You may have missed Francis v Williams I

What was once a coveted title is now an empty boast.

The great British sporting public just does not care who its heavyweight champion is anymore.

And, with all respect to the efforts of Williams and Francis, who can really blame them?

The title was once a stepping stone to a brave British tilt at the world title - Tommy Farr, Brian London, Richard Dunn and, of course, "Our 'Enry" being a few who have followed that road.

American boxing fans grew used to a procession of "horizontal heavyweights" from across the Atlantic who would put up gutsy, but largely clueless, displays against their heavyweight champions.

This state of affairs lasted between 1899, when Englishman Bob Fitzsimmons lost the world title, and 1992, when Lennox Lewis retrieved the WBC belt from the wastepaper bin Riddick Bowe had dropped it in.

Farr was highly rated until he met Joe Louis

It was not the most glorious of successes for the London-born fighter, but, after 93 years of hurt, who was complaining?

Lewis would go on to justify his champion status against Oliver McCall - the second time around - and Evander Holyfield - both times, although only the second time counted.

But Lewis is also the last boxer of any real consequence to hold the British Heavyweight belt.

During his transformation from Canadian Olympic hero to British boxing legend, Lewis became national champion by beating Gary Mason before making a successful defence against Glenn McCrory.

Satisfied that he had paid his dues to the ghosts of British boxing's past, Lewis gave up the belt and went in pursuit of the world title.

Sadly - although it depends how you look at it - the rest of Britain's heavyweight division decided to do the same.

Cooper fought two bloody battles with Ali

From having nothing to show for nearly 100 years of plucky mediocrity, British boxing in the 1990s suddenly had more titles to shout about than an Arab prince.

If you had a world heavyweight belt, no matter how dubious, who cared about the national title?

With WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO honours now on offer, heavyweight boxing had more varieties than Heinz.

Where a boxer had once spent years building his reputation at national level, a few wins at Bethnal Green's York Hall would now get a boxer a title shot with one of the alphabet soup of governing bodies.

Michael Bentt, Herbie Hide and Henry Akinwande helped make the somewhat lightweight WBO version of the title a British institution.

Even pantomime performer Frank Bruno, who had never even contested the British title, picked up a belt.

Tyson lets Francis show off his branded boots

The genial Londoner spoiled what had been until that moment a classic British heavyweight's career by actually winning the WBC belt in 1995.

So as British heavyweight boxing's world profile improved, the national title was left behind as an irrelevance.

Saturday's protagonists may beg to differ, but the fact that Francis once fought Mike Tyson with adverts for a newspaper on the soles of his shoes should say it all.

And while Williams might be proud of his 22-1 career record, it should be pointed out that his one loss was to that human billboard, Julius Francis.

The Wembley crowd may well see an entertaining fight between two competent boxers, but come Sunday morning will anybody else care?