Gavin gets stopped by Eggington & Ogogo gets utterly humiliated by Cunningham. What other world class/successful amateurs can you remember getting such a pasting by medicare opposition? Also, do you think that the pinnacle is in the amateur game for some and not the pro game? Like, the pro game is just a "retirement fund" for some whilst the real glory was facing world class opposition year in and year out and being amongst them/one of the best? Seems like the fire goes for a lot of amateurs when they turn over.
Audley Harrison been embarrassed a few times, Price too, all of those have had glaring weaknesses in their skillset, I remember watching back from 2008 to 2012 amateur boxing was more focused in fence like scoring, completey different from the pro game. A lot of these boxers just can't fight pressure fighters, it's like they all have the Amir Khan syndrome. None of them seem versatile and change it up, they seem stuck doing it one way, and when that tactic isn't working they seem clueless.
just a completely different animal in the paid ranks. what ever was up with ogogo i don't know, terrible performance, talks to much stupidness though and rates himself far too highly so it amused me to see it happen
I think the same problems would have caught up with both fighters if they never turned pro. Agogo would have preferred the celebrity life. Gavin's lack of dedication to the sport would have cost him.
Crossing over to the pro's doesn't suit all horses for courses and some can't adapt some get a decent signing on fee think they have made it thinking British,European and even World titles are a given and come unstuck has happened for decades tbh. Some look naturals in the pro's Andrew Selby for example someone who used the WSB to help make the transition into the pro game a lot easier rather than just stop journeymen get fringed ranked whatever level of belt we are talking about and exposed.
I was talking about this and the conversation kept coming back to coaching, do we in the UK need to change the way we think about training our amateurs? The conversation was interesting to me and I suppose a amateur trainers point of view is needed but a couple of points were are our amateurs just trained to the criteria of scoring points? are we training point scorers or fighters? and should we train our amateur fighters with a view to them turning professional?
Think with the amateurs they are coached to the criteria of the points scoring system,hence to me UK amateurs have always had that upright style that many struggle to shake off when they cross over,in and out one-two style and out of range. N17 fighters to me are born and that you may agree in some ways impossible to coach,when you go pro at some point you will have to sink or swim and you will get wet so to speak. I think as well the amateur funding so reliant on results pre and post Olympics 2012 especially pushes the coaching towards the above amateur boxing at the higher levels almost can become a pugilistic version of fencing.Looking wider the Cubans so successful when they do defect to turn pro are not well recieved by anyone other than boxing purists.Rigondeaux a master boxer but not box office stateside and the pro's come down to more than ability.....marketability,excitement and selling a fight.
The amateurs is a lot more similar to the pro's now with 3 minute rounds and no headguards, also WSB is 5x3 against world class opposition where a new pro will be 4x3 against a journeyman so hopefully the star amateurs will start to adapt and progress quickly. Lomachenko a good example and Josh Taylor to a watered down degree, remember Ogogo was a bronze medallist and never number 1 at his weight as an amateur. But like you say until somebody is up against it and exhausted 8-10 rounds in you never truly know how they'll react however well schooled they are