Oleksandr Gvozdyk: A Cold Soul Piercing Wind Blows From The East-The Nail Of Kharkov.

I wasn't talking to you in that post actually, just all the haters in general, but to your point in particular, he didn't pick his opponent, blame Arum and Top Rank, do you think he was thrilled either? He goes from stopping Chilemba and Gonzalez on HBO to fighting Baker on ESPN, a channel most Ukrainians have probably never heard of. He was probably just as uninspired fighting him as you were watching him fight him. Fighters are human, they go through the motions at times.

Tat being said, Baker is a decent opponent, I already covered that in the RBR, and @Serge did a good job doing a run down on him on the last page.

 

Not sure, but I think ESPN is only in the US, I know HBO is International, so that's probably part of it. Also the prestige involved, most view ESPN as a channel that has midcarders and prospects headlining Friday Night Fights that casuals tend to ignore, whereas the prestige and name value of fighting on HBO is worth more.

Baker was supposed to lose to Savigne, he destroyed him, the guy he face in 2016 is Steve Lovett, at the time, Haymon had high hopes for him and brought Baker in to lose, well, he upset the apple cart again, the KD against Lovett was hard but still of the flash variety, he hopped right back up, the stoppage against Edwin was ridiculous, watch it yourself, so Gvozdyk probably figured, what the hell let me use this guy to get some rounds in, and I'll KO him at will, its not like with Andre Ward, who practically beat Brands skull in throwing the hardest shots humanly possible with the expressed intention of KOing him, and not KOing him.

 

Fair enough, I totally get where you're coming from, but a lot of other posters have agendas and are using that performance, which was fine as a reason to tear him down. And sadly, a lot of promoters probably don't view ESPN and basic cable the way you do. Arum I can almost guarantee doesn't look at it that way, he still looks at it the old school way.

 

It would be nice if that were the case, but the reality is Arum is putting them on ESPN because HBO got too chintzy with their Boxing budget because they spend too much money on Game Of Thrones, and didn't want to shell out big bucks for Valdez-Marriaga, Loma-Marriaga, Pac-Horn etc.

 

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