GB BOXING chief Rob McCracken has lauded the impact of Welsh fighters on Great Britain’s emergence as a global power in the sport in recent years.

Speaking ahead of the World Series of Boxing (WSB) clash between British Lionhearts and France Fighting Roosters in Newport, McCracken hailed Wales for its contribution to the cause.

McCracken, who also coaches world heavyweight king Anthony Joshua, has overseen a period of unprecedented success since taking over as GB Boxing’s performance director in 2009.

“In my time as performance director boxers from Wales have played a huge part in the success we have had at major international competitions,” he said.

“Boxers like Fred Evans, Andrew Selby, Joe Cordina and Sean McGoldrick were fantastic servants to the Olympic programme and had a significant impact on raising the status of GB Boxing on the international boxing circuit.

“We have been very lucky to have such high quality talent coming through the system.

“Welsh Boxing and its national coach, Colin Jones, has done a tremendous job, as have many of the club coaches in Wales, particularly Tony Borg at St Joseph’s in Newport, who has worked with all four of those boxers.

“Andrew Selby was a phenomenal boxer for us and a serial medallist who seemed to win something every time he went to a tournament.

“Fred and Joe are also wonderful natural talents and all three of them qualified for an Olympic Games, with Fred going on to win a superb silver medal at London 2012.”

Selby and Evans joined GB Boxing’s podium squad after Beijing 2008 and competed at London 2012 before departing to the professional ranks in 2015.

Cordina joined the GB Boxing squad in 2011 and went on to box at Rio 2016.

In their time with GB Boxing the trio were all crowned European champion and between them were responsible for landing a quarter of the medals won by men from the squad between November 2008 and August 2016.

All three also competed in WSB between 2012 and 2016, winning 14 out of 20 bouts.

McCracken added: “Very few boxers from Great Britain have won the European championship so for all three of them to do so was fantastic.

“They also performed well in the five-round, WSB format where Andrew was particularly outstanding, winning nine out of his 10 contests.

“It is a tremendous record and Joe Joyce is the only boxer from Great Britain to have won more WSB bouts than Andrew.”

Commonwealth Games commitments mean there will not be any Welsh boxers in the Lionhearts team that competes at the Newport Centre on Saturday, April 14.

McCracken said: “We have a new generation of Welsh talent coming through and I am pleased with what I am seeing.

“On the women’s side, Lauren Price is in the podium squad, doing well and a definite candidate for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

“Amongst the men we have Mickey McDonagh in our podium potential squad, trying to force his way into the elite podium group.

“It is good that both Lauren and Mickey will be at the Commonwealth Games and it will be interesting to see how they get on if they come up against some of their fellow squad mates from England or Scotland.”

More details on the British Lionhearts are available at gbboxing.org.uk/world-series-boxing and by following the team on Twitter at @Brit_Lionhearts.