What Are British Fighters Lacking Compared to Our Foreign Friends????

i think its the trainers, theres a lack of really top class guys like in the old days you had Eddie Thomas etc...

and no disrepsect to the trainers now they just lack something the old guys had.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head, technical skill and specifically defence. Most of our guys are good athletes, strong, can punch and so on but they have fundamental errors that show up against top grade opposition.

How and why that comes about could be down to any number of areas. Amateur trainers, pro trainers, a short-sighted menatlity of bullying opponents, fighting too many bums and getting into bad habits..who knows.

 

World class trainers simple. We got the talent.

 

Another thing I'm convinced hinders us is the fact boxing is not a huge sport, and to make serious money you have to please the crowds and TV networks. It puts pressure on fighters to simply bully overmatched opponents and get the KO rather than thinking about their work on a more methodical and technical basis.

If Ken Buchanan fought today TV wouldn't give him the time of day. He'd probably be in the Junior Witter club.

 

partly to do with culture as well. speaking from a irish point of view, a lot of people would rather see someone go out on their shield in the 5th than watch someone box skillfully to a 12 rnd decision. same as in uk, boxing too linked to having 'balls' etc and the mano y mano ****. the mexicans seem to be able to blend both i suppose but then again there are prob x10 as many pros from there


probably correct about the trainers too

 

bear in mind the population difference between the UK and ireland, and the US. obviously the US is a way larger country so it would be expected to produce great fighters more often. every now and then a lewis or calzaghe will come along, but by the law of averages the top fighters from the US will be better than the top fighters from the british isles. we do pretty well on the world stage considering our size though :happy

 

Good points, most of our crowds are drunk at ringside and just want to see someone get KTFO. They dont understand the true art of boxing and it's many styles. In US they work on all areas of their game, not just trying to KO someone in the ring, they learn how to box. I know I go on about Khan alot, but take him as an example, before Roach Khan would go out there and just look for the fastest way to win a fight but then he ran into Prescott and had to rethink his approach to boxing.

Under raoch now Khan seems more controlled, better defence, sticking to a gameplan, not fighting for drunk crowds to please them, but trying to win a fight risk free.

You think people like Floyd Mayweather jr give a **** about what the crowds think, he just wants the win, if he gets booed, then he gets booed. Maybe beacuse he never loses people want to pay to see him get KO so he makes his money, and fights the way he wants.

 

its our mentality, same with football boxing also has its version of "kick and rush" the whole nation is a culprite, its the culture, we just don't produce that many slick fighters and when the odd one comes along (herol graham, silky jones etc) their boxing IQ is suspect to say the least because the mentatlity has imperceptibly poisoned them

although almost everyone has a certain mentality and style (the stand up euro, the mexican etc are distinct) our style is not so well defined and falls into a sort of halfway house and so that mentality to "entertain" takes over. the trainers, fans, all share the blame people were criticizing khan for not "getting stuck in" FFS

 

s&c im basically thopposite of what you desribed

 

i think we have a great domestic competition and a great comission, problem is that the level of class isnt implied. technique is around but it is kinda thrown out the door to have a scrap.

if you look at the american circuit. most prospects are put infront of puddings. the british boxing board of control doesnt allow that. they have to be solid working journeyman. there is no mid south in british boxing.

our domestic scenes even at heavyweight are relativly tough looking at it. most country's world wide have only 2 fighters worth note in a division. our heavyweight roundabout even tho guys who were not great are good fighters respectivly.

also to get to the top of the domestic scene it takes some time and then you go into the euros and that adds some extra years. by the time they are world class level they are 7 year pro's in there early 30s late 20s. yet they havent got into a true world class level.

we have the talent, we have the inferstructure, we have both ghetto's and big money, the history....and the lonsdale which is seriously under noted in world boxing....getting a retirement plan is a big topic in boxing.

 

So yeah, I'd say its cultural too because as people mention it rears its head in other sports and that can't be coincidence. England football team very rarely seem to retain ball posession and often lump it forward. It's largely the same beyond the top 4 in the premier league, hence why in the UEFA cup our guys usually get shown up at some point. They seem to lack the basic technical abilities of continental teams, and the one gifted player they produce in Scholes is mis-used. Maybe we just favour brawn over brain, culturally.

To use a football analogy, we probably have too many Sam Allardyce's as trainers and not enough Jose Mourinho's also.