...Watched the ESPN card last night, and it seems obvious; while Tony Harrison is faster and probably even more powerful than Khytrov (I think is power may be overrated), I would take the Russian to beat him right now. Harrison seems more like a prospect at 24, and Khytrov is a contender at 25. Khytrov just looks more comfortable in a boxing ring, is more versatile and more relaxed...as he should be after 500 fights. Harrison still does a lot of Golden Gloves stuff. If I were Harrison's people, I wouldn't be afraid to put him in with GGG now, don't know if he'd win, but it's competitive. He probably beats everyone GGG has fought. In two years he's just too young and fresh for Golovkin. Harrision beats GGG's opponents now, except maybe Geale.
Because the former Soviet block never stopped producing quality young amateur fighters, whereas the U.S's slump in that field is well documented. The amateur system in America needs a dramatic overhaul. I expect to see more of these Eastern European amateur standouts on HBO in the future, especially with Big Gay Al signing up virtually every notable American-based boxer. Real fundamentally sound, hard-hitting boxer-punchers that make for good television and come fairly cheap in comparison to the Haymon crew.
Nah. Theres not a great deal of difference in their level of comp, Harrison is faster, stronger and looks to hit a lot harder, Khytrov would get knocked out
For some reason fighters from Eastern Europe always seem to bang. Maybe they don't all have world class power, but you rarely see them without respectable power. I have no idea why really?
i agree... i don't know wtf the OP is talking about. khytrov looked like garbage in there. melendez is a very limited fighter and he was taking the fight to khytrov and punishing him...harrison would destroy khytrov. the whole russian thing is so overblown...besides the klitchko's not ONE russian has proven himself. ggg insists on fighting slow-twitch euros. kovalev's only significant win is against 49 year old hopkins which kovalev weighed in as a hw. lomachenko was beaten by the only name fighter he faced and looked unimpressive beating a no-name thai fighter in his last fight. the russians generally have long amateur careers with hundreds of fights compared to most americans who might have a few dozen....but the russians still haven't done anything of note even or remotely deserving of all the hype surrounding them.
You mean Sapiyev? He is Olympic champ and 2x world champ, not sure if he's retired now. Anyway, Spence never reached any world or Olympic finals if I'm correct. In London he barely beat some Indian guy by overturning the original decision, then lost to a Russian, who then lost to the champion Sapiyev. In other words, Spence was not even close to reaching the finals. And neither of those guys would reach the top in the current WSB welterweight landscape. And Americans reaching HOF isn't really bothering anyone, since HOF doesn't even exist outside the US.
I think it's debatable if the Russians are actually ahead right now. They have some good and significant boxers but often boxers from the former USSR are misidentified as "Russian". Plus, the Ukrainian Lion may have looked good last night against Melendez but Harrison looked fantastic versus Smith. Although Melendez and Smith apparently have a great disparity in their ability to KO opponents. Smith wins by KO 40% of the time while Melendez KOs 70% of his victims. Besides that they seem to be cut from the same cloth.
IMO kostya was the best russian pro ever. sure he got ko'd by phillips and hatton. but he also beat zab and sharmba. jirov was another hype job who got exposed by toney. the thing with russian fighters is, they're so damn slow it doesn't really matter that they're well schooled...a moderately talented african american fighter with speed quickness and movement will give them all kinds of trouble. i think we've seen the best of the russians...it's all downhill from here. tne new crop of fighters coming up are basically schit. chudinov, korobov, beterbiev etc, nothing a buncha plodders waiting to be exposed.