mike222 wrote:Incidentally the five qualifiers and their chosen weights are
56 Abutalipov KAZ
60 Azzedine FRA
75 Mitginov AZE
81 Benchabla ALG
91 Russo ITA
Mitginov who has competed for Russia is now Azerbijani
The top placed US boxers in the WSB were
54 4 Warren
61 5 Fowler
73 5 Lamour
91 3 Imoerisi
You never know
How do you think it will look if the WSB Champions and guaranteed Olympic Entrants lose at the Worlds? Would it be a poor reflection or should it be judges differently since it's two different styles. A semi pro vs Olympic style boxing.
Are they even going to be fighting in the Worlds? They shouldnt be able to as they have already qualified and might eliminate other people...
But I wouldnt be surprised if they all lost
The whole system for deciding the individual champion was flawed anyway. How Rush Warren could go undefeated in the America's section and then not even be able to fight for the chance to be the individual champion is beyond me.
To be fair the winners are all good boxers but are not necessarily the best in the WSB,Their rankings are based on number of wins during the season.Raushee and some others did not fight as often as the winners.
Still the WSB will return later in the year with new franchises so they must consider the format successful.
mike222 wrote:To be fair the winners are all good boxers but are not necessarily the best in the WSB,Their rankings are based on number of wins during the season.Raushee and some others did not fight as often as the winners.
Still the WSB will return later in the year with new franchises so they must consider the format successful.
From what I understand, Raushee only fought 1 less time than did his counterparts who fought for the individual title...
And I dont see how the fact that it will return this year is proof that the format was successful. They definately are not profitable yet; they probably just had enough initial cash flow set aside to finance a few seasons. So far, it has been a terrible failure here in the U.S. The only franchise that seemed to garner any interest at all was the LA team and from what I here even they havent turned a profit (Ive even heard that they havent paid all of their guys the money they were promised).
The WSB hasn´t been very succesful but it seems it will hold for at least two more years. In America no team made profit and it was the WSB that paid the boxers salaries because the teams couldn´t afford it. Due to tax reasons(?) they haven´t paid many of the boxers yet.
The salaries for the second season have dropped dramatically. The monthly salary range from 2000-5000 dollars has dropped to 1500-3000 dollars. The losing boxers got 1000, now they´ll get 500. And the winning bonus of 5000 has dropped to 2000.
Only LA is left in the US. However India and Germany now have their teams so it seems there is good interest in some places.
There were many boxers that went unbeaten but only two in each weight could fight for the olympic spot. Warren was 4-0 at the regular season but Nordine Oubaali was 5-0 and Abutalipov was 6-0 so nothing unfair there.
I think most people would have preferred a playoff/tournament with the top 4 or 8 boxers per weight class. That way an undefeated boxer like Warren would have had a chance for the title.
I agree that playoffs would have much better as we are talking about an Olympic place here.For example there are only two qualifiers for Europeans and one is the world championships when over 700 boxers will be competing for eight places per weight class.
However the WSB rules were there before the competition started so boxers cant complain afterwards and I dont think they have.
The WSB bombed in the US but didnt everywhere or it wouldnt continue.
"Sporting events promoter Barry Hearn was asked to look at the economics of WSB when it was first mooted in 2009 and came to the conclusion that it could not make money.
He told Newsnight he was surprised that any investor would think that it offered the opportunity for high returns:
'If an investor comes into this scheme with $10m I can only think he's arrived from another planet'."
