Matchmaking Cuban fighters up to Welterweight (147 lbs)

Dímelo compadre!

Oye, tremendo artículo mano...

I completely understood your points about the Gomez-Klitschko fight. I really don't see Vitaly or Wladimir that good, to me they are so " stiff and predictable " that I really believe that the only reason that they have dominated is because of lack of competition not because they are awesome or nothing like that! When Juan Carlos fought Vitaly, he was already old at age 36, ( keep in mind his horrible lifestyle, party, drugs and women ) and also all the Cuban amateurs tend to become old in their mid 30's like Casamayor, Hurtado etc. The reason is that they all have at least 300 amateur bouts and when they reach 34, 35 or 36 years old is down the tube for them. Gomez' best years was between 24 or so ( when he made his debut ) and up until maybe 32. After that, he had long periods of inactivity and his opposition was just C type at the most. Also keep in mind that he was a " middleweight in Cuba " who later went up to Cruiser who then went up to Heavyweight. It's not the same!

Solis has always been a " natural " Heavyweight ". He was also much more better than Gomez ( his amateur accomplishments speak for itself ) Gomez best amateur highlight was 1 World Junior Championship compared to Solis' Olympic Gold, 3 Cuban National Championships and 3 World Amateur Championships! Now, I will make one very important observation about our Cuban fighters...

Something to think about is this: I really believe that our great fighter's level actually drop when they start the pros. Yes, this is a fact! Why? Well, think about this for a moment. In Cuba, they are always competing either against one another ( Cordova Cardin or Playa Giron ) or are competing against the World's best at the Olympics, PanAm Games, Caribbean Games and World Championships. Their level is sky high at those moments in their lifes because they are " constantly competing against the very best from the World ", but when they defect they start fighting every 2 or 3 months against " bums " and hand picked fighters that will be easy for them to beat ( unlike the amateurs ), and most importantly they encounter, awesome new foods, wild parties, women, liquor, drugs etc. That all combined equals= that their great level drops at least 50%!!!

Let's talk Solis for example. When he was the best in the World between the years of 1995 and roughly 2001, he was at the very top of his game, in physical conditioning, abilities, opposition and skills. He was always competing at World Tournaments constantly or competing against other tough Cuban Heavies in Cuba's Championships. He was also, " kept in optimum condition by the Cuban boxing system just like every single Cuban boxer ", and just because of those factors he was " the best HV in the World after Savon "...

Now, after almost 8 years since being involved in that great time of his life he is clearly fighting at a mere 70% of what he had. Not because he forgot his skills but because first of all he is extremely overweight, and then he fights every 2 or 3 months against C and D type opponents! Like that, absolutely everyone will end up lowering their skills!

What I am saying is that our fighters were actually " a lot better in Cuba than when they start in the pros with very few exceptions like Gamboa ". The reason is the lower opposition, the time between fights, the hand picked opposition and all the horrible life temptations available in this country. Sometimes our fighters needs to be " locked up under a very strict training regimen that will prevent them from losing their level like the one they had back in Cuba ".

Example: If you look at when Casamayor started as a pro here specially his 3rd fight against Puerto Rican Roberto Sierra ( look it up on Youtube and you will be amazed at Joel's aggression, speed and power he was simply amazing ), but then Joe Goosen changed his style to a more " defensive style which was good enough for him to become World Champ but he also lost many bad decisions for not being more aggressive. Joel was much better in Cuba than here!!!

Yo como tu mi hermano deseo que Solis primeramente rebaje 25lbs y despues que se afile bastante haciendo sparring con buenos HV's de verdad que le hagan recordarse de su nivel en los amateurs donde el era " the man ". Igual que tu yoy pienso que el debe pelear con 2 peleadores solidos primero antes de tirarse con Vitaly. Pero tu sabes que? Es muy posible que eso no pase porque ya el esta en el WBC #2 y solamente tiene arriba a Austin que posiblemente peleen muy pronto. Solis hasta gordo tiene un tremendo chance de ganarle a ese robot Russo. Vitaly no me convence en lo absoluto, es muy predecible y no sabe tirar nada mas que el jab y su derecha, lo unico que es verdad es que ellos si entrenan duro y se mantienen super afilados...

Otra cosa, yo tengo mis dudas acerca de los 2 Klitschko's bodies, para ser Blancos estan demasiado " fuertes y definidos " algo que no es normal en los Blancos Europeos, y algo natural en los Negros...Sera Steroids??? Es muy posible. Yo creo que si Solis se prepara bien, el si puede sacar la cara por nosotros! Viste como acabo con Barrett??? Mejor que Haye.

Saludos mi brother... :thumbsup

 

Saludos hermano. Bueno, me puedes llamar por mi nombre Diosman, lo de Black Bill es por unos de los grandes boxeadores antiguos Cubanos ( Eladio Valdes ), el fue tremendo featherweight en el tiempo de Kid Chocolate y casi Campeon del Mundo pero termino casi ciego de un ojo por una maldad que le hicieron en el ring y por eso no pudo ser Campeon y desgraciadamente termino matandose el mismo a los 28 años. Me pongo ese nombre para recordarlo...

