Dat Nguyen cant get fights after beating Miguel Flores (21-0). Its been over 3 years and Dat has been trying to get boxing fights but no one wants to fight him. Dat's management went to Al Haymon after the win and they want nothing to do with him. Dat has to do bare knuckle fighting now. He is 2-0. While Miguel Flores lost another fight right after Dat, to Chris Avalos and he gets a title shot at Leo Santa Cruz. This is boxing politics. There is no way Flores deserved a title shot while Dat cant even get a fight.
Surely there's more to it. His management couldn't even get him fights against tomato cans on the Midwestern circuit to stay busy at least? I can't imagine there was literally nothing for him to do but go bare-knuckle.
Dat says he has tryed to get fights but he is considered to dangerous of an opponent. Right now he works at a Vietnamese restaurant he owns in Vero Beach Florida but is hoping that wins in BKFC and leads to boxing fights. Dat would have gave Leo a much better fight than Flores.
...too dangerous for other prospects to bring him on as the B-side, yeah, I get that. But why can't his management do what is usually done for guys in his boat, and pad his record against cans fighting on undercards?
Dat must not have a promoter. Might just have a manager. A lot of fighters are in his position that are really good but just have bad luck. Vanes Martirosyan comes to mind, in my opinion he beat Lara in the rematch, did not get a fight for a long time so he signed with Don King which was obviously a mistake. He fought GGG on 3 weeks notice and cant fight anyone because he is signed to King. Vanes seems like to good of a fighter to not get any fights if he wants to continue fighting but was forced to retire.
I wonder why Haymon balked. He certainly has worse guys than Nguyen signed. Probably a cynical reason, like "there aren't enough Vietnamese American boxing fans (at least according to research) to waste time on somebody that isn't hugely popular outside his demographic to put asses in seats and justify our investment".
I call BS. He can get fights up until he beats someone good? What, did all the journeymen and tomato cans get scared of him? His team likely wants big fights and no one is offering any, which make sense. But they should have bitten the bullet and fight whomever they could. The best way to move your career forward is to fight, no matter who the opponent is. All it take is a few wins and you can turn an career around. Just look at Kiko Martinez. Fights a bum here and there and voila, is handed a big fight again.
I thought American boxing industry is huge enough to have 'bums' for lower national rank climbing ? Correct me if I'm wrong, if I know I'm good, I'd have try to get ranked in national rating first like NABF or USBA, then start targetting someone inside that list. If I beat dozens of bums, surely someone will notice, no ? Take a look at Spence's boxing record. At the beginning of his career, he did fight 10 fights in a year between Nov 2012-Dec 2013.
Been watching BKFC since day 1 and Dat has fought twice and both times he has brought it. Bare knuckle fits him prefectly
