James De Gale's next opponent...

[NazNaci1]

I stopped getting excited about Fwank Warren prospects many, many years ago to be honest.

De Gale and Co are no different. Soft build up, padding of records then look for a weak champion to dethrone - ensuing overmatched opponents for title defences, ppv, hype blah blah etc etc....YAWN !

[d]

At this stage of his career, i can't see how Nathan King as an opponent can be a negative thing. King has boxed in much higher class and very rarely gets stopped.
I would much rather see this slated over eight, but it's still a great match up in my opinion. Great learning fight for Degale.

[Carbo]

The problem I have with Warren prospects is that they don't fight often enough.

Look, when you're a champ, you can expect to do 12 tough rounds every fight. Therefore, three or four fights a year is ok. Afterall, at that stage, you're not 'developing' anymore, and fighting 48 hard rounds in a year is acceptable.

But as a prospect, you're only in 6 rounder, usually against opposition that isn't dangerous, probably not taking many punches, and against guys that don't hit that hard, or pose that many problems. And they need to learn fast. So fighting four or five times a year is going to give you a maximum of 30 soft rounds. But mostly that's negated by early stoppages.

Someone like DeGale or Gavin, getting stoppages in the first three rounds, might only fight 12 rounds a year, and dominate every single one of the 36 minutes.

Not enough.

It is my view that they should be fighting 8 times a year, or every six weeks or so. Staying in the gym and, preferably, spending days in other gyms to get quality sparring (something else British prospects don't get enough of.)

[Samuel Brooks]

The problem I have with Warren prospects is that they don't fight often enough.

Look, when you're a champ, you can expect to do 12 tough rounds every fight. Therefore, three or four fights a year is ok. Afterall, at that stage, you're not 'developing' anymore, and fighting 48 hard rounds in a year is acceptable.

But as a prospect, you're only in 6 rounder, usually against opposition that isn't dangerous, probably not taking many punches, and against guys that don't hit that hard, or pose that many problems. And they need to learn fast. So fighting four or five times a year is going to give you a maximum of 30 soft rounds. But mostly that's negated by early stoppages.

Someone like DeGale or Gavin, getting stoppages in the first three rounds, might only fight 12 rounds a year, and dominate every single one of the 36 minutes.

Not enough.


It is my view that they should be fighting 8 times a year, or every six weeks or so. Staying in the gym and, preferably, spending days in other gyms to get quality sparring (something else British prospects don't get enough of.)

Easier said than done.

I would have thought FW, or any other british promoter for that matter, would love to be putting on shows every 4 - 6 weeks. Its the TV companies who are causing problems by not offering enough dates.

FW made a good point last week about the BBC. Have a look at Boxing News last week.

[Carbo]

The problem I have with Warren prospects is that they don't fight often enough.

Look, when you're a champ, you can expect to do 12 tough rounds every fight. Therefore, three or four fights a year is ok. Afterall, at that stage, you're not 'developing' anymore, and fighting 48 hard rounds in a year is acceptable.

But as a prospect, you're only in 6 rounder, usually against opposition that isn't dangerous, probably not taking many punches, and against guys that don't hit that hard, or pose that many problems. And they need to learn fast. So fighting four or five times a year is going to give you a maximum of 30 soft rounds. But mostly that's negated by early stoppages.

Someone like DeGale or Gavin, getting stoppages in the first three rounds, might only fight 12 rounds a year, and dominate every single one of the 36 minutes.

Not enough.


It is my view that they should be fighting 8 times a year, or every six weeks or so. Staying in the gym and, preferably, spending days in other gyms to get quality sparring (something else British prospects don't get enough of.)

Easier said than done.

I would have thought FW, or any other british promoter for that matter, would love to be putting on shows every 4 - 6 weeks. Its the TV companies who are causing problems by not offering enough dates.

FW made a good point last week about the BBC. Have a look at Boxing News last week.

It concerns me deeply that boxing is no longer a viable sport without TV.

That could be said of Football, to be sure, but if Frank can't even stage a single show without the TV cameras there, then boxing is in a dangerous place.

[whicker]

Nathan King.

Bit conservative, really.

That's an excellent match for a novice DeGale. What's not to like. Pound-for-pound, it's a sterner test than Steve Saville for Frankie Gavin, and everyone thought that was decent enough.

Nothing wrong with it at all, but a predicatbaly conservative choice given King's knock out ratio.

[warmachine]

carbo I understand ur point on prospects fighting regularly but this is up to the promoter not the boxer. I would love to fight every 6 weeks but my promoters has lot of other fighters he has to get work for so I havn't been able to do so and I guess its the same for most prospects.

[whicker]

carbo I understand ur point on prospects fighting regularly but this is up to the promoter not the boxer. I would love to fight every 6 weeks but my promoters has lot of other fighters he has to get work for so I havn't been able to do so and I guess its the same for most prospects.

Yeah- good point.

Other than the journeymen who lose 19 times out of 20 (Paul Royston, Delroy Spencer, Jonny Greaves etc) there doesn't seem to be that much regular work for boxers.

And no-one should expect a promoter to lose money on an event just to give his fighters work.

[Eraserhead]

Great fight for Degale. For once, I'm actually now interested in watching one of his fights. Hats off to Wazza

[steve689]

Mick Monaghan would be a good opponent for this stage of his career.

Is it worth it though? Remember we'll have to listen to Monaghan complaining about the outcome ffrom now until he retires (for fifth time). I actually think King is a pretty good choice of opponent at this stage.