The forgotten great champions

He was just pointing out to you why they weren't noticed more outside of Europe.

He was 100% right.

It's no disrespect to the fighters, it's just the way things were.

Back then, the biggest promoters in the boxing world were based in the U.S.

The biggest networks in the world were based in the U.S.

The majority of the world's biggest fights were staged in the U.S.

The majority of the world's best fighters lived in the U.S.

Many fighters throughout the world, including many British fighters, went to the U.S. to enhance their careers.

You know all of the above.

All of the fighters which you have mentioned deserve respect. And if they didn't want to travel and they were happy doing what they were doing, then that's okay. It was their prerogative. But it's the reason why they didn't gain more exposure and why you've needed to create this thread to remind people of who they are.

 

He was just pointing out why they went under the radar.

Like it or not, the U.S. controlled boxing back then.

 

I meant the audience/fans.

 

Yeah that's what i was trying to say. There is a reason why they are ''forgotten''. I'm not native speaker (pretty bad at english tbh lol) so sometimes its little difficult to put those things in words. Thanks!

I couldn't have said it better myself.

And yeah, I was little harsh on some of those fighters. But i honestly believe Ottke would have been shattered in USA. But he had a decent career in Germany and became a national hero. And Michaelzwzki made it clear that he will not fight outside of europe (to face jones jr) and thats something you choose and i guess he was happy with it. Jones didn't need him that bad, he had his hands on big fights, fame and money already.

So yeah, thats the reason why we need threads like this.

 

Jesus fella, I know you meant that

 

Not at 175 he didn't, he fought absolutely know one after Hill, I remember Jones Jnr wanting nothing to do with Michaelzwzki

 

I get how you can have that opinion about that but, if you're being honest, in the last 50 years, the most popular and best fighters in the world have come to America. If you waned to make a name for yourself, fighters came here. Now, with all the media outlets, a fighter can be world renowned and never leave his home country, which I feel is a good thing. Us Americans have a "better than you" attitude.
But if aliens came knocking on earths door, the rest of the world would be looking to America to deal with it, not any countries in Africa, South America. England, Germany and France would be following America's lead. Russia would be doing their own thing, similar to WW2. Kicking ass on their own terms. LOL

 

Mate.. I live in Europe ffs.

There is nothing wrong fighting out of Germany. But what I understood, we were speaking about forgotten champs. And I told you why theyare forgotten. Real boxing fans will remember them of course but will they remember them as legends or special? Ottke retired with a record of 34 wins and zero losses. Still he is more like ''nobody'' in history books. Thats because he fought out of germany. Thats the way boxing was back then. Little harsh to say but thats the way world sees him. There was no social media or this kind of platforms to have conversations with other fans.

And tbh Ottke fighting in Usa would have never retired with zero losses. Never. You can't compare him to Ward and sadly you did. Ward beat everyone they had to give and he got the fame cause his resume is solid AF. He didn't have to travel cause well.. fighting out of Usa is still advantange. He gets criticized about that but thats the way boxing works, he was a leader of the pack fighting out of usa = you will be remembered and you are the one who tells where you gonna fight or not..

And cmon, Wlad was THE MAN of the division. That wasn't case with Ottke and Michaelwszki. And heavyweight division is always different in terms of attention, ''the king division''. That was a bad bad comparison and also did you just compare Wilder to Wlad, 10 years ruler of the division with all belts...?

And I would like to add that now days things are 1000% different with social medias etc. It's way easier to follow fighters, no matter where you fight.

 

And think about Golovkin:

Started his pro career 2006 in Germany and fought there till 2011. Does anyone even remember that period? Boxing world knew that there is that one talented kazakh who hits like a horse and has a good amateur pedigree. He got the attention but not the fame. He knew that he needs to do something to turn things around. Moves to Usa and BOOM: big fights, money and one of the famest boxers atm in a whole world. And his resume in Usa is not even that MEGA MEGA impressive (before canelo)! But it was still enough to make him worldwide famous because it happened in USA.

Just think about Golovkin fighting those same guys in Germany. He would have never ever had a career like this.

 

That's not true. He just didn't want to take 3 belts over to Germany. And I don't think anybody could blame him for that. He was more than willing to fight Dariusz in the U.S. but Dariusz and his promoter wouldn't do that. In the end, they couldn't reach a compromise.

It's also an exaggeration to say that he fought absolutely nobody after Hill.

After Hill, he fought: Reggie, Hall, Harding, Woods and Tarver.

 

Great post.

I agree entirely with everything you've written.

Times have changed now. But back in the 90's, America was the home of boxing.

By the way, you're debating with a guy who thinks that Ottke has a better resume than Ward. Ha!

 

It's the same regarding Kovalev and Beterbiev etc.

There's countless examples to give.

Ottke was happy milking his IBF with help from the officials, whereas Dariusz was happy milking his WBO.

They weren't overly ambitious, they were just content doing what they were doing.

 

plus wlad came to the us and was an HBO darling until the ibragimov fight and kept trying to get on us TV

 

on the thread topic

I met erdei in Atlantic city and his coach outside boardwalk hall. he fought Mitchell on the undercard of froch vs johnson