The Rise Of American Elite Level Boxing...What Happened To The Eastern Europeans?

[FrankieBruno]

Few years ago the Eastern Europeans looked like a force to be reckoned with, but that chapter has now come to a close.

American Boxing have risen to the top with the likes of Thurman, Spence, Crawford, Ward, Wilder, yes i am missing many out, but this is the proven elite of the elite...but so much more talent is coming through

The UK is a close second with Jousha, Degale, Fury and other talent coming through up the ranks...

Then you have other elite level foreigners coming out of the American school of boxing like Leonard Bundu

The Eastern Europeans one could say have been exposed....Kov is finished, Pov is finished, Wlad is finished

GGG isnt Eastern European. He is more Asian, so i wouldnt even class him as a EE, he is from a Islamic country an has South Korean and Mongolian heritage.

[Mr Objecitivity]

Few years ago the Eastern Europeans looked like a force to be reckoned with, but that chapter has now come to a close.

American Boxing have risen to the top with the likes of Thurman, Spence, Crawford, Ward, Wilder, yes i am missing many out, but this is the proven elite of the elite...but so much more talent is coming through

The UK is a close second with Jousha, Degale, Fury and other talent coming through up the ranks...

Then you have other elite level foreigners coming out of the American school of boxing like Leonard Bundu

The Eastern Europeans one could say have been exposed....Kov is finished, Pov is finished, Wlad is finished

GGG isnt Eastern European. He is more Asian, so i wouldnt even class him as a EE, he is from a Islamic country an has South Korean and Mongolian heritage.

Lol. Who cares about tribalism? This is boxing!

Anyway, the cruiserweight division is full of eastern european boxers. Vasyl Lomachenko is arguably the best boxer P4P below middleweight. Whilst Oleksandy Usyk and Oleksandr Gvozdyk are two of the best boxers P4P above middleweight. I won't be surprised at all if Oleksandy Usyk moves up to heavyweight and can become a champion and the best in the division. None of those guys have the skills that Oleksandr Usyk has. He would school more than half of the heavyweights in my opinion.

[NEETzsche]

USA being #1 is the status quo. They have the deepest talent pool, the best infrastructure, the most lucrative audience and the greatest tradition. The Eastern Bloc has a much bigger presence in the pros now than it ever did before, and will hopefully continue to grow, but people are deluded if they ever thought they would be a match for the USA and to a lesser extent Mexico. Ukraine had a golden generation thanks to Anatoly Lomachenko's work with the amateur squad, but they are all in their late 20s now and the following generation isn't nearly as impressive. Russia produces a pretty consistent stream of good fighters but not too many great fighters. The Kazakhs and Uzbeks still aren't turning pro with any regularity. Poland, Latvia, Hungary, etc., don't seem to have much of a boxing tradition and mostly produce journeymen. No one is taking the USA's throne any time soon

[redmish]

Since when as wilder been the proven elite of the elite?

[1hourRun]

Dis da realest **** I ever read on boxingscene.

[MDPopescu]

USA being #1 is the status quo. They have the deepest talent pool, the best infrastructure, the most lucrative audience and the greatest tradition. The Eastern Bloc has a much bigger presence in the pros now than it ever did before, and will hopefully continue to grow, but people are deluded if they ever thought they would be a match for the USA and to a lesser extent Mexico. Ukraine had a golden generation thanks to Anatoly Lomachenko's work with the amateur squad, but they are all in their late 20s now and the following generation isn't nearly as impressive. Russia produces a pretty consistent stream of good fighters but not too many great fighters. The Kazakhs and Uzbeks still aren't turning pro with any regularity. Poland, Latvia, Hungary, etc., don't seem to have much of a boxing tradition and mostly produce journeymen. No one is taking the USA's throne any time soon

... I think that, in the OP, "Eastern Europeans" would rather point out to the "Ex-Soviet school of boxing"... this would be much more simple to deal with... even if there are some differences between the "Russian" and the "Ukrainian" schools...

... In the near past there were some good products from that "Ex-Soviet school of boxing", such as Tszyu, the Klitschko Bros, Dmitry Pirog... post 2010, there were GGG and Kovalev who tried to "conquer" the U.S. market (with quite little success in terms of business, tbh)... To date there are Lomachenko, and (maybe) Usyk , Beterbiev, Gvozdyk, Bivol, Gassiev...

[Thraxox]

... I think that, in the OP, "Eastern Europeans" would rather point out to the "Ex-Soviet school of boxing"... this would be much more simple to deal with... even if there are some differences between the "Russian" and the "Ukrainian" schools...

... In the near past there were some good products from that "Ex-Soviet school of boxing", such as Tszyu, the Klitschko Bros, Dmitry Pirog... post 2010, there were GGG and Kovalev who tried to "conquer" the U.S. market (with quite little success in terms of business, tbh)... To date there are Lomachenko, and (maybe) Usyk , Beterbiev, Gvozdyk, Bivol, Gassiev...

The U.S can't afford to lose so they rob them from their biggest wins and force them to build up a fighter from the scratch.

Boxing is a business game.

[MDPopescu]

The U.S can't afford to lose so they rob them from their biggest wins and force them to build up a fighter from the scratch.

Boxing is a business game.

Of course, man!...

... I fully understand "markets" -- at some point, I used to work as a "stock exchange analyst"... tough job!... and that's precisely why I addressed the issue by pointing out the "U.S. market"!...

[Banderivets]

What happened? Nothing has happened.

To me it seems the same as it ever was (ever as in last decade).

Speaking for Ukrainians, they currently have two champions, and potentially one or two more to come. They've had a few champs in the last few years as well that lost their belts.

You can't just go and take a snapshot of boxrec right now and claim hey look at all the Americans, however even in that case that's just not true.

If you want to talk about EE in general then CW is all EE and that's not going to change.

LH with the exception of Ward who is arguably top lb4lb fighter is all but American.

SM no Americans, middleweights Canelo and GGG still take out everyone.

With the exception of Welter, Superwelter and Lightweight there is not a single division that is US dominated. This range seems to be the US domain historically 135-154.

There is a healthy representation of European, Latin and American boxing in all divisions right now, be happy isn't that what we want to see? Or should boxing be like baseball and World Champions should have the title just because you know, America is the center of the universe and naturally....

Or is all of this noise just because American fighters are talked about again where in the last few years it was about Mexicans, Pac and some Russian and Ukrainian guys? And now that Ward started fighting and you got the likes of TC and Spence, America is back?

I thought we were all here for boxing.....but no tribalism it is. "peeleft:

[Banderivets]

The U.S can't afford to lose so they rob them from their biggest wins and force them to build up a fighter from the scratch.

Boxing is a business game.

Would be interesting to see American reactions if say Germany or Russia became the biggest markets for boxing and the likes of Spence and TC got robbed there the way fighters who do not market well in Vegas get robbed in the States.

With boxing the way it is, US judging will always swing in the direction of the US/PR/MX fighters because those ethnicities drive boxing in the States.

But make no mistake, if Western United States had as many Russians as they have Mexicans, you sure as hell would see Russian fighters fall into favor with judges in US.

As you say, its all about business, not colour, not language, just dollars.