Teddy Atlas TURNS HEEL, Agrees With NSB: UK Fighters, You're OVERRATED!!

[ShoulderRoll]

It's a meaningless statement one could make about any boxing nation, surely?

Benn isn't even rated in the UK and yet a hypejob like Gervonta Davis appears on US-generated P4P lists almost universally. Presumably due to the money he generates.

Can you really make that statement about any nation, though?

We’ve seen Mexicans going over to the UK recently and making a nice living by beating the locals over there. With UKers coming “over here” as Atlas said and getting exposed.

With a few exceptions, of course. Tyson Fury and Josh Taylor (before his recent downturn) for example.

[dan-b]

Can you really make that statement about any nation, though?

Yes. The best fighters in any nation often get overhyped. If and when they face the top fighters of other nations someone will inevitably lose.

The US has a much bigger population than the UK. Relative to our size, "we"* are doing just fine.

(*I write "we" because nationalism doesn't play much of a role in my enjoyment of boxing. I hope Usyk beats Fury and I wanted Hopkins to beat Calzaghe - for example.)

[dannnnn]

I'm not sure I understand Atlas's point about Golovkin. He calls him a great fighter, great middleweight, then says he smashed a load of British guys. Is that supposed to be insulting to the British guys for losing to a great fighter? I don't get it.

I went back and checked to remind myself and Golovkin only fought three British opponents in his career, Matthew Macklin, Martin Murray and Kell Brook. The Brook fight shouldn't have happened obviously, but is excused due to (promotional) circumstance. Both Macklin and Murray were decent contenders who also challenged for titles against Felix Sturm, Sergio Martinez and Arthur Abraham (in Murray's case), so if Atlas is suggesting they didn't deserve to be in the ring with Golovkin and were only afforded the opportunity due to being British, the facts disagree. If he's suggesting they're overrated because they didn't beat Golovkin, well... nobody was beating Golovkin back then. Nobody expected them to beat him, probably including themselves.

It just seems like a weird thing to say if that's your example as to why British fighters are overrated.