Cruiserweight and Heavyweight thread.

Miller wins in 4. Says he plans to be back in the next three weeks.

Going to go the Buck Smith route.

 

I like it, though if it were vintage Buck Smith it would be the next 3 hours or 3 days

 

I'm glad someone else remembers him. He is one of those guys who was not championship material but had his own legend.

 

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Not a fan of Miller, but this what most heavyweight prospects should be doing, but some are locked up by bad management like Arslanbek.

 

Yup. Especially a heavyweight prospect trying to keep the weight off. Make fighting part of training.

 

Arslansbek's manager isn't the problem. You can't manage your way around Arslansbek's problem - which is that he is high-risk/low-reward. You can only "promote" your way around that problem which is to raise the reward-level and thereby secure better fights.

As for Miller. The good news is that he was 328 lbs - which means he's dropped 13 lbs in the last month. The bad news is that stopping Derek Cardenas in the 4th round isn't much of an accomplishment. Cardenas is in truly appalling shape (as the photo from the bout in the "Fightnews" story reveals) and he had been stopped within 4 rounds by all of his preceding three opponents - none of whom are regarded as contender material.

So far Miller seems to be following the trajectory of Erkan Teper who never looked the part of contender once he was off the stuff.

 

When a fighter is avoided by contenders, a good manager will have him fight frequently against lesser opposition. This keeps the fighter fit and focused.

Inactivity ruins a fighter. It's happened to Dychko, who didn't look good in his last fight.

There are numerous journeymen who are willing to fight anybody.

 

I'm worried about Hrgovic when he finally steps in with an elite fighter. He's clearly talented but the inactivity may have ruined him.

 

Zhang's gigantic punch will ruin him. Then he will be forced to accept 50-50 with Babic

 

I don't think so. He still beats both of those guys quite comfortably.

 

Babic gets stopped in 1 or maybe 2 brutally by Zhang or Hrgy Bear

 

II don't think any of Makhmudov's past fights have hinted at a lack of focus or fitness. He's set foot in that ring looking like the beast that he is in every one. He hasn't been particularly inactive, either. And once a fighter gets to his late 20s or so - you don't want him in camps constantly because he's lkely to injure himself. Boxing training is tough work and it breaks down your body.

Miller's situation si very different from Makh's.

As for Dychko - I don't think he went all out in that fight. The fight wasn't televised AFAIK, but the accounts I read suggested that Dychko was just moving around and shooting the jab in his opponent's face from time to time. Never really got out of 1st gear. Kind of like when Fury fought Pianeta a few years ago.

 

One left field way to look at Makhmudov and Dychko is that they could be built up as quality opponents for belt holders, at some stage.

Both have the optics and background to draw in casuals who could be attracted to hype presenting them as really menacing opposition.

They both offer much for an opponents promoter to work with IMO to capture mainstream media attention.