Seth Mitchell and the current Heavyweight era

Seth Mitchell first laced up gloves 5 years ago after watching Tom Zbikowski on the "The Contender" and saying to himself "hey, I can do that". Like, Zbikowski, Mitchell was an American football player. Unfortunately for Mitchell, he blew out his knee in 2005 and after several surgeries was forced to quit the sport.

Mitchell, despite almost zero boxing experience, just nearly bludgeoned to death a former Olympian (Atlanta 1996) and distinguished amateur who had been boxing competitively for over 20 years -- Timur Ibragimov (Sultan's cousin according to Wikipedia).

Ibragimov had a record of 30-3 and had never before been knocked down in a pro fight. He was coming off a close split decision loss to Jean Marc Mormeck, Wladimir Klitschko's next opponent. Timur is considered a fringe contender, ranked somewhere between 15-30 in the world.

Now wait one second. A former football player who started boxing at age 25, with a blown out knee, just KTFO a seasoned veteran and 5 time Uzbekistani National champion who had fought in competitive fights with top ten heavyweight Calvin Brock, Tony Thompson, Kevin Johnson (draw, 4 rounder), and Timo Hoffman (who he beat).

what?

Can you imagine taking a random football player with shot knees and giving him a set of golf clubs and, voila, 4 years later he's on the leader board at the Masters?

Or you take a rugby player with broken knees, give him a hockey stick and four years later he's one of the top 30 players in the NHL?

what!?

Is Seth Mitchell even any good? No, he's not even any good! That's what's so bloody confounding about it all!

So I ask the question -- what does the complete novice Seth Mitchell's brutal bludgeoning of Timur Ibragimov say about the current Heavyweight era?

Someone explain how this is possible -- that a man can start boxing at age 25, with serious knee problems, and can be beating via blunt force trauma a former Olympian with a credible professional record and over 20 years of competitive experience.

My working hypothesis is that the current heavyweight era is God-awful. Am I wrong?

 

ok, changed the title.

 

both of those guys learned to box in prison for several years. Ron Lyle had amateur experience as well.

Seth Mitchell blew out his knees and saw boxing on television, 5 years later he's nearly murdering a former olympian. You do the math.

 

Ray Mercer won a gold medal at the Olympics and fought in the Army.

Seth Mitchell was in a different sport, blew his knee out, and said about boxing: "gee, I can do that!"

 

bit early for the race card, no? Trigger happy?

I'm asking how a guy with near-zero experience and shot knee just beat the living crap out of a fringe contender what had never been knocked down in what is thought by many on this board to be the greatest heavyweight era ever.

I want to someone square those two propositions.

 

Someone on Wikipedia believes they are cousins.

I'm sorry, but Timur Ibragimov is a top 30 heavyweight who just lost a split decision to Vlad's next opponent. He had never been knocked down. He was an Olympian with 20 years of boxing experience. The poster "Baldwin", quite logically I might add, believed that he would easily outbox Seth Mitchell on this basis.

Are you telling me that you can imagine a football player with broken knees getting a pair of golf clubs and being on the leader board of the Masters four years later?

And by the way, Seth Mitchell isn't very good. He's quite bad, actually. I'm exploring what that means for the current era of heavyweights.

 

So 10 is a magic number?

If he beat the 10th ranked guy it would mean something, but not the 11th?