The new-look British heavyweight scene

Although it is true that heavyweights tend to have a longer lifespan than most fighters, this does not mean they are immune to deterioration and the passing of time. Often, in fact, the demise of a heavyweight is rather quick and spectacular, with the damage done by the heaviest of punches and the distance between falling and standing back up that much greater. 

In the UK, we have in recent years become accustomed to seeing British heavyweights roam the upper echelons of the heavyweight division. If it isn’t Tyson Fury holding a belt, it is Anthony Joshua, and for a while it seemed as though a fight between those two, Fury and Joshua, was the fight the division needed to provide some clarity. 

In the end, of course, that clarity was instead provided by Oleksandr Usyk, who beat them both (twice), and since then the picture at heavyweight has changed. Now, with Usyk clearly in charge, there is nothing to be gained from Fury vs. Joshua aside from a giant payday (admittedly, all that really matters for most). It has no bearing on the ownership of certain belts and even the winner of that fight will still be better known for losing twice against Usyk, the division’s true number one. 

Indeed, it is perhaps for that reason that Fury has recently “retired” and Joshua has entertained the idea of bluffing Jake Paul and taking him up on his call-out. Perhaps, with Usyk so far ahead, it has become difficult for these two men, these two former champions, to once again summon the energy required for a sprint finish when up ahead the winner has already crossed the line. 

If so, we must now look to other heavyweights – more energetic ones – to take the baton in the hope that there is a second lap to run. Better yet, these heavyweights will pray that Usyk, by then, will have left the track, or started his victory lap, and that taking over from him will be an easier task than overtaking him. 

In that mission Fury failed, and Joshua failed, and even Daniel Dubois, Britain’s next big thing, failed in 2023. He didn’t fail the way the others failed – meaning, he hasn’t lost to Usyk twice – but Dubois’ defeat to Usyk in Poland suggests the Londoner is one more heavyweight champion (he holds the IBF belt) better off waiting for Usyk’s retirement than trying to succeed where both Fury and Joshua could not. That is to say, Dubois, at 27, has youth on his side and should probably make use of it. 

Then again, with this youth comes both fearlessness and a degree of expectation. That, in the case of Dubois, only increased when he knocked out Anthony Joshua in five rounds at Wembley Stadium last year. After all, we know that historically the clearest indication of guard-changing at heavyweight is the new getting rid of the old in a decisive and devastating fashion. Dubois, in beating Joshua the way he did, merely produced further evidence of this. He also took the Union Jack flag that night and staked his claim as Britain’s number one, fully aware, as all of us are, of Tyson Fury’s propensity to go missing. 

Now, as we enter April, the British heavyweight scene, having rejigged itself, is strangely neat and tidy. It may lack the presence of Fury, whom we will give the benefit of the doubt and believe, but there are still plenty of others building themselves slowly and with a different end goal in mind. Unlike Fury and Joshua, these men coming through are now looking to flourish in a post-Usyk world, rather than foolishly thinking they can challenge and dethrone him while he is still active. In fact, of all the British heavyweights currently competing, it is only Dubois and Derek Chisora who feel strongly about catching Usyk before he leaves. 

Dubois wants Usyk presumably because Dubois has a belt and therefore covets the others. Either that or he genuinely feels he was wronged when losing against Usyk in Poland less than two years ago. (That night, in round five, Dubois hurt and dropped Usyk with a punch ruled low and maintains to this day that the shot was actually legal.)

As for Chisora, he is now very much on his victory lap. It is his dream to meet Usyk somewhere towards the end of it and until he does he will continue waving the flag and grinning at fans. He, too, has already fought Usyk and, like Fury, Joshua and Dubois, couldn’t get close to beating him. Yet if we know anything about Chisora it is that defeat has never deterred him or stopped his ability to make money. Even now, at 41, he is still winning fights and generating attention, though he assures us his next fight – his fiftieth – will definitely be his last. 

Speaking of last fights, many will feel, and hope, that Saturday was the last time we will have seen Joe Joyce in a British boxing ring. Joyce, who turns 40 this year, lost a 10-round decision against Filip Hrgovic in Manchester and has now lost four of his last five bouts. Still fighting the only way he knows, and the only way he can, the difference now is that Joyce is struggling to get the same results and, worse, more susceptible to being punished and damaged. He has always been slow, yes, but his demise has been quick – cruelly so. Just two and a half years ago, plenty were touting Joyce as a future world heavyweight champion and the contender few in the division wanted to face. Now there is an orderly queue. Now there is an evolution going on around him and everybody is trying to figure out where they stand.

