Comments Thread For: Artur Beterbiev Rising, Rapid Climb in WBC Rankings

[kafkod]

I can't have disagreements with alts and trolls -- just because they are what they are.

You seem to be giving it a try.

[SN!PER]

Beterbiev has enough raw strength to break Andre Ward's guard, batter him on the inside, and shove him around if he tries any wrestling tactics. It would be a very nasty 12 rounds. Lucky for Andre that Artur is too big to come down to 168. In fact, Artur could comfortably move up to cruiserweight if he wanted to.

[MDPopescu]

Beterbiev has enough raw strength to break Andre Ward's guard, batter him on the inside, and shove him around if he tries any wrestling tactics. It would be a very nasty 12 rounds. Lucky for Andre that Artur is too big to come down to 168. In fact, Artur could comfortably move up to cruiserweight if he wanted to.

That's what I meant above, at #8... (I'm studying Ward's style since long ago...)

[Citizen Koba]

An established record as a ducker huh? One fight falls through and the guy has an established record as a ducker... Okay sure. So now you're betting the farm on a total no named fighter with six fights to be ducked some time in the future. I think sometimes you guys just get off on calling a fighter who is more successful than your fighter of choice a ducker. And the way that you guys have fixated on the scapegoat Al Haymon (the guy that the fighters love but promoters hate) is hilarious because I bet most of you wouldn't even recognize him if he were standing right next to you. It's going to come back and bite you on the behind when all of your favorite fighters end up with Al Haymon. What are you going to say then?

If Haymon makes all the good fights happen, well then great.

What he's doing right now, however, is the precise opposite. Mandos, many of which are genuinely solid and competitive fights are being sanctioned but Haymon is clearly avoiding them (to make this clear - in case people are still accusing the fighters of 'ducking', Haymon contracts give Uncle Al what amounts to complete control over his clients' careers) even in cases where they would be financially beneficially to his clients at least in the short term.

If you're good with Stevenson not fighting Kovalev (at the time), with Quillin vacating, with Swift not defending his title, with Wilder turning down his title shot (and losing a $2 mil payday - his largest ever by an order of magnitude), with Stevenson looking likely to turn down his Pascal mando (tho TBF that could go either way - Pascal probably doesn't want it at mando rates).

All this s#it has happened within the space of a few months, and all of it is linked to Al Haymon. If you believe that Haymons vision is gonna rejuvenate the sport, well, good for you. I sincerely hope you're right.

However what we've seen this year of the kinda fights Haymon has made, and perhaps as importantly the ones he has blocked doesn't fill me optimism.

The old rallying cry of 'he pays his fighters well' is (with the odd exception) no longer looking so convincing with his stable of close to 100 fighters, many of whom have been inactive or unsuccessful.

Don't get me wrong. I ain't just hating on Haymon... I don't give a s#it. If he turns out to be messiah who pulls the sport into a new Golden age it's all good. It's just his actions to date haven't really done much to assuage my cynicism.

Funny thing is, fighters thank Haymon before they thank God, Floyd talks about how much money he made because of Al, yet when it comes down to actual details it turns out that no-one knows s#it. 'I wanna fight who Al Haymon wants me to fight' 'Al deals with all that kinda stuff' - it's all a bit Stepford for me.

I don't know what your career is, but would you be OK with giving an individual who under law has no responsibilities towards you (he's not constrained by fiduciary duty cos he ain't a manager) but yet whose undisguised purpose is to make money off your work, carte blanche to manage your affairs?