The European boxing championship is still a hard title to win in a world where glamorous belts, made from snakes and diamonds, seem to carry more weight than the traditional versions. On Friday night in Bolton, an old-fashioned fight will take place on terrestrial television when Channel 5 screens the European super-welterweight title clash between Abass Baraou, the champion from Germany, and Macaulay McGowan, the challenger from just down the road in Manchester. In the Eighties and Nineties, there were dozens of fights like this between good men trying to secure a fight for one of the rare world championship baubles; British boxers went on the road on lost causes to get closer to their dream.
It seldom worked, trust me. Baraou won the title in Telford, defends in Bolton and might just be the rarest of modern boxers in this increasingly protected age, with his willingness to travel for fights. His win over the local boxer Sam Eggington, in Telford in March, was a genuine fight-of-the-year contender.
His scrap with McGowan will be similar. There was a time when just about the only way to a world-title fight was through the EBU championship and that often meant a risky trip to Spain, France, Germany or Italy. They were dark days in many ways, but the best British boxers invariably went on the road.
They were feared and dangerous locations in the Seventies and Eighties – locations where robberies in the ring were matched by larceny and violence outside the ropes. British world.
