyone who cares about the sport north of the border.
The cupboard is bare. The stars have gone. Until someone steps forward and proves otherwise, Scottish boxing is living on memories of Taylor and on nostalgia about some of the other great names of the past.
