European fighters aren't 'ducked'...unless they want to be

It seems to be...above 160...Europeans are as good, if not better, then their American counterparts.

 

the times are changing, europe has taken over boxing in the last 10 years. if you are the world champion and live in the germany, why should you fight in the states??? you wanna have your home advantage, your fans and your business, and if you go to the states you are an overrated boring robotic european fighter who beats a big american hype job, before the fight it's of course like that, oh the american fighter is so strong, he will beat the robatic guy, and allways when the european guy wins, it's like oh the american was a big hype and is a bum...
or for example, why should wladimir/vitali/abraham/sturm/Kessler/froch/huck fight in the states if they make much more money in their home?

 

All these comments are true depending on your viewpoint. The OP was stating a European needs to go to the US to prove himself. That is not true. My personal opinion is that it is an arrogant statement.

For a fighter to prove themselves they need to fight the best, be he european , american or asian etc. The venue may be determined by economics , but if the economics say europe and the european fighter wins, he has proved himself.

I feel American fighters need to come abroad to prove they can do it without all the advantages, because they don't. They hide behind money etc all their rhetoric says i am the name i am the champ blah blah they should come to me. But they are only the name in the US in Europe the name is Froch, Klitschko, Haye, Kessler or Abraham etc. They have a narrow arrogant insular perspective.

 

totally agree with that post.

 

At the time Calzaghe and Otkke were the top super middleweights and in the US most favoured Otkke simply because he fought americans Tate, Brewer and Mitchell. The fact is the division was void of any real US talent so much so that US fighters like Brewer, Mitchell and Tate had to travel to europe to make the most money.

So Calzaghe fighting in the US meant he would have taken a paycut and there was no way he could move down in weight just up and there was no big names other than Jones Jr at light heavyweight. Why would Calzaghe give up a title to fight for less money against bigger men?

Calzaghe did once try to fight in the US against Syd Vanderpool on the undercard of Tito/De La Hoya but an injury scuppered that fight. I have no issues with Calzaghe not fighting in the US sooner as there were no big US names until Lacy came along and he took a paycut to make that fight happen. I do have a problem with him fighting total bums though just because he couldn't get a unification fight.

 

Location of fights...who cares?

If the man is in Europe, go fight him in Europe. If he's in America, go fight him there. You can't say Europeans could easily get a fight in America if they really wanted it, because they can't. You need to bring money to the table, and if they have no American fanbase, the promoters won't make the fight.

All this us vs. them stuff is absolute bull****. Roy Jones was an American champ who blatantly ducked Europeans. Hopkins ducked Calzaghe as well. European fighters need American fighters more than American fighters need European fighters. If you're a champ in Europe, you quickly run out of quality opposition and have to look at other countries (unless you're Sven Ottke or something...). American champs can afford to spend their time fighting other Americans for bigger paydays than they'd get fighting the guy from Europe. It isn't about who makes the trip. It's about what the other guy brings to the table. It's a business.

 

Precisely. It's the economics of things that must be taken into account; why would a foreign fighter give up the advantages he holds on his own turf if he's not going to be offered a fair purse for traveling? I don't find it fair to expect the best foreign fighters to begin fighting for peanuts again to establish themselves here if they can make more fighting elsewhere. If the offers aren't at least respectable, I can't begrudge a man for not taking them. It's tough enough for a fighter to make a good living in this sport.

By the same token, I'd never expect a US fighter to fight overseas unless they were making as much or more money than they would fighting stateside or they really wanted that particular title. First and foremost, it's prize fighting, not pride fighting.

Nobody expects Americans to fight in Germany for a paycut; guys like Brewster and Cunningham did it for the economic benefits of it. Likewise, the problem when it comes to foreign fighters fighting in the US is that that there's a reluctancy for the powers that be in U.S. boxing to invest in foreign fighters. This is, in no small part, because they'd have to pay more for what is, to US fans, an unknown fighter who has to overcome being "just another foreign guy". It's a riskier investment on their parts for a variety of reasons along with the one I just mentioned, and most don't want to take that risk- which is why even a class fighter like Dzinziruk got limited interest when he was there for the taking.

 

To clarify:

Boxing is an international sport. To be a great fighter, you need to beat the best fighters. This means that since there are a lot of good American fighters, Europeans should fight them, and vice versa. Europeans who avoid American fighters should be criticized for doing so.

However, the venue of the fight itself is another matter. I couldn't care less if a European fighter fights all his fights in Madagascar or something. It's who he fights that matters, not where he fights them.

With modern travel and television, the old 'he wouldn't come to America' excuse is ridiculous. PPV networks will follow you wherever you go if you're good enough. Showtime followed Lacy when he went to the UK and received a royal asswhipping at the hands of Calzaghe. That fight was shown on both British and American TV, and drew an extremely large gate. Remember, this is Jeff Lacy, not Roy Jones or Floyd Mayweather. Lacy wasn't exactly a household name, yet the networks still covered his fight abroad. Any good champion can go anywhere and fight and still get the same exposure as they would in Vegas or Madison Square Garden. In fact, the gates are often bigger abroad. Calzaghe used to fight in front of 50,000 people. Combine that with the earnings from a British network and an American one, and you could have some serious money on the table. So the whole argument that Europeans have to come over here to make their name is invalid. They can fight wherever the hell they want...it's who they fight that matters, not where.

 

This is why I think that Title Fights should be held on NEUTREAL grounds. Sort of like the super bowel. Therefore, no one gets an advantage... Too bad that makes no sense buisness wise atsch

 

Yeah, its better in theory.

 

He was already with Warren while being trained by Roach, he dropped Warren for Golden Boy, if you gonna talk about un-informed people.


If your champ let america come to you, I can think of a few reasons not to go to the US, dodgy referees being one of them.