No Olympic sport, with the possible exception of financially-savaged shooting, has suffered more vicissitudes since Beijing than amateur boxing. 

 

The brutal axing of Terry Edwards, the most successful coach in GB history, was followed by the defection to the professionals of six of the original eight Olympians with two of them, plus Edwards taking legal action against the governing body, the Amateur Boxing Association (ABA)

 

This amid substantial upheaval and reorganisation with the formation of the umbrella body, the British Amateur Boxing Association (BABA) under the stewardship of former Sport England supremo Derek Mapp.  He controversially appointed  Kevin Hickey, out of the game for 20 years, as performance director. 

 

Hickey in turn brought in Kelvyn Travis as head coach thus splitting the two jobs done by Edwards. Both have now departed within a few months, Travis just over a week ago when professional trainer Robert McCracken, a former British middleweight champion was hired to replace Hickey. McCracken then decided he wanted to be head coach too, so out went Travis. 

 

In the meantime the new look GB squad had returned medal-less from the World Championships and there was obvious discontent. Ronnie Heffron, a brilliant welterweight kid tipped to star in 2012 became disenchanted with the set-up and signed for Frank Warren. BABA are now embroiled in a battle for £16,000 in compensation for money claimed to have been invested in him.   

Turbulent times indeed for amateur boxing, although that now is something of a misnomer as while all this was happening the new World Series of Boxing was formed allowing, from next year, all 'amateurs' to be paid like pros. 

 

Thankfully, however there are now signs that the sport is coming off the ropes and fighting back. There have been some heartening results in international tournaments, notably against the USA who were whitewashed in three engagements in America and then a double-header in London when GB won the inaugural Atlantic Cup with 7-1 and 7-3 wins respectively against a once-great amateur boxing nation now in serious decline.

 

History was also made for the first time when women boxers appeared in the same tournament as men although dear old Sir Henry Cooper, a VIP guest at one of the events, pointedly made his excuses and left when the girls were doing rather more than powdering their noses. Like Amir Khan he has no liking for the women’s game.

 

That's tough because in terms of women’s boxing, Britain is now well ahead of the field in organisation and preparation for 2012, with some outstanding medal prospects too. 
 

All this is a firm basis on which Mapp and McCracken can build for the future, especially as there is some genuine talent to be nurtured once the world light-welter bronze medallist, Bradley Saunders and bantamweight Luke Campbell, Britain's first Euro champ for nearly half-a-century recover from hand injuries, plus flyweight Khalid Yafai, a former world junior champion who boxed in Beijing and has remained stoically loyal to the amateur ranks. 

 

I also like the look of Martin Ward (pictured), and 18-year-old product of  the Repton club, who won the European Youth tournament in  Finland this year without conceding a point. He's my tip to do at least an Amir Khan in London given the opportunity.
 

I know 40-year-old McCracken from the pro game, both as a gutsy fighter and subsequent mentor to Carl Froch the WBC super-middleweight champion.  He is a top man. Moving McCracken up from the consultancy role he shared with another ex-pro champion, Richie Woodall - who I understand also fancied the job McCracken now has - may prove to be Mapp's smartest move for there was growing pressure from both within the Sheffield based camp and outside for the return of Edwards. 

 

There are many – including a number of current GB boxers – who still believe getting shot of Edwards was a huge mistake. Other heads, not his, should have rolled because of the disgraceful behaviour of the ABA towards him and the team in Beijing, as we scribes writers who were there will testify. But as there is no chance of Edwards returning, as Roy Keane might say:  "Get over it." Time to move on.
 

My concern now is how McCracken is going to handle his dual role, plus looking after Froch and the handful of other fighters he trains, especially when the WSB league begins, for next year will also see the next phase of the 'Super-Six' tournament in which Froch will need to be prepared for up-coming world title bouts against Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward. That, of course is Mapp's problem. The BABA chair apparently has abandoned plans to appoint a chief executive and will himself shoulder some of the administrative load. 
 

Now I happen to like Mapp and wish him well in his endeavours to bring some glory to Team GB in 2012. I misjudged him when he was brought in as chairman of Sport England believing he was another Labour-luvvie, there to do the Government’s bidding. I was wrong – it was clear he set out to do a decent job, championing the grass-roots of sport, and when the Government started to interfere he had the bottle to stand up to the then Culture Secretary, a smarmy know-it-all named James Purnell, and quite rightly told him what to do with his chairmanship. 

 

It was during his spell with Sport England that Mapp, a self-made multi-millionaire businessman, discovered boxing, a sport he admitted that hitherto he knew nothing about. He set out to learn and I was instrumental in introducing him to Paul King, the chief executive of the ABA. Now he is running the show.  Remarkable?  Yes. 

 

But I have always found Mapp to be up front, straight-talking and not an awkward questions ducker; unlike some sports administrators, he will always call you back when there is a contentious issue to be raised. My one disappointment was that he was misguided - and I use the phrase advisedly – to ko Edwards. 

 

I have covered amateur boxing since I was a 17 year old cub reporter on a weekly newspaper in South London and never has the sport as better facilities, financial investment, and potential for development than it has now. But there are still things that need to be sorted and  UK Sport, the funding body, are keeping a watchful eye. 
 

There is some unseemly in-fighting in BABA's main constituent body, the ABA of England, whose President is Mapp's old mate Richard Caborn, the former Sports Minister.
 

The ABA chairman Keith Walters, a good bloke, is known to be unhappy in what he considers a lack of consultation regarding recent moves in relation to BABA. Caborn faces some stormy waters both with the dissent within the organisation and the Schools Amateur Boxing Association, who have petitioned political heavies such as the current Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe and Lord Tom Pendry, a former Services boxing champion, to examine the running of the ABA. When I saw Pendry at the recent House of Commons reception organised by BABA he warned: "There's going to be trouble ahead."

Whatever that is, let's hope it does not affect the people who matter most in this sport, those who take the blows. The boxers may now be getting the rewards, but they also deserve respect. Knowing Mapp and McCracken, I have no doubt both will ensure they get it.

 

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered 11 summer Olympics and scores of world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire, and is a former chairman of the Boxing Writers' Club.