Holzken is a great fighter, but I don't think he's ready for Callum Smith yet. But if the fight happens I will be very happy and supporting him in front of my TV loudly!
Meh , this was PPV so i wasn't watching it anyway. The opponent change will probably put the fight on free view now so thats an upside to the situation.
You really are out of the scoop! Huge what if....If Holzken were to win this tournament somehow, how high would he rank P4P all time for Dutch boxing?
Holzken deserves it... Polyakov is a very solid scalp and kickboxers are warriors who sometimes fight several times a night and 10-15 times a year. He's ready and willing. Give the man his shot!
In my defense though, how tf was I supposed to have known about his venture into footless boxing? 100% of his bouts have been in the Netherlands (and probably unseen live by anybody outside the NL); it wasn't like he was appearing on major televised European cards in like Germany or anything.
Even though i'm disappointed that Smith vs Braehmer got called off, i'm intrigued to see someone like Holzken. A former kickboxing champion like myself, up against a top contender in Smith, but i don't think Holzken is ready for the likes of Smith.
...eh, not sure I agree. Victories over Polyakov and Mundo would be impressive (the former mostly because he was the first to ever stop the long-ago Russian amateur star; the latter mostly because it will have been on short notice) but you guys are jumping the gun if you think he surpasses Ray Joval with those. He would be closing in on Hallelujah's résumé in an impressively short time (and bonus points for having crossed over in his thirties and being successful) but he would need to put in a fair bit more work to actually go down as greater than him IMO.
I figured you would in all honesty. You're a fellow compulsive Boxrec'r after all! But yeah. In all fairness his jump does coincide with your period of semi-inactivity on here. So I'll give you a pass!
Tuur over Joval? I mean, yes the former technically was a title holder and the latter wasn't, but like most WBO champs of the 90's his reign was a bit thin on substance. His best scalp is, what, Tony Pep (whom a green PBF handled much easier a few years later)? Or a post-cocaine-addiction Eugene Speed? Is either of those really better than Sam Soliman? Or Mpush Makambe x2?
You have a point, on paper not that special, but he was definitely more talented as Joval. He had to deal with what many boxers out of smaller countries deal with, and that's getting shafted on the cards when in your opponent's backyard. It's long ago, but Grove and Yoma III were quite obvious as I remember. Salido was close but fair, suffering a KD.
Ray was talented, man - if not in a flashy or glamorous way, just workmanlike and solid. I forgot he also had good Ws over Shannan Taylor and Agosto Cardamone (who was coming off 2 straight victories over Silvio Branco, and beat him thrice in all). He definitely had a ceiling a couple of floors (or even a whole switch-over elevator bay) down from the elite penthouse, and certainly none of his losses were robberies, he lost to Feroz and Buddy Jr. fair and square, but he was a solid guy. Salido did beat Tuur fairly, and in Tuur's defense it was in his comeback years later, but Salido in those days was also just a baby and was losing nearly as often as he won. I'd say losing to prime Fernando Vargas a dozen years into your career in a competitive UD is less embarrassing than losing to (and getting dropped by) a 13-7-1 Warlando a dozen years into your career.