This weekend Britain’s top heavyweight, Tyson Fury, takes on Romania’s Christian Hammer at London’s O2 in a promotion that also sees the return to action of Chris Eubank Jnr after going down to the only defeat of his career thus far against Billy Joe Saunders in December.

Fury is chomping at the bit for a world title shot. After enduring more setbacks and disappointments than most, he’s finally secured the mandatory spot to challenge Wladimir Klitschko for his WBO title. There is also the possibility of him taking on Deontay Wilder for the United States’s WBC title.

Of the two, the Wilder fight is a more likely scenario and in many ways a more attractive one too. Klitschko at 40 must surely be starting to think about retirement. The last thing he needs at this stage in an illustrious career is a 6’9”, 26-year-old Fury coming at him both verbally in the lead up to the fight and physically in the ring afterwards. He just doesn’t need it. 

Far wiser to vacate, which would allow Fury take it on an interim basis and mix it with Wilder for both the WBO and WBC belts. 

Wilder brings as much excitement as Fury to the ring. He has the KO power every heavyweight has to have if they want to make serious money but in his last fight against Bermane Stiverne for the title he also showed that he is able to box at range. 

In fact, the Stiverne fight is the only time Wilder has gone the distance, such is the juice he has in his hands, which means that if he does come face-to-face with Fury, we’re talking about the biggest heavyweight clash in many a year.

Before that can happen though, Fury’s got Hammer to take on in a fight he cannot afford to lose, not when he’s this close to getting his hands on a world title. Hammer is no mug. He’s only lost three out of 20 fights and by all accounts he is coming to fight. 

Adding to the build up has been the presence of Fury’s old man, John Fury, a colourful character whose interviews reveal a man steeped in the travelling community’s fighting tradition. 

Eubank Jnr is another fighter with a colourful old man. The younger version allowed inexperience to get the upper hand against Saunders, whom he let run away with the first half of their contest in December before coming on strong in the second half to make it a close-run thing. 

This time round he’s up against an unbeaten opponent in the shape of Russia’s Dmitry Chudinov for the WBA interim middleweight title. 

Eubank supporters will be hoping he’s tightened up his defence since the Saunders clash, when he was wide open far too often, and that it doesn’t take six rounds before he realises he’s in a fight. 

Fighting live on ITV this weekend, meanwhile, is Belfast’s popular super bantamweight world champion Carl Frampton. 

He takes on Chris Avalos from the US at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast in the first defence of a title he won in dramatic fashion in September, defeating Spain’s Kiko Martinez at the second time of asking. 

Frampton, managed and promoted by Barry McGuigan, and trained by Barry’s son Shane McGuigan, couldn’t be in better hands. This combined with the huge following he has in Belfast gives him a platform to go on and replicate some of the great nights of British boxing involving his manager.

In the end Paul Smith and Martin Murray came up short in their respective world title fights last weekend. 

Watching them, it feels like business as usual when it comes to British fighters and world title shots — plenty of courage and heart but lacking in the skill required to make that final step from contender to champion.

Arthur Abraham dominated the rematch with Smith over 12 rounds in Germany. 

The Armenian veteran showed that in the first fight it had been a case of him taking his opponent too lightly, rather than as we’d hoped Smith proving he had the champion’s number. 

Smith is one of British boxing’s finest ambassadors and afterwards he was honest enough to admit that he’d been beaten fair and square by the better fighter. 

Where he goes from here is difficult to work out. 

He’s made it clear he’s got no appetite for stepping back down to domestic level or taking a meaningless fight for the sake of it. He’s had a taste of the elite level and wants more. At 32 and after 12 years as a pro, who can blame him?

Retirement is another possibility but given the nature of the sport, the way it takes over every aspect of a fighter’s life and provides the kind of meaning and purpose that is hard to walk away from, this is easier said than done.

Murray came away from his tussle with Gennady Golovkin with more bruises and cuts than he probably incurred in his last 10 fights combined. 

Given Murray’s excellent record going in, when it came to pushing the elite fighters in the division all the way — the likes of Felix Sturm and Sergio Martinez, for example — he had reason to feel confident that he could give Golovkin the kind of test the Kazakh world champion had yet to face.

But after a cagey opening round, Golovkin stamped his authority on the fight, proving that the hype surrounding him is more than justified. 

He carries phenomenal power, endurance and punch resistance in one unbeatable package. 

Murray didn’t hurt him once, despite putting together some good counters here and there amid the torrent coming the other way. 

The gameplan employed by Murray and his trainer Oliver Harrison of sitting on the ropes and waiting for an opening to counter before moving off again was all wrong. 

Taking shots from somebody with Golovkin’s power, even on the arms and body, is only guaranteed to drain your own power and energy over succeeding rounds. 

Far better to occupy the centre of the ring, make your opponent miss, and then counter. 

In the end the fight for Murray by the middle rounds, after he’d already been forced to take a knee twice in response to vicious bodyshots, became a quest to last the distance. 

He managed to make it to the 11th round before the ref stepped in after Golovkin unleashed yet another combination on the by now beaten fighter against the ropes. 

Murray exemplifies courage, heart and determination of a rare type. But boxing at the highest level is about skill. This Golovkin has in abundance.