the russian/ee boxing boom.

There's never been so many russian/ee fighters active that i can remember. these days seems like they're everywhere you wanna be. back in the day, we would see one or two here and there and they were usually the elite guys (golota, jirov, kostya, etc) who had outdistanced the competition in their native lands and came to america to make their mark. but now, boxing is crawling with them...and boxing is heavily PROMOTING these guys...so, clearly they are seen as potentially profitable prospects at least for the near future.

These guys generally have HUNDREDS (upward of 300 and often as high as 500) of amateur fights and the best training and coaching ee money can buy, so they are a good bet to do well at the lower levels of boxing where the talent and experience pool is very shallow. however it's at the highest levels where the true test is...so, i took it upon myself to assess the top 10 russian/ee fighters and contemplate their future prospects.

- ggg= the top ee fighter right now...at age 33 still looking for a breakout fight against a name people recognize. at the current rate, will probably be 34 before he gets that fight. great technique and power....but slow and easy to hit....as he gets older those qualities will be liabilities against younger, fresh, fast guys who hit with power that are all around from jmw to smw.

-kovalev= the #2 ee fighter....got a controversial stoppage win over pascal in his last and toughest fight... his first test and a fight in which he gave some and took some. lhw div is pretty thin right now. but stevenson still looms....given the outcome of the pascal fight, not sure how koavlev would do against a vastly more talented guy than pascal with lighting speed and explosive power who can set up combinations....or a guy like fonfara who's about the same size and speed...but we'll see.

- lomachenko= labled by some "the best amateur of all time", but needs a lotta growth to compete with the best in the pros.... looked very ordinary losing to salido and kinda impressive beating the untested grj....but not so great in his last fight against an unknown thai fighter. my prediction is, he avoids mares and gonzalez and walthers and donaire continues to fight nonentities for the next few years following the ggg model.

- korobov = highly touted amateur that got blown out in his last fight...didn't show much in his previous fight either. my prediction is, he'll be a contender but not a star.

- beterbiev = another highly touted amateur (what else?) who has been kinda inconsistent so far....his best win was against a used up tavoris cloud. but hasn't really impressed before or since. my prediction is, they bring him along very slowly hoping he can parlay his amateur credentials into success as a pro.

- glazkov= looked pretty mediocre in the cunningham fight....pretty much everybody saw it as a robbery win for glazkov....the second of his career. not really going anywhere.

- chudinov= got ko'd in his last fight by unheralded chris eubank...a briight future as a fringe contender for this one.

- gradovich= the mexican russian...another fighter with a butt-ton of amateur experience. will lose to rigo, lsc, donaire, lomchenko, vetekya, walthers, mares and any elite fighter in the fw classes...and take a lotta punishment in the process.