By Rusty Nate: You’ll notice from the title that there is a very distinctive link between these fighters. Most BN24 hard core followers will know exactly what or who that link is.
I want to just put together an article that addresses all the fighters without the element of complete and utter bias towards anything American.
So let’s start with the most recent of these fighters to be praised unconditionally by the famous writer we all know and love to hate.
Andre Dirrell
He is a great fighter. He has speed, power, good balance and a noticeable determination when he is in the ring. Unfortunately I have already said the big problem! “When he is in the ring”.
There has been a lot of abuse flying around since the recent contract signing between Kessler and Froch. Certain people (our famous writer friend) seem to think that Dirrell should be the one in a rematch with Froch because he beat him previously (in their opinion) more convincingly than Kessler did. Well quite frankly that’s rubbish! Both the Kessler, Froch and the Dirrell, Froch fights were incredibly close and could not really have been argued either way or as a draw.
The big difference in these fighters is that Froch and Kessler are both consistently in the ring testing themselves, winning world titles and earning every inch they get in their careers. I respect fans of Andre Dirrell, I like him myself! He is a great fighter and he belongs at the top of the division BUT he has got to get back in the ring to remain known as a force in the SM Division, until then the boxing world should be silent with regards to Dirrell.
Deontay Wilder
Perhaps the most over-hyped fighter by our lovable friend. Now don’t get me wrong, I think Deontay has great potential and when examining the current crop of upcoming heavyweights I can see Wilder winning at least a version of the world title (once the K bro’s have gone of course). But why oh why do we have to hear article after article of unearned and unnecessary praise. Yes Deontay has done well so far but in a recent announcement he decided to take on a guy with several defeats, a world ranking well into the hundreds and a waist size that would put a killer whale to shame!
This is not Deontay’s best move so far by a long shot. He has got to be moving onwards and upwards and the guy he agreed to fight (Matt Greer) this weekend is someone I would expect to see fighters taking on as a debut fight not their 27th outing as a professional. It’s a little embarrassing to then read articles claiming “it’s a stay busy fight” or “he may be fighting someone better”.
We all make mistakes and miscalculations especially in this sport when a single punch changes the outcome. If you back a fighter and he lets you down, just be honest and admit it. Don’t sugar coat it with a story that will be seen through by everyone.
Anyway good luck to Deontay this weekend but next time step up your opposition, I am sure you can handle it by now. Maybe even try and get a European opponent to give you more experience.
Adrian Broner
This is probably the only exception. Broner is a major talent in the current boxing world. He is a carbon copy of Floyd Mayweather and so far has exhibited all the skills and abilities that made Floyd the best fighter in the world for so many years.
In my eyes he is still largely untested as I believe he has been fighting way below the weight where he will ultimately end up competing but never the less he is definitely another one of those fighters that people will pay to watch, either to see him performing a master class of boxing or to see him get beaten.
I still feel that he is overhyped by the keyboard cowboy but right now he is doing what he needs to and wining well fight after fight.
Devon Alexander
He is another good fighter and well proven given the talent that he has fought during his short career. But he is far from being one of the elite in the welterweight division. His fight with Brook will be a good measure of how good he can be even though Alexander is clearly the favorite in this fight.
One of the reasons I think this will be a good test is that Brook is unbeaten. Regardless of how good or bad you think a fighter is, an unbeaten record can bring a completely different kind of belief to the way a guy fights, add to that it is Brooks first attempt at a world title and we have a very interesting situation.
So far in his career Alexander has fought just 2 unbeaten fighters. One was early on in 2007 against Cory Peterson, a fighter who was in his 8th contest when Alexander blew him away. The other was Tim Bradley and he lost on a TD whilst behind on all three scorecards. This upcoming fight could be more psychological than anything else.
To sum up, all of the above fighters are well worthy of praise in their own way. I just feel that they are also all floored in one way or another just like every other fighter on the planet. Some writers (one specifically) just don’t see that when they sit down and start discussing these guys. It’s like they are wearing those novelty sunglasses you can buy with the American national flag imprinted on the lenses so they can’t see what else is going on in the boxing world outside of America.
I for one cant wait for the first big fight of the year and hopefully a really exciting 2013 in all divisions, there are some truly great fighters around at the moment and some amazing fights to be made!
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