How much interest, if any, do you have in the lower weights?

[Boxing Prospect]

Been wondering how much interest fans have in the lower weight divisions and how low they go before ignoring things. So how low do YOU go and why do you only go that low?

[Boxerbeetle]

Even with a dedicated boxing channel, it's hard to find much UK mainstream coverage for anything below super-featherweight, unless there's a particular British fighter involved.

Don't a lot of the big fights at lower weights take place in Asia? That probably doesn't help matters either.

But the appetite is no doubt there - a real fight fan should be a fight fan regardless of weight, it's just a matter of exposure.

[pyenest77]

I used to love the old Fight Night series when they had regular Straw Weight fights from Japan. But since then I have to be honest I have been out of the loop & although I would have a good idea who the champion is I wouldnt have much idea how good is was or what type of style he had. So I reckon for me its probably Bantam upwards.
So I guess if allegedly showed the lighter chaps I would really enjoy it but for a long time they have been out of sight out of mind.

[danamba7]

I'll admit I'm not too clued up on the lower weights, who the prospects coming through are and who would beat who etc but that's not so much through lack of interest but more through lack of coverage. I'd rather watch a random straw weight fight (not knowing who either fighter was) than a random HW fight any day of the week.

[Datsue]

This thread has made me a Very Happy Bunny.

[expe]

Very little, below flyweight I have almost no interest, if they're not from over here I probably won't bother once it's below bantamweight. It doesn't help that most of the fights are in Asia, at inconvenient times, it's hard to find a stream and the commentary's in Japanese or Thai or something, I can put up with Spanish because I can understand bits of it, but I'm not watching a fight with the sound off or commentary in a language I have no knowledge of and have no intention of learning. There isn't a hell of a lot of talent in the lower weights either, especially below Flyweight you don't see any of them, with the exception of Roman Gonzalez, anywhere near P4P lists.

[REEVE]

I box at flyweight so follow all the lads in this country at fly or super fly closely but can't get away with the commentary from Thailand etc

[Counter-puncher]

Very little, below flyweight I have almost no interest, if they're not from over here I probably won't bother once it's below bantamweight. It doesn't help that most of the fights are in Asia, at inconvenient times, it's hard to find a stream and the commentary's in Japanese or Thai or something, I can put up with Spanish because I can understand bits of it, but I'm not watching a fight with the sound off or commentary in a language I have no knowledge of and have no intention of learning. There isn't a hell of a lot of talent in the lower weights either, especially below Flyweight you don't see any of them, with the exception of Roman Gonzalez, anywhere near P4P lists.

boxing's boxing, is my take on the bolded bit. i don't need adam smith to tell me one bloke's smashing the fvck out of the other bloke's spleen. i can count the number of times that being able to understand commentary, has actually increased my enjoyment of a fight, maybe a handful of times across thousands of fights.

on the lack of talent, i think there's much more than you realise, and that perception is at least as much down to your own ignorance as the real state of things

[Counter-puncher]

i know that, too, will warm the cockles of datsue's heart

[danamba7]

I box at flyweight so follow all the lads in this country at fly or super fly closely but can't get away with the commentary from Thailand etc

Have you boxed Louis Norman?

[Bard of Boxrec]

I don't go below featherweight generally, but interested in the progress of Frampton.

It's a coverage/attention thing. If I was fed choice cuts of top flyweight action or whatnot with a bit of context about who's who in the division, I would probably be interested.

[REEVE]

I box at flyweight so follow all the lads in this country at fly or super fly closely but can't get away with the commentary from Thailand etc

Have you boxed Louis Norman?

no mate I've not boxed Louis - heard he's a cracking boxer tho

[black panther]

I don't go below featherweight generally, but interested in the progress of Frampton.

It's a coverage/attention thing. If I was fed choice cuts of top flyweight action or whatnot with a bit of context about who's who in the division, I would probably be interested.

Sames really. Though I do try to keep up to date with what's happening in all divisions.

