Katzourakis vs Abdukakhorov anyone?

How the ****

 

A 10-10? ****ing pick a side

 

It's pretty bad here in Greece. We don't have the funds or the connections to pursue professional careers while staying in the country, which is why Katzourakis, just like many fighters before him, decided to go overseas. That leaves the country with a very shallow pool of professional talent. Most guys that turn pro here without fighting abroad are just doing it to pay the bills, and from what I've gathered, if you're too obscure, you might not get paid period.

Our amateur fighters are a better overall bunch than our professionals, and it seems we're improving as far as purely amateurs go. But we're still far from an established country like Cuba or the Soviets. We just don't have a deep historical connection with the sport like many other countries do, Anton Christoforidis is literally the only genuine world champion we've ever had, and he fought almost 100 years ago. Football and Basketball are far and away the 2 most popular sports here, so most top athletes would rather pursue careers in those sports. Even Kickboxing is more popular due to Mike Zambidis's success. There just haven't been anyone to really inspire us to do great things, and we haven't had the great array of trainers that many countries did to teach us about the more sophisticated aspects of the sport.