Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders, Daniel Dubois and British boxing’s dream fights tantalisingly close to being made in 2020

So we now know for certain that Tyson Fury will finally get a rematch with Deontay Wilder at the MGM in Las Vegas on February 22 and there is the possibility of a third fight. In boxing, more so now than ever, there is always the possibility.

After a year when a single hefty shock shaped the boxing landscape, a year when people forgot about their promises, wishes and plans, there is an urgent need this year for some long-overdue fights to take place at so many levels of the old game because there is a need for some honesty. What happened to 2019? What happened to all the fights that were promised and mentioned?

It has been a good start so far with Fury and Wilder set in stone and there has been, so we are all told, an early, early meeting to try and make something solid of the fight between Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce – arguably the world’s two finest heavyweight prospects. A man called Sam Jones, who advises Joyce and agitates quite brilliantly on his behalf, has met with Frank Warren, the matchmaking and promoting sage behind Dubois. They are all smiles at the moment and hopefully the grins can help make possibly the finest ‘unbeaten v unbeaten’ fight in Britain happen. It’s not, I should mention, overdue, but it would be very nice and an extremely rare fight.

At light-heavyweight in Britain, there is a quite sensational fight with intrigue, knowns, unknowns and rivalry that will not happen in 2020, but it is worth mentioning; last August Anthony Yarde lost his unbeaten record and his WBO title fight in Russia to the great champion Sergey Kovalev and back in Britain Joshua Buatsi moved to 12 unbeaten. They are separated by battling promoters, two television companies and a catalogue of shallow reasons why they can’t simply fight – that is the business in many ways. Oddly, it’s possible that neither is actually the best light-heavyweight in Britain, but that is not a problem and has never been a problem when it comes to making big fights happen. Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank were never the best at their weight, yet their rivalry defines a decade and nobody remembers Herol Graham and the role he never played in their rise.

Callum Smith, unbeaten world champion at super-middle and considered the best at his weight in the world, is a man in search of something like a defining fight. He has a natural rival, a domestic rival in Billy Joe Saunders, who is also unbeaten and also a world champion at super-middle. The fight makes cash, promotional and competitive sense – there is talk of a walk and fight on the sacred turf at Anfield. However, Saunders is clearly on a short, short list to fight the world’s best boxer, Canelo Alvarez, in Las Vegas in May. That would be incredible for the British business.

At featherweight Josh Warrington has an offer to fight Shakur Stephenson, another unbeaten world champion, at Elland Road in April or May. It would be a rare fight, a night when an unbeaten, British world champion, fighting at the ground he adores in front of the fans that adore him, would not necessarily start as the favourite with the bookies. It is a fight that could put right all the empty promises made in the dirty old game last year – it really is that good.

Edinburgh’s Josh Taylor won two world titles at light-welter last year, beat two unbeaten champions and was in the fight of the year in October at the O2 when he got the nod over Regis Prograis. He is a critical part of this mad British and Irish boxing crusade – Katie Taylor will probably start her year in April at Madison Square Garden – that is so dominant at the moment. Josh Taylor was meant to lose to Prograis and then Prograis was meant to join the dozen elite American superstars. Taylor has his eyes on the other unbeaten world champion at his weight, Jose Ramirez, but Ramirez has commitments, promises have been made, mandatory defences have been ruled and it would take a lot of ‘step-aside-money’ for Taylor to get his fight anytime soon. Still, it’s nice to dream a bit.

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That just leaves a dozen others at the top in Britain chasing what they believe is their right, hunting down a world title fight or a big defence or a pay-day to change their life forever. There are fifty fights in Britain for British titles that could make 2020 memorable, more than just the year Fury regained the title, more than just the year when Saunders pushed Canelo in Las Vegas, more than just the year Dubois and Joyce stood and delivered, and more than just the year when 30 Liverpool legends that walked Callum Smith to the ring across that beloved Anfield grass. Mind you, that is not a bad year!

In March for ten days at the Copper Box in east London 13 British boxers – eight men and five women – will take part in the only European qualifier for the summer Olympics. It will be the biggest amateur boxing tournament to ever take place in Britain and the most significant. It will be a brutal carnival, a mix of heartbreak and glory for the dreamers selected. The Olympics, you see, is still the Promised Land for young boxers.

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It was at the Olympics that Anthony Joshua changed his life and in 2020 Joshua has mandatory obligations that are crazy, men to fight he has no desire to fight and that could mean that he loses a title or two without throwing a punch. Heavyweight fighters will be watching, managers, consorts and chancers will be lobbying and the boxing business will be doing what it does – hustling, grafting and delivering.

It is a year of golden opportunity, a glorious time to be either side of the ropes and hopefully some of the dream fights can get made. It feels like something very special could happen in the old game.