Evander wrote:The Russians came along after the Americans found other things to do.
Similar situation with amateur boxing. While Americans are still dominant in many other sports like swimming, track, etc., it is not the case with boxing. Is it too tough of a sport ?
I remember how U.S. gradually stopped Soviet dominance in freestyle wrestling in 70s and 80s, but in boxing, it went the other way ...
Got to believe there aren't too many, if any, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian, etc fighters who want to be identified as Soviet, any more than Germans want to be called NAZIs. Maybe calling them Sovs makes it easier for western fans to hate them. Call them what they are now and try not living in the dark ages of the Cold War.
Cap wrote:Got to believe there aren't too many, if any, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian, etc fighters who want to be identified as Soviet, any more than Germans want to be called NAZIs. Maybe calling them Sovs makes it easier for western fans to hate them. Call them what they are now and try not living in the dark ages of the Cold War.
Agreed - but there it is interesting how east European / Asian / former USSR States are doing so well, whether or not they want to be identified as such
Cap wrote:Got to believe there aren't too many, if any, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian, etc fighters who want to be identified as Soviet, any more than Germans want to be called NAZIs. Maybe calling them Sovs makes it easier for western fans to hate them. Call them what they are now and try not living in the dark ages of the Cold War.
Bulgaria and Poland were not a part of the Soviet Union. Speaking about Ukranians, they are split. Many in the east are ethnic Russians, including for example Glazkov who was born in Lugansk (Luhansk) -- one of the war torn cities. Usyk was born in Simpheropol -- capital of the predominantly Russian Crimea which was annexed/returned by Russia. When he was interviewed in Ukranian recently, he was responding in Russian, so I presume that his Ukranian is far from perfect.
P.S. By the way, pre-fight program about Wlad which is now being shown by Ukranian channel "Inter" is in Russian including a documentary film.
Cap wrote:Got to believe there aren't too many, if any, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian, etc fighters who want to be identified as Soviet, any more than Germans want to be called NAZIs. Maybe calling them Sovs makes it easier for western fans to hate them. Call them what they are now and try not living in the dark ages of the Cold War.
Bulgaria and Poland were not a part of the Soviet Union. Speaking about Ukranians, they are split. Many in the east are ethnic Russians, including for example Glazkov who was born in Lugansk (Luhansk) -- one of the war torn cities. Usyk was born in Simpheropol -- capital of the predominantly Russian Crimea which was annexed/returned by Russia. When he was interviewed in Ukranian recently, he was responding in Russian, so I presume that his Ukranian is far from perfect.
P.S. By the way, pre-fight program about Wlad which is now being shown by Ukranian channel "Inter" is in Russian including a documentary film.
I think calling them Soviet is just lazy. It's just a way of saying: "you know, those guys from that general region". It's just a crass generalization. Ironically, it's like when people use the word "Nazi" as Cap did, you know they aren't putting too much thought into things.
As I explained at the beginning, these fighters come from the same boxing school. Russian, Ukranian, Kazakh, Azer... boxing schools may be slowly drifting apart, but have the same very recent roots.
Evander wrote:The Russians came along after the Americans found other things to do.
Similar situation with amateur boxing. While Americans are still dominant in many other sports like swimming, track, etc., it is not the case with boxing. Is it too tough of a sport ?
I remember how U.S. gradually stopped Soviet dominance in freestyle wrestling in 70s and 80s, but in boxing, it went the other way ...
Amateur boxing is no tougher than wrestling...it's just that the USA Boxing amateur system sucks badly. I used to get their quarterly magazine & even as far back as early 1990s there has been loads of political infighting, incompetence & corruption. Not to mention mediocre coaching. Pro fighters come to the US all the time for the world-class trainers...something you will never see in amateur boxing.
Some good points...structure is so important to success. But I'm not sure Am boxing is no tougher than wrestling. Not in terms of training hard (in which case rowing is prob the toughest) but that being punched in face and body really makes the sport unique in the amateur/Olympic arena.
I have seen top, world class athletes, and I mean Olympic gold medalists and also good quality club rugby players turn their back, swallow it, and can't handle it when they start getting hit.
Oddly I've also seen a 2 tour veteran and SAS member (I know I still can't believe it) totally bottle it once he started to get hit in a white collar fight.
Boxing is unique in that aspect (or at least was until MMA)
I recently saw a german documentary about the Klitschko brothers and it showed how Vitali and Wladimir had a big fight after Wladimir switched to Emmanuel Stewart as a coach. Vitali came to see how the preparation of the fight against Peter went and he said that he was shocked to see how Wladimir made "rookie mistakes" and Stewart was standing besides Wladimir telling him "great, excellent". So Vitali yelled at Emmanuel "What's excellent, this is absolute shit!". Didn't go much into detail but I wondered if it was just the american way of motivating ("everythings great") or something more fundamental.
Cap wrote:Got to believe there aren't too many, if any, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian, etc fighters who want to be identified as Soviet, any more than Germans want to be called NAZIs. Maybe calling them Sovs makes it easier for western fans to hate them. Call them what they are now and try not living in the dark ages of the Cold War.
Bulgaria and Poland were not a part of the Soviet Union. Speaking about Ukranians, they are split. Many in the east are ethnic Russians, including for example Glazkov who was born in Lugansk (Luhansk) -- one of the war torn cities. Usyk was born in Simpheropol -- capital of the predominantly Russian Crimea which was annexed/returned by Russia. When he was interviewed in Ukranian recently, he was responding in Russian, so I presume that his Ukranian is far from perfect.
P.S. By the way, pre-fight program about Wlad which is now being shown by Ukranian channel "Inter" is in Russian including a documentary film.
... and Lomachenko and his father were speaking Russian in the corner.
Cap wrote:Got to believe there aren't too many, if any, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian, etc fighters who want to be identified as Soviet, any more than Germans want to be called NAZIs. Maybe calling them Sovs makes it easier for western fans to hate them. Call them what they are now and try not living in the dark ages of the Cold War.
Bulgaria and Poland were not a part of the Soviet Union. Speaking about Ukranians, they are split. Many in the east are ethnic Russians, including for example Glazkov who was born in Lugansk (Luhansk) -- one of the war torn cities. Usyk was born in Simpheropol -- capital of the predominantly Russian Crimea which was annexed/returned by Russia. When he was interviewed in Ukranian recently, he was responding in Russian, so I presume that his Ukranian is far from perfect.
P.S. By the way, pre-fight program about Wlad which is now being shown by Ukranian channel "Inter" is in Russian including a documentary film.
... and Lomachenko and his father were speaking Russian in the corner.
3 CHEERS FOR MOTHER RUSSIA 
