Three British Fighters To Breakout Worldwide In 2025

British boxing saw an unforgettable 2024, largely due to the recent alliance between UK-based promoters and Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season. Despite the vast majority of Turki Alalshikh’s extravagant events taking place in the Saudi Arabian capital, he has managed to make long-term promotional rivals Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn start pitting their fighters against one another. To make the matching process even easier between Matchroom and Queensberry, Warren has joined Hearn in signing an exclusive broadcast agreement with DAZN.

The shackles are off for British fighters to be pitted against each other in needle-ridden domestic dust-ups in 2025. Here are three British fighters that I expect to break out in 2025 away from the shores of Great Britain.

Moses Itauma (11-0, 9 KOs) – Heavyweight  

Twenty-year-old southpaw Moses Itauma only made his professional debut at the start of 2023, following a short amateur career of just 20 bouts. The Queensberry Charge has been touted to have the skills to break Mike Tyson’s record of becoming the youngest-ever heavyweight world champion. Tyson stopped Trevor Berbick 145 days into the year he turned 20 to claim the WBC belt. Itauma will be cutting it fine, with approximately four and a half months to break that record. Itauma wiped out Australia’s Demsey McKean on the undercard of Oleksandr Usyk–Tyson Fury II to further push his claim as being worthy of a world title shot at such a young age. In July, he also stopped Polish veteran Mariusz Wach.

However, Itauma has a few rings of fire to pass until he can challenge for world honors. He has yet to fight an undefeated fighter but has a spectacular destruction of McKean followed by a late stoppage at the hand of Filip Hrgovic. Itauma is ranked sixth in the WBO, tenth in the WBA, and fourteenth in the IBF. A collision with promotional stablemate Daniel Dubois feels a long way off, but challenging WBA regular champion Kubrat Pulev could make it over the line. If Usyk vacates his WBA belt, Itauma might get the chance to become the youngest heavyweight world champion of all time.

Dalton Smith (16-0, 12 KOs) – Super Lightweight  

Sheffield’s Dalton Smith will fight for the vacant European title against the little-known Frenchman Walid Ouizza in Nottingham on January 25. The 27-year-old had pushed for a domestic clash with Adam Azim for the same title, but promoter BOXXER had taken a different path. Largely regarded as one of Britain’s most naturally gifted fighters, the Yorkshire man has impressed with back-to-back stoppage victories in his last two fights. Sam Maxwell succumbed to a highlight reel seventh round stoppage in the summer of 2023 to add the Commonwealth title to his British belt. Three-time world title challenger Jose Zepeda would be Smith’s next victim in March of this year. The 35-year-old southpaw would not make it past the fifth round, where the vacant WBC silver title would be the prize. Injuries have ebbed the flow of Smith reaching his full potential with just one fight last year. He now sits in second position for Alberto Puello’s WBC world title. If injuries stay away, combined with a big performance against Ouizza, I would bet on Smith to fight for a world title before the year is out.

Fabio Wardley (18-0-1, 17 KOs) – Heavyweight 

Thirty-year-old Ipswich heavyweight Fabio Wardley already made a huge statement in 2024 with a jaw-removing performance in a rematch with British rival Frazer Clarke in October. Wardley claimed the first-round stoppage following a split draw in March, where Clark found himself on the canvas in the fifth and also had a point deducted in the seventh. Wardley had previously stripped David Adeleye of his undefeated record on the undercard of Tyson Fury-Francis Ngannou with a seventh-round knockout to make the first defense of his British title and also add the vacant Commonwealth belt to his trophy cabinet. The clash with Adeleye in Riyadh was considered a 50/50 contest where Wardley’s power shone through. Wardley is ranked in sixth place with the WBA, in seventh place with the WBO and WBC, and is also in ninth position with the IBF. Oleksandr Usyk’s WBA, WBC and WBO belts could become vacant in 2025, leaving the rest of the pack to maneuver themselves into a world title shot. However, Wardley needs a dance partner against a world-level operator, which Clarke was not. Coming from the white-collar scene in the UK, Wardley has become an initially unlikely contender, but his raw power has the heavyweight division on notice.

Honorable Mention

Galal Yafai (9-0, 7 KOs) – Flyweight. The Olympic Gold medalist retired former world champion Sunny Edwards in November with a sixth-round knockout. He is within touching distance of challenging WBC world champion Kenshiro Teraji.

Adam Noble-Forcey

Adam is a regular contributor to FightsATW and serves as the Online Editor for Germany’s longest-running boxing publication, BoxSport Magazin. He has covered the sport for over a decade, contributing to leading platforms including BoxingScene, Seconds Out, Boxing Social, and Pro Boxing Fans. In addition to his written work, Adam is a lead boxing commentator across Europe, calling fights in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Russia, Latvia, Albania, and the United Kingdom.

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