By Simon Hirst: America used to be the place where great champions were born. You would have to beat America’s finest if you could to prove yourself and be considered for greatness. America was the place where people would dream of going to fight the best. Madison Square Garden, Las Vegas, you name it, it was a dream for all boxers, American or not.
Now I’m not American, I’m from the UK, so whilst my knowledge of American boxing may not be as good as say an American person, I am willing to be unbiased in my judgement and will try to make clear what is fact and what is my opinion.
Looking over the last half a century, America has had some fine boxers. From Muhammad Ali to George Foreman, from Sugar Ray Leonard to Thomas Hearn’s, Rocky Marciano to Larry Holmes, Henry Armstrong to Willie Pep, I could go on. All these fighters were greats of their time. America have fighters today who may also be considered in this list such as Roy Jones Jr, Hopkins, Mayweather, De La Hoya (albeit him being Mexican – American) So with that said, who will step up to the plate and become part of the next American greats?
Starting with the heavyweights, America used to be such an important factor, yet as it currently stands, I don’t think they’ve ever been so unimportant. With old fighters such as Hasim Rahman and Tony Thompson to be considered as their best chance of reclaiming heavyweight glory, America’s heavyweight boxing doesn’t look too healthy. However, after searching through some names and watching a few videos, unbeaten Chris Arreola could have a chance. He lacks top class experience however and this may cost him. He’s relatively young at 27 and if he can push himself up the list, who knows. Whilst on this subject, according to ‘BoxRec’, he is currently below the ‘nearly 40-year-old journeyman’ Monte Barrett who is 8th with Arreola placed 9th. Arreola fights Travis Walker, a fighter who is deemed by a certain few as better than 4th placed David Haye. Travis Walker sits a low 19th in the American standings, 49th in the world rankings and has one loss on his record to TJ Wilson, who is placed 38th on the American standings and 91 in the world rankings. They are the facts according to BoxRec and my opinion is a victory for Arreola wouldn’t do him much good in terms of experience or climbing into the title contention, so I hope he can work his way up against better opposition.
Looking down the weights, there are a few fighters who are looking good. Some are at the top of their divisions, some are still climbing. After been taken to school by ‘The Executioner’ Bernard Hopkins, Pavlik was fighting up a weight and never really got going. He needs to stick to his best weight which is currently middleweight and only when he has beaten all those around him, namely Arthur Abraham, should he consider moving up. He shouldn’t be afraid to try and move up again, but he does need to learn from his mistakes against Hopkins where he looked one dimensional and average.
Chad Dawson, currently in the light heavyweight division and coming of a controversial decision against Glen Johnson on to a comfortable decision against Tarver. What is next for Dawson? Unbeaten in his division, but still a few names to fight. Whilst a world champion, he’s not yet a household name and targeting Calzaghe and Hopkins will do him no harm whatsoever. The more suited fight for him I feel would be Hopkins. With Calzaghe yet to decide on his future and ruling out a rematch with Hopkins, Hopkins is looking for a fight and Dawson could be the man to give it to him. Both have beat Tarver comfortably and they are both the top Americans in their division. A fight between them must be inevitable.
There’s one young guy, maybe most people outside of America haven’t heard of him, but his name is Daniel Jacobs. I’ve seen a few of his fights and he’s a tough cookie. With the right handling, he could be a huge star for America in 3 to 4 years and I really hope he is. He has the power with 11 KO’s in 12 fights and whilst still learning the ropes, I think you could throw him in there with say someone like Manfredo and he’d give beat them. Definitely one for the future I hope.
I’m hoping Americans respond more to this than British people because I’m genuinely interested to see who they believe could be the next American great. Maybe I’ve missed an obvious one, such as Timothy Bradley, but let me know your opinions, all are welcome.
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