Even the Bible of the noble art - Ring magazine - can be a little slow catching on to the rising challenge from the Brits. Either that or the Americans are a mite reluctant to acknowledge the threat posed by our prizefighters.
At the onset of the new Blood Season - as the title of many books about Mike Tyson so graphically describes the annual fistic calendar - Ring has published its traditional list of the world's top 100 boxers.Be ready to scour the small print in search of our boys.
No rational judge would deny for a moment that the No 1 ranking deservedly goes to that phenomenal Filipino Manny Pacquiao.
Floyd Mayweather Jnr, of course, will object to his nemesis as the world's greatest pound-for-pound fighter being rated one place above him but Pacquiao's supremacy is something the Money Man will have to live with unless and until he girds himself to climb into the same ring as the PacMan.
From the British perspective, however, perhaps it is Mayweather's place as the solitary American in Ring's top five which holds back recognition for the UK's finest.
The decline in US boxng - especially the loss of their historic hold on the heavyweight crown which they used to cherish as the symbol of American manhood - is the source not only of regret but of an element of resentment of the foreign fighter.
That is at its most marked when it comes to the long-standing rivalry with the old country.
If there is another explanation why Amir Khan, who is counted outside the top 25, is one of only a bare-knuckle handful of British boxers in this list, it would be interesting to hear what it might be.
Khan is only two fights away from potentially unifying the world light-welterweight championship, perhaps only one more bout from a mega-fight against Mayweather.
His American master-trainer, Freddie Roach, believes him to be the impending successor to stablemate Pacquiao. Yet he comes in at a grudging 27th.
There can be no real argument with a top five, in order, of Pacquiao, Mayweather, late-exploding middleweight champ Sergio Martinez, Mexico legend Juan Manuel Marquez and the next Phillipine sensation, Nonito Donaire. But Khan down at 27?
Two places below the pride of Bolton comes Carl Froch, whose succession of five brilliant fights against the world's outstanding super-middleweights is also deserving of at least a place in the top 20.
As for David Haye, who just happens to be the WBA heavyweight champion, he is six places outside the top 50. Yet his rival world title holders Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko - who seem in no hurry to take on London's speed merchant - rank eighth and twelfth respectively.
Even Tomasz Adamek, the former cruiser champion who is unproven at heavyweight but is bulking up to face Wladimir in his native Poland in September, is 49th. But then Adamek fights out of America.
After Khan, Froch and Haye, it is necessary to plumb the depths to find the last three token Brits.
Ryan Rhodes ranks 82nd and Nathan Cleverly 86th while Ricky Burns, Scotland's world super-featherweight champion no less, only just scrapes in at 97th.
Give them the chance and Britain's big six - along with such rising stars as James DeGale, Kell Brook, George Groves, Dereck Chisora and David Price to name but a few - will rewrite the Ring in 2011.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
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