Jay Harris vs Connor Butler is a throwback flyweight title fight rightfully on TV
The British flyweight scene has felt a little unloved in recent decades but gets a real contest this Saturday when national champion Harris travels to Liverpool to take on unbeaten local boy Butler
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Your support makes all the difference.When the Olympia in Liverpool was an indoor zoo and music hall venue, two camels were meant to have lived under the stage. The old venue has been a few different things since those glory days.
It’s been a boxing venue for a long time now and this Saturday it is where a rare British flyweight title fight takes place.
In the last 60 years, only 44 British flyweight title fights have taken place and most, to put it kindly, have gone under the radar. The last British champion at the weight to win a full flyweight world title was Duke McKenzie in 1988.
This Saturday, at the Olympia, Jay Harris defends his British flyweight title against local boxer Connor Butler, who is unbeaten in 12. It is a typical British flyweight fight; it is evenly matched, has a local man and pride will be the main factor. The bout was in danger of being a small-hall event, watched by a few hundred, until it was bought by streaming broadcaster DAZN in the last few days. It has a home and all British title fights deserve a television home.
There has certainly not been a golden time for British flyweights at any point since the start of the Sixties; the champion from 1967 through to 1977 was John McCluskey and so scarce were flyweights that he had to meet three British bantamweight champions during his reign to make a living. McCluskey only made two defences in the decade he was champion, and sensibly retired when Charlie Magri turned professional. Magri won the vacant British title one night at the Royal Albert in just his third fight. The ancient venue was a sellout that night. Magri would also win a world title. Champagne Charlie made the flyweights respectable.
There was a sustained period of activity between 1991 and 1994 when Robbie Regan and Francis Ampofo were involved in seven British title fights, including their own two blood-stained encounters.
Regan had three title fights in Cardiff in eight months, losing to Ampofo on cuts in their first, winning a thriller in their title rematch and then stopping James Drummond in the ninth. Regan needed over 30 stitches after his first title fight with Ampofo but was still ready to regain his title 10 weeks later. Ampofo and Regan were in X-rated fights, trust me. The blood had barely dried on the canvas before their second title fight. Their first fight was at York Hall in 1990 and was a non-title, small-hall classic; Regan won by just a round.
When Regan and Ampofo were at their peaks, there were probably less than six flyweights in the land; there are 16 now and that includes Olympic gold medal winner Galal Yafai, and Sunny Edwards, who lost his world flyweight title last December. They might meet one day in a massive domestic fight; all weights need to have one of those regularly, as a way to discover with conviction who is the best in the land. There is an argument that just about every weight in Britain for men is up for debate; opinion only goes so far in a business where the best boxers have avoided the best for far too long. Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are the best two heavyweights and at the bottom, Edwards is now just in front of Yafai. There is an argument in most weights.
The truth is that far too many British flyweight title fights have been relegated to a leisure centre on the edge of town and avoided by television. It is not just the flyweights; a lot of other weights are being ignored. This Saturday’s fight in Olympia was acquired by DAZN at late notice and it changes the perspective of the fight.
In 2020, Harris lost on points in a WBC flyweight title fight against Julio Cesar Martinez and last May won the British title when he stopped Tommy Frank in the 10th round. Butler will be defending his Commonwealth and European flyweight titles and fighting in his home city for the 10th time in 12 fights. This is a fight that deserved exposure, the type of domestic showdown that has been ignored in recent years. It is the type of domestic fight, with three belts and an unbeaten boxer in his home city, that will be memorable. It feels like a Seventies fight.
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