The 2011/12 season starts in a couple of weeks.Teams and their first round draft picks are
GROUP A
Astana Joe Ward Ireland
Los Angeles Sergey Korneyev Belarus
Milan Vyacheslav Gojan Moldova
Moscow Anvar Yunosov TDK
Mumbai Abbos Atoyev UZB
Bangkok Victor Zuyev Belarus
GROUP B
Baku M Nagzibekov TJK
Beijing Joe Parker New Zealand
Istanbul PASSED
Leipzig Balacks Backsai Hungary
Mexico Tervel Pulev Bulgaria
Paris L Marjanovic Serbia
Lots of travelling for all involved
Full squads not yet announced
The way it works I think is as follows
1 At the draft the Franchises bid for new WSB boxers and when all of the Franchises have passed twice the draft stops.
2 Boxers who were not bid for at the draft will be allocated to a franchise based on last years rankings
3 Boxers who competed in the 2010/11 competition remain with their original franchise.
So the LA Matadors will still have a strong US representation provided of course the fighters contracts are renewed.
So the LA Matadors will still have a strong US representation provided of course the fighters contracts are renewed.
Thanks, Mike - and considering they had their pay cut last year, I'm wondering if their funding problems will be resolved for the new season. I hope so. It isn't fair to the boxers to renege on contracts and promises.
The WSB draft during the World Championships was a fiasco. There weren´t many top boxers and some teams weren´t interested in signing boxers from the draft. Most teams had already done their scouting and the top boxers themselves don´t want to end up in the draft and have to box for some team in another part of the world (like China).
It isn't fair to the boxers to renege on contracts and promises.
Actually, Mel, it's not a matter of fair. It's a matter of legal. Assuming of course, any of the boxers think it's worth pursuing in court, or with the California Department of Labor.
Then again, for all we know, the contracts were written in such a way as to allow compensation changes or whatever.
Season two started today with Milan,now sponsored by Dolce & Gabbana making hard work of defeating Mumbai 3-2 with victories for Vitali Volkov,Clemente Russo and Sergey Derevyanchenko.The latter stopping Irishman Pat Gallagher.D Prasad and J Singh won for the Indian team.
The Matadors face Astana on Sunday,the bouts listed are
R Warren v K I Akhunov
E Fowler v A Egizekov
R Lamour v K Slam
V Shabaranskiy v R Ahmedov
J Torres v D Ospanov
The Kazakhis look very strong and can take this 3-2 or 4-1
Baku have defeated Wuxi Dragons 5-0,Leipzig beat Mexico City 4-1 and Paris won by 3-2 against Istanbul.A win for Con Sheehan whilst William Williams lost his bout.
Week two is now underway with Moscow cruising past Mumbai 5-0,whilst Astana win 5-0 by walkover over Bangkok who seemingly have big problems.Matadors following last weeks 3-2 win travel to Milan.Edwin Sandoval has a tough task against European Champion Vyacheslav Gojan with Milan also fielding former World champ Dominico Valentino.
Istanbul host Baku whilst a weakened Leipzig squad go to Wuxi.Mexico city are home to Paris who field a second string team.
Milan defeated Los Angeles 4-1 with wins for Gojan Valentino MClaughlin and Olas.Sergey Korneyev was the Matadors sole winner.Baku beat Istanbul 3-2 thanks mainly to their Russian boxers whilst the Leipzig/Wuxi clash was cancelled.
Milan with what looks like their first team crushed Astana 5-0 whilst Baku edged Paris 3-2.
Problems still in the east as the Bangkok/Mumbai match postponed.There are more matches over the weekend including Los Angeles.
Week Three
Beijing 3-2 Mexico
Leipzig 4-1 Istanbul
Los Angeles 4-1 Moscow
Wins for Edwin Sandoval(beat Russian #5 at 52) Raynell Williams (over Russian#8 at 60) and David Imoerisi (over Russian #4 at +91).Siju Shabazz lost to Russian Danil Shved whilst Irelands Jason Quigley also won for the Matadors.
Los Angeles were blitzed today surprisingly losing 5-0 to Mumbai.Eric Fowler and Russell Larmour both lost whilst Paul Koon representing the Indian team beat Javier Torres.
Moscow's boxers were defeated 3-2 by Istanbul who fielded a strong team.It appears their boxers are not coping with this competition with losses for Sergey Kalchugin,Anvar Yunosov and Edward Khusainov.Mexico had a good win over Istanbul 4-1.