If there was more coverage of flyweight title fights I'd definitely tune in. The exploits of Brian Viloria for example; thrill a minute!

[danamba7]

I box at flyweight so follow all the lads in this country at fly or super fly closely but can't get away with the commentary from Thailand etc

Have you boxed Louis Norman?

no mate I've not boxed Louis - heard he's a cracking boxer tho

Yeah he's highly thought of in this area at least!

[expe]

Very little, below flyweight I have almost no interest, if they're not from over here I probably won't bother once it's below bantamweight. It doesn't help that most of the fights are in Asia, at inconvenient times, it's hard to find a stream and the commentary's in Japanese or Thai or something, I can put up with Spanish because I can understand bits of it, but I'm not watching a fight with the sound off or commentary in a language I have no knowledge of and have no intention of learning. There isn't a hell of a lot of talent in the lower weights either, especially below Flyweight you don't see any of them, with the exception of Roman Gonzalez, anywhere near P4P lists.

boxing's boxing, is my take on the bolded bit. i don't need adam smith to tell me one bloke's smashing the fvck out of the other bloke's spleen. i can count the number of times that being able to understand commentary, has actually increased my enjoyment of a fight, maybe a handful of times across thousands of fights.

on the lack of talent, i think there's much more than you realise, and that perception is at least as much down to your own ignorance as the real state of things

It's not about having the commentary there for them to tell me what's going on, I just don't like watching in silence, doesn't feel right, so I can't turn it off, but Asian languages just sound weird to me and I can't watch with them on either. If allegedly showed the fights and had Barry Jones provide commentary from London I'd happily watch them.

There's talent at the top, but below that the talent pool is pretty thin. There's less fighters at those weights for a start, so there's obviously going to be less talent than at bigger weights. It's simply that there's not many people that size, so naturally there's going to be less talent. At some point in the future as we continue to grow minimumweight will become obsolete, likely followed by light flyweight, as time goes on the talent pool will become smaller and smaller at those weights, until eventually, there isn't enough fighters for the divisions to continue, both commercially and competitively.

[Datsue]

i know that, too, will warm the cockles of datsue's heart

You know me too well, mush.

Also: I go out my way now to find foreign broadcasts of fights, saves me getting wound up at being fvcking patronised by the commentary.

Also also: I am thinking of advocating some sort of global resource management, a response to the finite nature of the Earth's assets: cut all fvcking heavyweights in half, make two decent light-flyweights out of 'em.

Render the fat left over into some nice votive candles, to go into the Finito Lopez shrine in my bedroom.

[drunkenpiper36]

I think the last flyweight fight I watched was the first meeting between Michael Carbajal and Humberto Gonzalez which was a terrific fight to say the least. But growing up I never got much interested in any division that fell below about Feather. Used to love some of Jorge Paez's fights. Man was entertaining as well as a good fighter.

[Old bones Ian]

On the world stage I have less now than I used to have, I remember in the 80's and 90's alot of the big casino cards had lighter weight world titles on the undercard. Now we just seem to have mismatched.

[iamasadlittleboy]

It's not about having the commentary there for them to tell me what's going on, I just don't like watching in silence, doesn't feel right, so I can't turn it off, but Asian languages just sound weird to me and I can't watch with them on either. If allegedly showed the fights and had Barry Jones provide commentary from London I'd happily watch them.

There's talent at the top, but below that the talent pool is pretty thin. There's less fighters at those weights for a start, so there's obviously going to be less talent than at bigger weights. It's simply that there's not many people that size, so naturally there's going to be less talent. At some point in the future as we continue to grow minimumweight will become obsolete, likely followed by light flyweight, as time goes on the talent pool will become smaller and smaller at those weights, until eventually, there isn't enough fighters for the divisions to continue, both commercially and competitively.

Out of interest, you do realise that Flyweight, right now, is chock a block with talent?
Gonzalez, Yaegashi, Estrada, Segrura (who make for 2 fights between each other this weekend), Ruenroeng, Ioka, Reveco, Sosa, Casimero, Alvarado, Arroyo, Muranakana, Mthalane and Fuentes. That's with out mentioned the 1 man highlight reel Koki Eto (pound for pound THE most fun fighter on the planet win or lose).

