new england boxers

maybe you could give some specific examples? I dont exactly follow the point you're trying to make.

 

If you are talking about regional fighters, well they tend not to be very talented themselves, so they are often matched against even more limited competition.

It's also a function of the quality of boxing in a given area. If you go to NY, jersey or Philly, these are all big boxing areas, lots of fighters, lots of competitive matchups. NE, like the south or the midwest, tends to be less so. So you get worse matchups, generallly speaking. Why do you think the four most famous fighters from Connecticut, for example, are Willlie Pep, Marlon Starling, John Scully and Chad Dawson. And those are about the ONLY world class fighters the state has produced. If you look at most of the other New England states, the record is similar.

 

Okay, but where did he go to get those fights against good fighters?? Early in his career, he went to Philly and fought guys like Monroe, Watts and Briscoe. Later in his career, he was going to Jersey, Vegas and other places where they have live bodies to fight.

If you stay local, all there are, for the most part in New England are the "truck drivers" you mentioned. You can't fight good guys if they're not there, and it costs money to import them!

 

if you look online you can see a plethora of good fighters fro new erngland who have stepped up tough. hagler ducked nobody. starling fought everybody. vinny pazienza fought so many tough guys too. pemberton did. ray olivera fought everybody and threw like 1200 punches every time he did!! steve collins fought alot of tough guys. jose rivera didnt duck people.

every area including philly and nyc, etc has guiys that fight mediocre comp to start off, thats no secret. for every guy like a tony grano who wont seem to fight anybody at all there are guys like matt godfrey who has stepped up really well in his young career. new enland has babied fighters sure, whohave been brough along well but that goes with every area of the country. its a myth that the innercity guys are matched tougher that everybody else.

 

Estrada obviously has a real motivation problem. He's already got a loss and is consistently overweight. He has a decent win in Hawkins from a few months ago.

Godfrey is probably the best thing to come out of Providence recently. He's had quality competition and deserves a big fight at this point.

You can't knock Manfredo's comp at this point either, considering that he just fought Joe Calzaghe and will be fighting Green.

Of course, somebody already mentioned him, but Dawson's had good competition too.

There are just a lot of local "club fighters" up there. The casinos in CT are the only real venues for any decent exposure.

And yeah don't forget guys like Vinny Paz, Hagler and Marciano, all New Englanders.

But don't get me started on McNeely...

 

Massachusetts has a poor commission that will approve awful mismatches. One glaring example is poor Tommy Attardo. He should have retired by the commission but they all allow him to be used as fodder. ****, just look back over the job the Vinnie Vechionne did to get Peter McNeely all those wins. Those guys were pure cadavers. And there are many other sad situations like that in MASS.

 

It could be argued that WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson and WBA junior middleweight champion Travis Simms are the best at their weights....and they're both from New England.

Also....

Marlon Starling
Willie Pep
Marvin Hagler
Rocky Marciano
John Ruiz
Vinny Pazienza
Mickey Ward

I don't recall any of these fighters having a particularly padded record....in fact, the opposite would seem to be true....and Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, both in New England, are two of the premier venues in the sport right now.

 

jose antonio rivera is a damn fine NE fighter (not a worldbeater but definitely world-class) who's been toughly matched, even in his backyard.

 

That fraud Ruiz really shouldn't be included on a list with such fine fighters as Pep, Hagler, Marciano - or even Starling and Pazienza. Heck, even Mickey Ward has more boxing ability. atsch Without King, Ruiz never would have made it off the New England club circuit.:-(

 

My post was in response to the thread's author suggesting that New England fighters don't face good opposition. Ruiz may not be an exciting fighter, but he's faced a good list of opposition.

 

simms not in running no more as best at 154 he just lost like 2 weeks ago. mikey oliver is facing a good level of competition now and hes shinin like a potential star