BoxRec

Why is it only the Americans have the bottle to put their backs against the wall and take a gamble?
Oscar taking on Hopkins; no way is Oscar big enough for Bernard yet he still takes the fight despite being the bigger name fighter.
Zab Judah against Spinks is an even fight also.
Mosley against Wright was an evens fight despite the bookmaker’s odds, as was Guinn and Barrett, yet both fights were taken and the favourite lost each time.
When was the last time a big name British fighter took a gamble?
Hatton against Pinto was a 60-40 fight to pick….but it has not happened, I had heard since the match was made the fight would not happen for whatever reason….once again the rumours proved correct.
Hatton as good a fighter as he undoubtedly is could have made a fight with Junior Witter easily and what a fantastic fight it would have made for the British Lonsdale belt at stake. How this fantastic belt is now being ignored is a crime. The belt is the best looking and should be valued higher than these mediocre WBU, IBO…..and whatever letters you want to put together.
Audley Harrison despite getting a lot of credit for his last fight, was always expected to do what he did to Hersisia, David Haye sparred Hersisia and said before the fight he himself was bigger than Hersisia (despite being a cruiserweight) and Audley would get him out of there within three.
Sure when a British big name has nowhere else to go he will take a risk.
But when was the last time we real fight fans saw a real evens fight between big name Brit fighters…Benn, Eubank and Watson spring to my mind.
Tell me when a BRITISH BIG NAME FIGHTER voluntarily took an evens fight..

tonyevs wrote: Tell me when a BRITISH BIG NAME FIGHTER voluntarily took an evens fight..

Does Lewis v Klitschko count?
Ottke v Reid?

or if you want all british

Reid v Calzaghe?
Gomez v Arthur?

There must be more!

"He who is not courageous enough to take risks, will accomplish nothing in life." - Muhammad Ali

Dynamite Dean Phillips wrote:"He who is not courageous enough to take risks, will accomplish nothing in life." - Muhammad Ali

Thats a funny quote from a draft dodger.

And thats probably the risk to dodge the draft.

BOLLOCKS19842003 wrote:There is an easy answer for this, "MONEY". The majority of top Americans who take risks get paid well, so they know win or lose they will be compensated. Americans are just as scared as Britons to take risks, why do you think hardly any of them leave American even if there is a big fight outside the US.

You can bet your ass that Hatton just got paid more money to go 6 rounds with a bum than Barrett was paid for exposing two prospect contenders that were suppose to completely dominate him.

In reply to MATCHFIXER>Wasn’t the other Klitschko supposed to be the better of the two brothers? The one that got chilled by Corrie.
Lewis did not expect to have any problems with this Klitschko, hence why he was overweight and took this fight at short notice…who expected Klitschko to do so good before the fight?
Ottke against Reid is an example of what I had written, when a British big name fighter has got nowhere to go then only then will he take a risk.
Alex Arthur took the fight against the very dangerous Gomez because like Gomez himself said he was being written off as a shot fighter.
Reid and Calzaghe was a good match up back then, much better than it would be now, but Reid had lost his title by then though, Calzaghe was expected to win by almost all `experts` but once again like Klitschko he performed better than all expected.
Hatton against Witter could have been made if all parties really wanted it.
The top prospect out there in America at the weight is Cotto, cross reference his previous and future opponents with Hatton’s…..
Brodie is the exception..though I do not know why but he is not a big ticket seller, he is forced to do it a harder way.

PostMortem wrote:

BOLLOCKS19842003 wrote:There is an easy answer for this, "MONEY". The majority of top Americans who take risks get paid well, so they know win or lose they will be compensated. Americans are just as scared as Britons to take risks, why do you think hardly any of them leave American even if there is a big fight outside the US.

You can bet your ass that Hatton just got paid more money to go 6 rounds with a bum than Barrett was paid for exposing two prospect contenders that were suppose to completely dominate him.

That's why I said the majority of top Americans. Anyway Barrett is not a top American, he had to take those fights because he's not a big name. You can bet your a$$ if he was as popular as Hatton, he would being taking less risks.