The 'other' boxing event in Wales which will even eclipse Fury v Joshua for champions

Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua will attract some of the great and good of boxing to Wales when they do battle in their mouthwatering heavyweight showdown in a few weeks’ time.

But even the 74,000-seater Principality Stadium will struggle to match the array of world, European and British champions who will be inside a much smaller venue for another special boxing occasion taking place this weekend.

The Welsh Ex-Boxers’ Association will be staging their 50th anniversary reunion and awards lunch in Cardiff’s Masonic Hall - with a real Who’s Who of the sport in attendance.

“It will be the only event involving so many big names which doesn’t need security on the door!” smiles the organisation’s chairman Kevin Hayde, as the get-together gives countless former champions an opportunity to share memories from a truly golden era in Welsh sport.

During the 1990s and into the noughties there seemed to be a world title fight staged in the Welsh capital every few weeks. It was even claimed that for a brief period Cardiff eclipsed Las Vegas as the boxing hub of the world.

Hayde recalls: “We put on so many big shows around that time that I will never forget something Mauricio Sulaiman, President of the World Boxing Council (WBC), told me. ‘Kevin’, he said, ‘Wales has produced so many world champions that you have to rank among the top 10 boxing nations in the world, given the size of population’.”

He tells another great story of super-featherweight king Barry Jones, one of those 1990s world champs, speaking at a previous Welsh Ex-Boxers’ Association function.

Jones comes from the Ely area of Cardiff and Hayde recounts: “Barry stood up, began talking and suddenly said, ‘You know, I was a world champion… but I wasn’t even the best world champion in my street’!”

That honour is instead bestowed to another Ely ace Steve Robinson, who achieved legend status by taking a title shot at 48 hours notice having just downed a supper of pie and chips, beating John Davison to win the featherweight crown and defending it successfully seven times before losing to Prince Naseem Hamed.

A true sporting fairytale. No wonder they dubbed Robinson the ‘Cinderella Man.’

“When I told Mauricio about that quote from Barry he started using it in WBC literature and sharing it around the world,” laughs Hayde.

Robinson and Jones will be among the plethora of world champions attending Sunday’s 50-year anniversary event. Also present will be Robbie Regan, who upset the odds to beat Puerto Rican ace Daniel Jimenez to land the world bantamweight title.

The incomparable Joe Calzaghe is another invited guest. His 46-fight unbeaten record, which included winning world titles at super-middleweight and light-heavy, places him ahead of Gareth Edwards and Gareth Bale as Wales’ greatest sportsman in the eyes of some.

Nathan Cleverly, who made five successful defences of his WBO light-heavyweight title including a points win over Tony Bellew in his own Liverpool backyard, will also be among those reminiscing.

So too Barry’s Lee Selby, dubbed ‘The Welsh Mayweather’ after five defences of his world featherweight crown, Newport’s Gavin Rees, who won at light-welter, and more recent duo Joe Cordina and Lauren Price.

Then there are those who came so close. Colin Jones, who had two epic welterweight battles with Milton McCrory, drawing the first bout in the USA and then losing on a split decision. Many in Wales felt he won the two contests.

Nicky Piper, who courageously tried to take Nigel Benn’s super-middleweight belt from him, and Floyd Havard, who lost to Puerto Rican John-John Molina at super-feather, are others attending, as well as a whole mixed bag of European and British champions.

But the popularity stretches beyond these borders. John Conteh, world light heavyweight king during the 1970s for three years after beating Argentine Jorge Ahumuda, is coming. So too John H. Stracey, who shocked the world by dethroning welterweight king Jose Napoles in his own Mexico City backyard.

Previous guests have included Alan Minter, who overcame American Vito Antuofermo in Las Vegas for the world middleweight title before having it snatched away by the imperious Marvin Hagler, and Ken Buchanan, who lost his lightweight crown to another great, the legendary Roberto Duran.

Hayde, who helped stage many of the 1990s world title fights in Wales, says of the Welsh Ex-Boxers’ Association: “We’re a small organisation who raise money at these annual events to help amateur boxing clubs, or to assist any former fighters who might have hit on hard times. A self-made charity, in effect.

“But clearly the 50-year landmark will make this year extra special. Of course a lot of the talk in the room will centre around what everyone thinks will happen with Fury versus Joshua, but most of the conversation will be sharing stories of that incredible period everyone enjoyed so much.

“It’s always great to reminisce in sport, be it rugby, football, boxing or whatever, and there will be plenty of memories and tales brought up again. There is great camaraderie amongst these former champions.”

Reflecting upon that halcyon era from three decades ago, Hayde says: “Remember this was before mobile phones. There was no internet at the time. To put on a show cost a lot of money, but we were using FAX machines to sort contracts. Or I’d run to a phone box to make a call to Barry Hearn.

“I was literally going around the streets of Cardiff with posters about the upcoming world title fight. Or I’d leave 12 tickets in a pub. ‘Sell these and you can have one free for yourself,’ I’d tell the licensee.

“That was how we marketed it. Looking back, it was nuts really. We had to expend an awful lot of energy, but the fighters could see the effort we were putting in and I think it transferred to them with their training.

“Robinson and Regan conquered the world, it started to pick up. Everything kind of took off from there. Then, of course, Calzaghe burst to the fore and there was even greater interest.”

Calzaghe actually made his professional debut on the undercard at Cardiff Arms Park in 1993 the last time two British heavyweight greats fought in the Welsh capital. On that occasion, Lennox Lewis stopped Frank Bruno to win the world title.

There is no world crown at stake for Fury and Joshua, but this has been a fight five years or more in the making. Maybe in time their much awaited dust-up will be remembered as part of Welsh boxing folklore, just like the countless memories that will be shared inside the Masonic Hall on Sunday.