Chasing history and a prime spot in the future pro ranks

The World Boxing Championships begin today in Liverpool, where amateurs can start to be formed into legends and a new governing body faces a mighty test

- Steve Bunce

A Yugoslavian fighter called Mate Parlov was the first man to win the World Amateur Boxing Championship, an Olympic gold medal, and then a professional world title. Almost half a century later, it is still an elite achievement.

This morning, at 11am, the boxing will start in Liverpool at the M&S Bank Arena when the latest version - now called the World Boxing Championships - begin; more than 580 boxers from nearly 70 countries will try to follow in Parlov’s footsteps. It is a bigger field than the boxing at the London 2012 Olympics.

It is also the first worlds under the control and guidance of World Boxing, the new global governing body recently given the right to organise Olympic boxing in Los Angeles in 2028. This is its big test, make no mistake.

The British squad is young and includes a lot of untested men and women. In fairness, any big tournament the year after the Olympics, and the inevitable defections to the professional business, is always difficult. The Uzbeks and Cubans - the best amateur nations in the world - never have that problem.

There are also a lot of young veterans in the GB team, boxers with a short and hard history of fights in as many as six countries over the last year or so. Sacha Hickey, on an unbeaten sequence of over 30, has won two European titles and fights at 65 kilos.