Why Brits wont fight in the USA

I'm not sure where you're coming from with the self-pity stuff.

Of course British boxing is gonna be thinner on talent when you are comparing a country the size of Minnesota to the entire United States. What does anyone expect? Put it this way, if there was 7 current world champions in Minnesota It'd be pretty impressive. Do you not agree?

As for not accepting people as world-class champs, how is that the fighters' fault? If you include Lewis as a world-class champ, you have every reason to do so. If you consider Calzaghe a world-class champ, he deserves it too. There are a number of UK fighters who are world-class, and mainly they've been put on that pedestal by Americans.

 

With the state of boxing, I will not put too much behind being able to obtain a belt, most notable being Gavin Rees.

What I'm saying though, is not that fighters born in the US are great, but that the boxing system of the US, which takes in fighters from S.America, Canada, Phillipines, Mexico, and etc. is better than the British boxing system.

I will say that yes that is quite a feat though. You are correct and have every reason to be proud of your countrymen.

As for Lewis, Lewis gets my respect, he came up as a amatuer in the US boxing system, and he dominated by defeating contenders who also came up in the US boxing system. Lewis compeated against the World's greatest HWs, not just Britains, he gets my respect for that.

Joe C. he only has two names to his career, one is the overhyped never was Jeff Lacy and the other is the traditional European boxer Mikkel Kessler, neither of them being greats. I give him all the credit in the world for beating them, but he will never have the worldwide recognization that lennox lewis has because he has fought weak competition for the most part.

 

america at this point in time is weaker in terms of talent both cream and in depth than in any time in its history.

forget all this american circut crap, prospects get fed patsys in america as they do in every other country.

long gone are the days of the philly wars and beating 3 top 10 fighters to get a title fight.

want an example, look at all the hype and media coverage alan green gets.


he has had 27 fights on the american circut and is yet to beat a fighter ranked in the top 50 in the world .

look at taylor groomed non stop v welterweights and light middles .

european journeymen are everybit as good as american jouneymen.

to many people are living in the past.

20 /30 years ago without doubt american circut was harder, unknown american fighters who were pretty good were 10 a penny.

now whatever talent there is , is snapped up quick simply because the american circut is not turning out many new prospects.

look at the top 20 across all divisions today and then compare it to say 1982 top 20s and i would guess there has been a 80% drop in the number of americans on those lists.

 

You are right to a degree. At the end of the day if the best talent in a division is in the US then any fighter wanting to be seen as the best should go there. But you keep saying that every division below Heavyweight has the US as its strongest pool of competition.
That is simply untrue.

Cruiserweight is CLEARLY non US dominated...Haye, Maccarinelli, Mormeck, Huck and Adamek as opposed to Cunningham and Wilson and I will give you Bell because he operates out of the US.

Any US Cruiser who thinks he is the best should travel to Britain. End of story.

Likewise, Super Middle it is not US dominated in a million years. Calzaghe is the number 1 by far. The number 2 is clearly Kessler and next in line it is either Bute or Mundine neither of whom fight out of the US let alone are actually American.
Below them you have the likes of Froch and Inkin...why on earth should any top European or British Super Middle need to go to the US to take on Green or Manfredo?


Light Welter it is closer, but the two top fighters are clearly Hatton and Witter...both British. Malignaggi is the only top ranked American there and so whilst I generally agree with your point that the best should go and fight the best in the deepest pool, you are a tad disingenuous or mistaken with your claim about all divisions below Heavyweight and although not you personally, many US posters seem to be claiming that the US scene is thriving in all the lower divisions.

The reality is that most of the divisions below Welter are dominated by non American fighters but many of the best now reside in the US. In this instance it remains the fact that the US arena is still host to the deepest talent and should thus be any aspiring fighters destination to prove his worth but it is not a reflection of how strong American boxing is.

 

That is plain ignorant mate. How can you dismiss Eubank and Mitchell as not even names? Sorry but a prime Reid was more skilled than Lacy, hit very hard and was WBC World Champion and yet he is dismissed as some Euro bum. Prime Reid would have taken Lacy.....the shot to bits old one got battered.

Woodhall was also a World Champion. Calzaghe has not beaten anyway near as many big names as he should have done, he has far too often been a comfort zone fighter and deserves criticism for that, but to simply remove Eubank and Mitchell as being even worth recognition, plus Reid and Woodhall too is ignorant.

 

that's the problem with joe c and some american fans. they don't know much about him, have seen very few of his fights, scan his resume, don't recognize many of the fighters he's faced and assume he hasn't fought anyone. name isn't anything, find yourself some copies of veit, reid, eubank, mitchell, brewer, woodhall, sheika etc. and actually watch them. ignore the fact they don't have 'name' value and just watch them.

calzaghe has beaten some damn good fighters, name isn't the be all and end all, it's not joe's fault you aren't up to scratch on his opposition.

 

Brits don't have to fight in the USA however credible champions should fight anywhere and everywhere not just brit champions

 

Erm, no... it isn't. I'm very surprised that I really have to explain why. Let's take the NBA as an example (I'm not well up on basketball so folks will have to bear with me if I make a mistake). You might have, say, 20 teams in the league. The terms of the league are that each team has a home ground on which they play each other team in their home fixture. They play each team away at the other side's ground. The league itself is based in the U.S. and has the best players, predominantly because the sport has not caught on in a lot of other countries. Hence, if a player wants to test himself against the best, they have to go there. There is no other option. The same way that if a footballer wants to test himself against the best (and earn the most money), he will generally go to England, Italy or Spain.

Boxing is completely unlike that. Fighters do not have home grounds, are not part of a championship with fixtures, do not have to face each other home and away. They are individuals who have the freedom to fight wherever they want. Invariably where there is most money, apart from, for example, where they are offered a title shot which necessitates having to travel. For example, if the champion of a division is German and contenders #1, 2 and 3 are American, it would be up to the American to travel (or put in a massive purse bid for home ground) for their title shot. Saying that the champion should go to them simply because there happen to be more good fighters in the U.S is not realistic or logical.

In any case, I'm finished with this debate as it seems to be one of those "never going to agree" ones. Bottom line, as always in boxing, it boils down to money.

Peace

"TKO"

 

Okay then one more comment. Here we go again, ignorance! Joe Calzaghe has beaten just about every half decent American 168lber since Roy Jones, including Brewer, Mitchell, Lacy (all world champs, Lacy reigning), Sheika and Manfredo, plus a number of other world champs and top contenders (Eubank, Reid, Woodhall, Starie, Veit). To attempt to dismiss these guys because they are not American simply shows the kind of ignorance I have been referring to.

 

TKO the fact they you throw Manfredo up there like he is legit and then try to pass off his beating of Eubank like he was in his prime kills your argument.

 

Watch the fight that's the only comment I'm going to make! Eubank fought as well as he ever did with the exception of maybe the first Benn fight and Calzaghe just outfought him. Eubank was 31. To put that into some kind of perspective, Calzaghe is now 35. Manfredo was ranked #10 by Ring Magazine. Maybe yet more biased pap, but him and Lacy are about as good as it gets on the U.S. 168lb scene at the mo. Okay maybe Allan Green as well, but it's hard to think of too many more.

 

go watch nigel benn-iran barkley