Here is one fighter that has completely flown under ESB's radar. Banks is the best Cruiserweight prospect in the world (apologies to Alekseev), who has had a very impressive amatuer career, capped off with a first place finish at the 2003 National Championships. He's one of the last true Kronk gym fighters, training under Steward before Manny lost a step. Physically, he is the total package. He is 6'3 and very strong on the inside. Not only that, but he's proving himself in the pro ranks already: In his 12th pro fight, he won a war with 20-1-1 Elisio Castillo (whose only loss was to recognized HW champ Wlad Klitschko). In his last fight he defeated former IBF champ Imamu Mayfield. Right now he is 19-0 (14 KOs) and ranked #9 by the WBC and #1 by the WBO. The fact that this guy hasn't received more attention at ESB is beyond ridiculous.
the Cruiserweight has a lot of young exciting boxers coming through the ranks. Banks, A. Williams, Aleexev, Fields and Flores.. I left out a couple but its going to be a strong division
I met him a couple of times, He is one of the coolest dudes I have ever met. Truly talented and will be undesputed champ.
K2 promotion isn't known to have quality undercards. In fact, they've been worse than the ones of Frank Warren and the Aussie cards headlined by Mundine. But RTL has the rights to broadcast the fights of some K2 fighters, among them J. Banks. So there's still hope. Unfortuneatly I've never seen a Banks fight so far.
I saw him live against Mayfield. Good prospect, but he didn't show me anything extraordinary that made me go "Wow!"
Yes, there seems to be a lot of talent, perhaps because of the big 25 pound gap between 175 and 200. The future looks good for the division. Besides the ones you mentioned, there's also up-and-comers Marco Huck (age 23, fights today), Alexander Frenkel (also 23, fighting today), Rudolph Kraj, who defeated Matt Godfrey in his last fight and Enad Licina, who won by TKO today.
Of all the US prospects i have seen at around Cruiser, Banks seems to be the most impressive. Its time for the Kronk team to start getting him on more TV dates & continue raising the bar of his opponents.
He's a good prospect, but if he wanted attention he could try stepping up and fighting on tv again. The Castillo win was a good one, but since that time he's done absolutely nothing. The Mayfield win tells us zippo since Imamu is completely shot at this point. Banks and Williams are both great prospects, but Banks especially in my opinion should be moved along more quickly now. Put him in with somebody like Ding or Matt Godfrey.
Flores is a top 10 contender now, no longer a prospect. Williams and Fields have like 12 fights each if I recall correctly...not to dismiss them, but they need another 2 years of grooming before stepping up. Alekseev is certainly the best European prospect, but to date he has fought nobody of any note.
I agree, he is at 19 fights, he has had one great step up fight against a top 15 opponent, time for another one.
