5 years on: Olympics 2012 where are they now. Part 4/4

Boxingnews24.com

By Gav Duthie: The final part concentrates on the males in team GB. The UK has had a superb time in pro boxing recently boasting as much as 13 champions last year. The Olympic squad in 2012 has only contributed 1 so far with Anthony Joshua but there are certainly opportunities for others. The GB squad took home 2 gold medals, a silver and bronze and all 7 eventually turned professional at different stages. Their combined pro record reads 78-4-3 (55).

Anthony Joshua 18-0 (18)
WBA/IBF world champion

Arguably the most successful Olympian of the bunch, certainly financially. He has been fast tracked to super stardom and boasts the joint most professional fights with 18 with fellow Brit Luke Campbell. He has won all 18 of his fights by knockout with his most impressive win coming in his last outing over former heavyweight kingpin Wladimir Klitschko. The win earned him around £15 million and there are many more opportunities in the resurgent heavyweight division to make lots more. Fellow Brit Tyson Fury is waiting in the wings and the other champions from different sides of the world Deontay Wilder (America) and Joseph Parker (New Zealand) makes up the other list of champions. All are currently undefeated.

Anthony Agogo 11-1 (7)
Middleweight

Agogo won a bronze medal losing to Esquiza Florentino after he knocked out the favorite in the previous round. In all honesty Agogo has had a nightmare since turning professional. It all looked so promising, a good looking, charismatic boxer who was already doing adverts for Subway as an amateur. He signed with Golden Boy but opportunities weren’t forthcoming so joined Matchroom. He has had a series of injuries keeping him out of the ring and suffered an eye injury in a loss to Craig Cunningham in October last year. In fairness Cunningham dominated the whole fight and Agogo hasn’t fought since.

Fred Evans 1-0 (0)
Welterweight

Welshman Evans won the silver medal losing out to the talented Serik Sapayev. Fred announced he would turn pro in 2015 but didn’t make his debut until 2017 winning on points. He was in court and giving a suspended sentence in 2014 for assaulting a friend and this halted his progress but he is looking to keep busy now professional.

Tom Stalker 12-2-3 (2)
Light welterweight

Tom Stalker was the captain of team GB and received a bye in round 1 due to being ranked 1 by the AIBA. He lost in the QF due to a controversial decision and subsequently turned pro with Frank Warren. Whilst undefeated Warren ended their relationship and it seems a rational decision. Now 33 and fighting as a lightweight he has struggled as a pro. He has had a trilogy with Craig Evans drawing twice and losing once and was also stopped by Jack Catteral in 2014. His last fight was back at 140lbs where he hopes to fair better.

Josh Taylor 10-0 (9)
Lightweight

The Scot went out in the first round to the highly rated second seed Domenico Valentino but won gold at the 2014 Commonwealth games in his own country. He is looking fantastic as a pro winning all of his fights and smashing previously unbeaten foe O’Hara Davies last weekend. He is now chasing an all Scottish showdown against former 3-weight world champion Ricky Burns.

Luke Campbell 17-1 (14)
Bantamweight

Campbell won Gold in 2012 and is looking close to getting a world title shot after stopping former champion Darleys Perez on the undercard of Joshua V Klitschko. This would have happened sooner but for an uncharacteristically poor performance losing to French champion Yvan Mendy. He seemed to struggle with the pressure and there were question marks but he has won 5 times since this bout. There are rumours he could challenge Jorge Linares for his WBC title next.

Andrew Selby 9-0 (5)
Flyweight

Selby was also ranked 1st by the AIBA in 2012 so had a first round bye. He lost in the QF to eventual gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez who also win gold in 2016 at bantamweight. He carried on at amateur but after losing to local Scot Reese McFadden in the 2014 Commonwealth games he turned pro. He was going well in the pros with 9 straight wins and hopes to soon join his brother Lee as a world champion.

Amateur boxing is still important in the UK with decent funding for the squad but in 2016 only Joe Joyce managed a silver medal at Super Heavyweight along with Nicola Adams gold for the females of course. Boxing overall in the UK though is looking very bright with the 2012 team looking forward to some likely title shots with at least Luke Campbell, Josh Taylor and Andrew Selby in the next year or so.