BoxRec

Over here we tend to wrap our prospects in cotton wool for 3 or 4 years where as in Japan they throw them in deep. Why do we protect them more than our Japanese equivalent? (Before someone answers "protecting in investments", don't Japanese promoters have to invest in their youngsters as well?)

Over in Thailand fighters tend to be very active, even world champions like Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, often fighting in stay busy mismatches to keep in shape and collect small payments. Why do our fighters only seem to fight a handful of times? (barring our journeymen of course) I accept our guys get more per fight though surely getting regular smaller payments for what amounts to having public sparring would be just as useful between bigger fights.

Staying in Thailand, they fight in the middle of the day, why don't we try a similar concept? They do it often on Fridays or Wednesdays on free to air TV. I accept we couldn't do similar but why couldn't we do small "stay busy shows" on a Sunday afternoon on allegedly?

One more thing from Thailand is that they have sponsors ALL OVER the place. The shorts tend to be sponsored (M-150 are a big one there), the venue (CP Freshmart tend to do a lot of that), the fighters (CP Freshmart are again big here) and even after the fights the winner holds up small advertising placards. Why don't promoters over here try something similar to bring in additional money rather than just selling the centre ring? (We also see fighters in the Czech Republic with sponsorship on them, as seen by Lukas Konecny a lot and I thing Ruslan Chagaev did it once or twice)

At one point one German promoter was uploading a lot of contest on to Youtube including full fights (think it was Universum), why has no British promoter followed suit and put up libraries of fighters for fans?

In Argentina and Mexico female fighters (notable Yesica Bopp, Mariana Juarez, Erica Farias, Zulina Munoz and Marcela Acuna) are shown on a regular basis and have a HUGE following, why don't we tend to see much female boxing over here?

Just a few things I've been wondering. I'm sure someone can answer and explain the reasons but it's still very interesting how different other countries do things.

As far as the lack of shows, dont think boxing is as popular here anymore. it is hard for promotors to sell tickets to shows as it is especially outside the big cities.
Another problem is that fighters often dont help themselves. Not enough fighters do the gameshows, chat shows etc. Even writing reports on themselves if neccessary and sending to all the newspapers inh ope a few of them publish.
This all leads to why promotors cant afford to let their top prospects get beat as there are so few genuine good ticket sellers.
.....in my opinion!

I understand your point and it is frustrating at times. However I think our scene as a whole matches anywhere in Europe and surely would be top 10 in the world for boxing. I'd certainly much rather have our scene than any other country in western Europe.

I assume Inoue's shot at beating Ioka's record is what prompted the question?

He has a great deal of ama pedigree and has already won national and OPBF belts in less than six fights.

I think his younger brother is aiming to beat his record for winning the national title in his third bout.

As to why Japan do this, there was an article a few months ago by Joe Koizumi where he alludes to this phenomenon.

Typically Asian fighters don't go on that long in their careers, not in the way European and US fighters typically do. A lot of Thai fighters make the switch from kickboxing or Muay Thai, so while they may have little boxing experience they've a wealth of experience from kickboxing. It's not unheard of for them to go straight into world title bouts with less than ten fights experience (assuming they're half decent).

orbtastic wrote:I assume Inoue's shot at beating Ioka's record is what prompted the question?

He has a great deal of ama pedigree and has already won national and OPBF belts in less than six fights.

I think his younger brother is aiming to beat his record for winning the national title in his third bout.

As to why Japan do this, there was an article a few months ago by Joe Koizumi where he alludes to this phenomenon.

Typically Asian fighters don't go on that long in their careers, not in the way European and US fighters typically do. A lot of Thai fighters make the switch from kickboxing or Muay Thai, so while they may have little boxing experience they've a wealth of experience from kickboxing. It's not unheard of for them to go straight into world title bouts with less than ten fights experience (assuming they're half decent).

Was more thinking of the Thai scene than the Japanese scene whilst asking these questions. Whilst you're right about the Thai's being moved into world title fights quickly due to Muay Thai that doesn't explain why some of them are so active as pros. Guys like Srisaket, Suriyan and Nawaphon are just...busy, all 3 have fought twice this year already. We don't see careers like Wonjongkam's where the guy was just fighting to stay active a lot of the time.

You're right about Naoya's brother, trying to get a Japanese title fight in fight #3, he's rumoured to be facing a world ranked foe in his second bout (on the same show as his brother's world title bout)