I do agree with you on many of your points about Vitaly. But I still think that he is one dimensional, very slow and is very predictable. The thing about Vitaly is that he basically " scares the heck out of his opponents ", and they all end up fighting like a kitty...ALA Juan Carlos Gomez, Peter, Johnson etc...

Pregunta para ti: Do you think that Vitaly would able to defeat Solis in a 4 rounder Olympic Style back in 2000?

I think, Solis beats him on points relatively easy!!!

Another thing to remember, Vitaly is already old going on 39 and his time is almost up!!!

Hopefully Solis will get his ass in shape and get ready to rumble with the Russian Robot.

Saludos Santiago :good

 

Si hermano, te la puse en China de verdad! Es que muchas vecez es mejor no usar tu verdadero nombre aqui y usar un nombrete...

I understand your points. Odlanier was always a normal HV not a super HV. I think that if Vitaly was to have fought Odlanier at normal HV back in 2000 Odlanier takes him by points ( he was extremely fast and accurate back then for a HV ) but in a super HV match, then I guess Vitaly because Solis would lose that awesome speed he had but you never know...

Even though Vitaly is very beatable right now his physical condition is always 100% as he knows that he has to be 100% physically fit in order to keep on winning like he has been doing. The main thing that I am not impressed with the two Russian brothers is their lack of technical skills, not to say that they can't box as surely they have above average skills but they are not " very technical like Solis was and possibly still is ". As you know, the Cubans have always dominated the Soviet countries in boxing ( 75% to 80% percent of the time with few exceptions ).

Nosotros casi siempre hemos dominados a los Sovieticos y en el professional no hay gran diferencia, solamente mas rounds y mas violento con mas resistencia...

Felix Savon sin duda hubiera " arrasado " con estos hermanitos Russos y con todos los demas HV's del mundo si el hubiera sido profesional. El tipo estaba fuera de serie, tenia una pegada " monstruosa " y media alrededor de 6'5 con unos movimientos rapidisimos para ser HV...

What a damm shame that Savon never defected !!! :|

Stevenson would have also " annhiliated both K borthers ", NO DOUBT. Stevenson was actually better than the beast Savon...

Nuestro problema es que nuestros mejores HV's de todos los tiempos Savon y Stevenson nunca intentaron ser professional !!! :|

Que lastima compadre...

Bueno Santiago, seguimos hablando pronto. Me alegra que estes aqui conmigo respaldando a nuestros boxeadores!!!

Saludos!!!

Diosman.

 

Hello Santiago and Black Bill,

I'm not Cuban but I am a big fan of Cuban Boxers. I noticed Black Bill mentioned Team Freedom, I see you really know your stuff!

I couldn't help but notice a few sentences that I strongly disagree with though:

I would hardly say Angelo Santana struggled in his last fight. The 3 58-56 scores can be misleading but I've watched the fight twice very carefully and couldn't find a single round that I thought Santana Lost. By the 6th round Gonzalez looked practically dead and Santana was Boxing Circles around him... When you're 6-0 I think it's pretty impressive to beat a guy that's 6-1 with 6 KOs and Won the United States Amateur Championships. Lets also not forget that Santana was recovering from a Broken Hand injury. This fight wasn't on TV but I have Camcorder Footage of the complete fight. . . I watched Santana outbox the hell out of Breidis Prescott and Agnes Adjaho in Sparring. When Santana spars Yuriorkis Gamboa they are very evenly matched. I think Angelo Santana deserves way more credit than you guys are giving him.

 

guillermo rigondeaux is my personal favourite up and coming fighter. Great overall skills. he needs to jump up to maybe a 10 rd. fight. not saying he can't do it but i'd still like to see him in a longer fight with good competition, i do know that he went the distance with addy but he isn't much and copletely got dominated including being knocked down in the first lol.

 

Definately we will hear more cubans making noise in the Pro's in the next 5 to 10 years. And I am happy about it. Now, don't go delisional here. True is, most of this kids won't make it as big as you think. Its also true Cuba is not dominating at amateurs the same way they used to. Why? because kids in Cuba are looking for freedom and are not become the robotic slaves who only follow instructions from the government officials. Boxing is a very hard careers and given other options many kids will prefer to do something different. The boxers Cuba used to sent to the olimpics had more rounds of experience than many pro's and that was the main reason they dominated like that. But kids are tired of working that hard and not receiving anything from their government. Thats why they are escaping at the first chance. We will see more of these kids, because boxing is a escaping route. Unfortunately thats a reality.. I really hope all of them do good. But we know not all of them will be great.

 

The only 2 realistic fights right now are Gamboa/JuanMa and Caballero/Rigondeaux.

 

hola a todos ,STALIN LOPEZ va a pelear a CHARLES HATLEY que tine 9/9ko/0 perdidas la pelea va a ser en texas 11 feb ,el pasado mes peleo con joshua marks y estuvo buena, joshua vino bien preparado y se dieron duro,espero que pueda conseguir buenas peleas para que se gane a personas tan seguidoras de la nueva generacion de cubanos.saludos cualquier cometario sobre STALINN LOPEZ se les agradeceria.