That's about 10 more top level fighters than you have in most divisions and goes with out making a mention of Yodmongkol, Kogawa, Muranaka, and Inoue. Or the division's most attractive name fight Zou Shiming.

Light Flyweight is a passing ground for fighters though that's much like Light Middleweight. At the moment however you have Nietes, Petalcorin, Inoue, Guervara, Lopez, Loreto, Joyi, Taconing, Garcia, Kimura, Fuentes, Silvestre, Palangpol and Kiatniwat all worthy of a mention for one reason or another. It also featured the great Joyi/Loreto upset, one the best KO's and biggest we've seen on British TV all year.

Minimumweight right now doesn't need anyone to defend it as not only does it have talent but the talent is fighting each other. We've just had Takayama Vs Rodriguez (Spanish language of that is out there if you fancy treating yourself) and we're about to get Budler Vs Zhong (allegedly?), Novoa Vs Menayothin, Buitrago Vs Knockout CP Freshmart, Ryuji Hara Vs Kosei Tanaka*.

RE the commentary-How often do we slate Jim Watt and co? I'd personally rather hear two guys I don't understand than men who irritate me because I understand them. I know we're all different there but enough of these little guys are on Mexican/Argentina TV to be interested in anyway.

*-For what it's worth Kosei Tanaka is the best prospect in world boxing bar none.

On the world stage I have less now than I used to have, I remember in the 80's and 90's alot of the big casino cards had lighter weight world titles on the undercard. Now we just seem to have mismatched.

I can't understand why the promoters don't pick up some of the lower bouts to fill an under-card cheaply. It's not like the best avoid each other or don't put on great bouts.

With:
Gonzalez Vs Yaegashi (5th Sept)-Fly
Inoue Vs Samartlek (Sept 5th)-Light Fly
Estrada Vs Segura (6th Sept)-Fly
Amnat Vs Arroyo (10th Sept)-Fly
Narvaez Vs Orucuta II (Sept 29th)-Super Fly
Mendoza Vs Hirales Garcia (20th Sept)-Light Fly
Cuadras Vs Salgado (20th Sept)-Super Fly
Odaira Vs Yamamoto (24th Sept)-Straw
Buitrago Vs Knockout (19th Sept)-Straw
Reveco Vs Yodmongkol (17th Oct)-Fly
Budler Vs Zhong (25th Oct)-Straw
Hara Vs Tanaka (30th Oct)-Straw

It really does seem like the best are fighting the best

[Bodyshot3]

I'll follow a top class Brit prospect going for an international championship belt.....one of my earliest boxing memories are the Bassa-Dave 'Boy' McAuley world flyweight title tear-ups which were pretty epic. I also looked out for guys like Pat Clinton, Billy Hardy and Robbie Regan a bit later on as well.

But I must admit that I struggle to watch the little guys in the pros and my attention span tends to end at super-bantam. Having said that, Paul Butler is great value for money and I'll do my best to follow and support him.

[Andrew]

They don't get the exposure here or in the. US as they aren't on sky b*allegedly, show time but HBO can change this if Zou Shiming wins a world title.

Watched Kameda v Singyu on the Canelo v Lara card and thought that was quality Kameda has some serious talent.

[Counter-puncher]

Nice post sad, you put it better than i could

the little fellas fight each other, they have to. And that often results in them beating nine tons of sh1t out of each other.

what the actual fvck is not to love about that?

[Datsue]

C-P & Iamasad...:

Also, just 'cos, you know... http://news.boxrec.com/2014/full-nelson ... ese-friday

[Boxing Prospect]

The commentary for the Yaegashi/Porpramook adds so much more to the fight despite having no idea what the guy is yelling.

[misterpunch]

in my view the lower weights are far better to watch than the heavyweights of today