Is boxing the only sport that has fans of Classic fights?

That's what I'm saying. They include what we would consider to be amateur fights between teenagers with their regular pro record. That would be like Floyd Mayweather including his 84-6 amateur record on top of his 43 pro fights or Guillermo Rigondeuax with his 400 amateur fights with only 12 losses. It can't be championship level competition every week and you can't fight a full 8, 10, or 12 rounds that often or your body would just wear out. I think a top flight boxer with a full 60 fights on his career and a good amateur background has probably put the same kind of mileage on his body.

But I didn't mean it wasn't still very hard. I just mean that boxing is still a better spectacle. If kickboxing was 10 rounds, then kickboxing would probably be more fun to watch than regular boxing. Most knockouts come later in a fight when fighters are tired, and the shorter number of rounds makes for more decisions, which aren't as satisfying. That doesn't mean it isn't at all satisfying, but one's a tv show and the other is a movie. One's a short story and the other is a novella.

 

No. The teenagers are not amateurs they are pro's mate. I've watched 'em in the flesh they're brutal fights.

Amateur Muay Thai is a joke, it's police and army cadets wearing pads and headguards over 3 rounds. The kids fight 5 rounds, full Thai rules!!!

 

But they aren't physically capable of competing with the elite yet. There are no ten year old champions. There just aren't. If you put a ten year old in with a twenty year old he'll get his ass kicked because his muscles haven't grown and he doesn't have a commensurate depth of experience. Ten year olds fighting ten year olds, even with the same round length and rules should still be amateur. I would start the clock on their pro career when they turn 18 and are physically and mentally mature. My guess is that their competition gets steadily ratcheted up around then and they have maybe 120 fights after that equivalent to a boxers 60 or so pro fights.

College football teams are nearly pro level. They play the same game with the same rules as the pros, many go on to be pros, but they would get crushed if they tried to play the Patriots or the 49ers and we don't count their college stats with their pro stats.

 

Yeah, I agree with you on the unbalance of most football leagues, this is definitely a point that should be mentioned more....

 

Haha yeah we have a bad rep that ain't going away any time soon.

I often watch highlights of people from my day like yeboah, Wallace, kewell, bowyer, viduka, hasslebaink etc but I wouldn't watch a full football match from back then.

I find football more of a "in the present" sport because it is so active.

 

Luf, what did you think about Roque Junior ? Remember him ?
He was pretty good in his prime when played for us in the 90s, apparently he didn´t do well in Leeds.

 

What about 11 year old fighting 14 year olds? Or 13 Vs 16?

What about the current P4P no.1 (bar Saenchai of course) being only 16? And having fought top fighters (and beaten 'em) at 15?

Remember; most of these guys burn out in their 20s physically. So a 15 year old fighting a 21 year old might consist of a kid vs a shot old man.

I get what you're saying, of course, but in Thailand, fighting is a way of life and treated differently as we're used to in the West.