There is a log jam forming atop of the British junior middleweight division.<\/p>\n
A series of unfortunate events mean the British title has laid dormant for some time whilst the English belt is also currently vacant. A group of hungry fighters have waited patiently for their moment but are beginning to wonder when their chance will arrive. <\/p>\n
One of those fighters is undefeated Ben Fail<\/a>. Ben will be willing his brother on, aware that victory will eventually create an avenue for himself too. <\/p>\n “This year has been frustrating,” Fail (9-0, 5 KOs) told The Ring<\/a>. <\/p>\n “I boxed in March and then was trying to get like a step-up fight – it’s hard work to get one these days. We’re moving in the right direction now. Carl’s fighting for the Midlands Area title and when he wins that, he’s mandatory for the British title, he’s vacating straight away for me to box for it.<\/p>\n “Then we can push on and win some titles. Boxing can be a frustrating sport at times with people not wanting to take risks.<\/p>\n Fail is a man in a hurry. After a serious hand injury disrupted his career before it had really started, he boxed eight times in two years, making up for lost time and quickly reaching eight-round level. Having his progress halted is frustrating but grinding away out of the limelight has made him realise just how much he wants success. <\/p>\n “In boxing there’s loads of trials and tribulations, isn’t there?” he said. “I broke my hand on my debut and was out for two years. Carl’s just come back from a two-year injury. These things teach you a lot in boxing and life, it’s taught me a lot and shown both of us that boxing’s not all about money. It’s about winning and achieving. We’ve got a goal and want to achieve it, that’s to both be British champions and push on from there.”<\/p>\n Fail hasn’t been idle. Whilst he waits for his phone to ring with a definite name and date to hone in on, he has used his time to stay sharp and learn against a wide variety of styles.<\/p>\n The 28-year-old knows that in the current boxing landscape, opportunity can appear on the horizon at any moment and he is determined to be ready when it does.<\/p>\n “We’re based in Peacock Boxing Gym and got the likes of Denzel Bentley<\/a>, Dan Azeez, Alfie Gaskin, Sam King,” he continued. <\/p>\n “We’ve got loads of middleweights in the gym where we’re constantly mixing, matching and learning off each other. We’re pushing all the time, this is a perfect time for us to be improving, learning and making sure we’re ready for these big title fights.<\/p>\n “I think with Turki Alalshikh involved now the opportunity is limitless so when you get it, you’ve got to grab it with both hands and run with it.” <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fail is still some way from competing on Saudi Arabian mega shows but the ‘Riyadh Season Effect’ has filtered down through the sport and there seems to be an increased willingness from promoters to match their undefeated prospects against one another.<\/p>\n The backlog at the top of the British junior middleweight scene will inevitably begin to clear and when Fail can see a path through it, he will happily fight anyone to achieve his goal.<\/p>\n “In an ideal world I would be the English champion [by the end of the year],” he said.<\/p>\n “Obviously, we’ve got Bilal Fawaz<\/a> and Junaid Bostan<\/a> – they got a draw for the English<\/a> – and all the other titles are tied up at junior middleweight at the minute with Sam Gilley<\/a> and Ishmael Davis<\/a> being mandatories to fight [for the British title].<\/p>\n “So by the end of this year, Carl wins his fight and he’s going to be fighting either Ishmael or Sam and then I can push on for the Bostan-Fawaz winner if they fight again.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is a log jam forming atop of the British junior middleweight division. A series of unfortunate events…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,2989,2983,2831,2988,2981,2984,2985,2986,2987,2982,1920,2993,2992,1913,2976,2977,2990,2978,2975,2994,2772,85,2991,2974,2980,2979],"class_list":["post-13034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-results","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-news","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
On July 26th, Fail’s undefeated twin brother Carl (10-0, 3 KOs) has the opportunity to kick down the door to domestic title level for the Fail family when he boxes Amir Abubaker<\/a> (9-0, 6 KOs) for the Midlands Area strap at 154-pounds. <\/p>\n