It's weird with Wazza...

Who is this costa fellow?

 

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Lacy and that version of Kostya were not the best available opposition, and most REASONABLE people saw them as tough but winnable fights.

It's not like he put Joe in with a decent version of Jones, or Ricky in with Cotto, Floyd etc

At a push, he'll do the B+ level opponents, but anything more than that he's just not interested.

 

They're probably the only two examples. And perhaps Ricky Burns for fighting at domestic level and then beating Martinez and later Katsidis. That says more for the fighter than Frank's matchmaking.

*****/Dean Powell hinder fighter's developments in most cases. They keep protecting them, don't give them any decent-ish tests on the way up and when they eventually come up against quality opposition they're found wanting. They just haven't had the experience of things going against them and don't know how to cope.

 

He is protecting the gravy train. The reality is promoters don't know who will win in competative/elite match ups. Hearns didn't know Froch would do that to Bute. In elite/competative match ups questions are asked which can only be answered in the ring - strategy, heart, chin, adversity etc

Like wise, ****** has suffered in fights like Enzo vs Haye. He will put his fighters in **** fights for as long as the fan is paying and the fighter is accepting.

Joe vs Lacy and Hatton vs Tszyu came as a last resort when the fans and especially the fighters had had enough of the **** ****** had been serving them. Both left as soon as they had got their defining fight and got themselves the sort of match ups they had wanted for many years.

 

The unfortunate reality is, 9 times out of 10, A British fighter will fail against the very elite of America/Mexico etc.

Our best are usually not the same level as the Roy Jones, Bernard Hopkins, Ray Leonard, Floyd Mayweather, Roberto Duran, JCC etc, we get close, but not quite there, usually.

For a domestic promoter, unless it's a cash out, it's not desirable to put a fighter in a fight they will probably lose.

 

Thing is he gets them the padded record, they earn nicely and then have that big fight and win it. They become household names and within a year or 18 months are gone.

He practically builds them up and they leave, there was a sign with DeGale and others he gave up padding the record and was going to chuck them in deep but he seems to of stopped that now and it's back to old ways. Maybe lack of funds? or faith? or both?.

Sad really..

 

Good points.

FW has put his fighters in with elite opponents in big fights before and most of the time his guy has come off the loser, in humiliating fashion.

Therefore, over the years he's developed a terrible habit taking his fighters the easiest routes to a world titles and then doing everything in his power to make sure that fighters holds on to the title for as long as possible (defending against bums).

He's only willing to put his guys in big fights when the opponent is starting to show signs of slowing down. If the other guys still look in peak condition, he'll keep his fighters FAR away from them.

 

Well you're still wrong atsch it's Kostya!

 

The problem is he doesn't give his fighters the fights between domestic and world level. It's all about getting them past domestic level, beating some no-hoper for a WBO intercontinental title and then getting a WBO title fight.

For all the stick Matchroom have got for Brook's development at least they tried to rectify that. Frank just wanted Brook to hang around fighting nobodies until the WBO title became vacant. There was no "ok, he's only really beaten domestic fighters so let's get him some fights against the likes of N'dou, Soto Karass etc. who will give him rounds and experience".

At least Matchroom got his some fights at that level (though a few were crap). Frank has never done that.

 

Lacy wasn't far off being one of the better guys out there. And there were a LOT of people at the time who thought Lacy would finish Joe. A lot of REASONABLE people saw the fight before it happened in Lacy's favour.

 

If you read the court judgement of JC v SN Joe actually had it written in his last contract that Bunny would seek unification fights. He had no other option at that stage.

Similarly, the Kostya fight was the last on SN's contract and my view is that Bunny was using this as leverage to extend that deal. As we know they ended up arguingu in court as to whether there was an extension - similar to with Joe

 

Tough job match making.
Promoters dont want to step a fighter up too much incase he tastes defeat and ruins a career defining pay day.
Esp given how quickly fans write off a fighter after defeat

Good recent example of match making was Groves in America