British Scene Prospect Watch: Don Broadhurst

Over the next week, Dave Oakes will be taking a look at some of the top young talent in the UK. Dave starts things off today with 25 year old Birmingham super-flyweight, Don Broadhurst.

With the new season upon us, I thought now was as good a time as any to have a look at the top prospects of British boxing. I’ve decided that the prospects must have fought less than a dozen times to be considered. I’ve also excluded all of the 2008 Olympians as they’re too obvious to pick and have all received plenty of exposure as it is.

Don Broadhurst

A small man with a big talent. The diminutive Brummie became the Commonwealth super-flyweight champion in only his 9th outing and is currently 11-0 with 3 stoppages.

The Positives:

He’s fast, skilful, has a decent chin and has shown improved punch power in his recent fights. Trained by one of the best up-and-coming trainers in Richie Woodhall, he’s got everything needed to go all the way.

The Negatives:

He’s not yet faced anyone with a high win percentage on their record and needs to start stepping up the quality of opposition to avoid becoming stale. Despite sitting down on his punches more recently, he’ll still lack knockout power when he steps up to world level.

He’s also at a disadvantage boxing in a division that’s relatively low on decent opponents. There seems to be a big gulf in class between domestic level and world level, with not many boxers inbetween the two. It might be that he’ll need to take a big gamble at some stage by taking on a fringe world level fighter without having the necessary experience needed for such a step up in class.

The Future:

I’d like to see him take on British champion Lee Haskins in the next twelve months, along with fights against Andy Bell and maybe Ian Napa, if he can tempt Napa back down to flyweight.

After that, it might be that he needs to target someone around the top 30 in the world. The likes of Zolile Mbityi, Luis Maldonado and Gerson Guerrero should all be within Broadhurst’s reach in around eighteen months to two years time.

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