In Britain at least, it is for once quite easy to work it all out...

The Champions (past and present)

If you weren’t convinced by the way in which Daniel Dubois attacked Anthony Joshua from the off, rocking him almost immediately, you will have been convinced by the time he knocked him out with a right hand in round five. It was then abundantly clear that Joshua’s time at the top had passed and that a new British heavyweight was coming through and maturing at just the right moment. 

Now 27, Dubois has been moved in an interesting way since turning pro at just 18. His defeats, against both Joe Joyce and Oleksandr Usyk, came in tough, risky fights and were designed to test Dubois and improve Dubois rather than break him. There was, in other words, forever a sense on account of him being so young that he could come back from them and come back better. That he has done exactly that is a testament to the IBF champion’s character and also his rate of development, for he now looks much improved and more confident in his ability to deal with difficult moments. 

Joshua, in contrast, has encountered his difficult moments on the most public of stages and at the very highest level and has therefore had to question his belonging there. In Usyk, he found a teacher, someone he could never beat, and ever since Joshua has seemed stuck between styles, unsure whether he should rely on his power and be aggressive, or try to protect himself and box. The latter approach was twice exposed by Usyk, so seems a tricky one to now carry out with conviction, while the former approach met its match in Dubois, who essentially did what Joshua wanted to do only better and with more belief. 

The Contenders 

Leading the charge as far as contenders go is Fabio Warley, the unconventional but destructive heavyweight from Ipswich, currently 18-0-1 (17). Though he cut his teeth on the white-collar scene, Wardley has used this unusual upbringing to his advantage and combines a natural fighting instinct with a selection of punches thrown from atypical angles travelling along atypical paths. As awkward as it looks at times, he has made this style work, never more so than when stopping Frazer Clarke inside a round in October. With that win, Wardley not only defended his British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles but left a dent in the side of Clarke’s head and made a similar impression on the heavyweight division.

Beyond Wardley you have a couple of veterans, Derek Chisora and Dillian Whyte, who fought each other back in 2016 and 2018. If that seems a long time ago now it’s because it is, yet both Chisora and Whyte keep plugging away in 2025.  It could be argued that Chisora, despite losing to Whyte, has gone on to have the better career of the two, if only because he has managed the odd decent win here and there and has never fallen foul of drug testers. Whyte, on the other hand, has seen his career blighted by inactivity and tarnished by failed tests, which, alas, makes it very hard to campaign for him at this point. 

Someone easier to get behind is Lawrence Okolie, a boxer with whom Whyte has been linked on a few occasions. Okolie, a former WBO cruiserweight champion, made his heavyweight debut in December, stopping Hussein Muhamed inside a round, and would seem, at six feet six inches, to at least possess the frame to fill out and become a bona fide heavyweight contender. Already, in fact, his appearance has changed markedly from cruiserweight to heavyweight and the only question now is whether Okolie, once the opposition improves, will be able to carry the added bulk and view it as less of a handicap than cutting to 200 pounds (the cruiserweight limit) ended up being. 

The Prospects

If most of the pack feels a little transitional and capable only of treading water at the deep end, it is among the British heavyweight prospects that you find the country’s biggest hope for long-lasting future success. His name, of course, is Moses Itauma, a southpaw who, at 11-0 (9), is already considered not only the heavyweight division’s brightest star but arguably the brightest star in the whole sport. Still just 20, in the tradition of all blue-chip prospects, the challenge with Itauma is more knowing when to properly let him off the leash than trying to protect his weaknesses and choose the path of least resistance. 

In terms of the other British heavyweight prospects, Johnny Fisher and David Adeleye have a lower ceiling than Itauma in the opinion of most and will have to be moved accordingly. Fisher can shift tickets, we know that much, but we also know that he was perhaps fortunate to keep his unbeaten record intact following 10 rounds in the company of Dave Allen in December. Adeleye, similarly, is an interesting character with a lot of personality, yet he too has had his bumps in the road, notably a 2023 defeat against Fabio Wardley. Since then, he has gone on to win English and British heavyweight titles, and a future fight between Adeleye and Fisher would seem an obvious one to make – if, that is, Fisher manages to put the record straight against Allen in their rematch in May.