Groves, Murray, Smith, Mitchell and McKenzie miss out
Monday 28 December 2015 10:19, UK
Britain ends 2015 with a delightful dozen world champions but it could have been even better over a rollercoaster 12 months.
Boxing can be the cruellest business and, while there has been plenty of celebration for British boxers in 2015, there has been heartbreak for some unfortunate fighters.
We pick out five men that we hoped to see win the ultimate prize this year, including one on his world title debut, one taking his second chance, one completing an unwanted hat-trick and one who even more painfully went fourth but couldn't conquer.
Here are the unfortunate five in chronological order...
Smith demanded a rematch following his first loss to Abraham back in September 2014 and could have beaten both James DeGale and George Groves to world title glory, had he defeated the Armenian-born German second time around.
But while Abraham was slow and sluggish at times in the first fight, he showed far greater intent in the return. Once again, Smith again gave it his all, but there was no dethroning King Arthur.
The judges' scoring was even wider as Smith fell short in what might ultimately be his final world title tilt.
Four months later, Andre Ward didn't have a title on the line but he handed Smith a third career defeat. However, the eldest of the Merseyside's brilliant boxing brothers will not walk out on a loss and will be back in the ring in January 2016..
When he's on-point there is no better boxer to watch than Kevin Mitchell. There was an air of expectation at London's O2 Arena as the Dagenham lightweight made his third world title attempt against Jorge Linares.
Having been well below par when he lost Michael Katisidis in 2010 and Ricky Burns two years later, this time he'd left nothing to chance.
And when the east Londoner put the experienced WBA lightweight world champion over in the fifth, he was not only ahead but was at his slickest and smoothest.
But slowly Linares started to slowly grind Mitchell down and a huge gash over his left eye hardly helped Mitchell control proceedings.
It was a classic Mitchell performance; he boxed beautifully in the first half of the fight but started to run out of gas in the second half. He tired and the cuts above his eyes widened, and his world title challenge ended with him slumping onto the bottom rope in round 10.
It was one of the fights of the year and Mitchell was ahead on the cards at the time he was stopped, but that was scant consolation.
The west Londoner was not the first British fighter to be handed a controversial loss in their first world title tilt and indeed, plenty of them missed out second time around too. Surely fighting in Las Vegas on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather's last professional fight would mean it would be third time lucky for 'Saint George'.
That thought lasted less than a round as Groves was felled by a straight right from WBC boss Badou Jack, who was making his first title defence. The challenger was up long before the count and, once he had recovered, he tried to break down the champion, who was far better than people predicted.
The fight went the distance and defeat on a split decision added to the pain. Groves left the ring quickly, having thought he had done enough to win. His complaints won few friends and suggested that Groves' two defeats to Carl Froch had done more damage than even he feared.
Groves returns to the ring in January 2016 as he attempts to build towards a fourth world title shot.
One of the unsung heroes of British boxing finally got his chance to win a world title - with all of 11 days notice. The Upsetter - who had dominated the domestic cruiserweight scene for years and held the Commonwealth title twice - was more than happy to make his second trip to foreign soil in his 28th fight.
The recently-crowned IBF champion Victor Emilio Ramirez had already seen off another British challenger, Ola Afolabi, when the interim belt was on the line, but most of us wanted to see McKenzie finally get the glory he deserved.
By all accounts he did enough to win that world title, only to see scores of 115-113, 114-114 and 113-115 rule the fight drawn.
McKenzie is one of the nice guys trying to reach the pinnacle of the sport so when he criticises the scoring, you know he has grounds to complain.
The Upsetter was rightfully upset and has demanded a rematch, but so far, nothing has come from it.
The St Helens man was already considered the world's unluckiest middleweight, losing three times in world title fights. In 2011, he had to settle for a draw with then-WBA boss Felix Sturm. In 2013, he should have been awarded the win over WBC holder Sergio Martinez in his Buenos Aires backyard and in February 2015 he became the first fighter to take Gennady Golovkin 11 rounds.
When he moved up to super-middleweight, Murray had his eyes on Abraham and the WBO belt, looking to succeed where Paul Smith had failed. The talk was that Murray had the best chance of any recent challenger and again, like those before him, he put in a performance that many though would do the trick.
Murray and his trainer Oliver Harrison expected to get the decision after 12 hard-fought rounds, but a split decision defeat again denied him the world title he craves.
