BoxRec

is barry hearn planning to do the same with the other weight divisions, i think the idea is fantastic but to be honest, im a bit disappointed with the standard and quality of the participants, no disrespect to anyone involved of course...i think, if he is going to have just contenders, then it should be a max of 10 pro fights and perhaps a max of 1 (or 2) losses...

what do you guys think?

To answer the question in the thread title - no!!!

Think its a crap idea other than earning the lads a few quid - if it does that then okay its fine by me!!

Poor tournament and a fuss about nothing in my opinion.

On Soccer AM Hearn said that if its a success he'll think about doing other weight classes. He mentioned the classic weights Middle, Welter and Feather.

K1 and MMA have had 8 man tournaments for years. (they are far less common in MMA these days)

They have mixed results in my experience.

Quite often injuries will lead to replacement fighters entering the tournie fresh in the latter stages; this distorts the worth/value of winning these tournaments.

As fighters get used to the format they will adapt their stye and fight to survive, to make it to the later stages with the fewest injuries and least enegy expended possible. This can lessen the visual spectacle for the paying public.

These sort of tournaments are not the future of boxing but they might help raise interest levels in the short term and that's got to be a good thing.

TerribleTerry wrote:K1 and MMA have had 8 man tournaments for years. (they are far less common in MMA these days)

They have mixed results in my experience.

Quite often injuries will lead to replacement fighters entering the tournie fresh in the latter stages; this distorts the worth/value of winning these tournaments.

As fighters get used to the format they will adapt their stye and fight to survive, to make it to the later stages with the fewest injuries and least enegy expended possible. This can lessen the visual spectacle for the paying public.

These sort of tournaments are not the future of boxing but they might help raise interest levels in the short term and that's got to be a good thing.

Are they still happening in Japan?

Emerson Poncey Name Ghent wrote:

TerribleTerry wrote:K1 and MMA have had 8 man tournaments for years. (they are far less common in MMA these days)

They have mixed results in my experience.

Quite often injuries will lead to replacement fighters entering the tournie fresh in the latter stages; this distorts the worth/value of winning these tournaments.

As fighters get used to the format they will adapt their stye and fight to survive, to make it to the later stages with the fewest injuries and least enegy expended possible. This can lessen the visual spectacle for the paying public.

These sort of tournaments are not the future of boxing but they might help raise interest levels in the short term and that's got to be a good thing.

Are they still happening in Japan?

All the time in K1 kickboxing although MMA tournaments (ie Dreams) are more likely to be spread out over several events - with one round per show to lessen the problems I have highlighted above.

I have thought whether the French Cup system could be adopted for the British championship in future.

Especially in devision in which there are lots of contenders.... eg. Welterweight.

The original king of the 8 man MMA tournaments - Igor Vovchanchyn

He won 6 of these type of tournaments back in the day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTSFl1M-P1U

All I know is the mainstream sports media have picked this up, and I strongly feel Barry Hearn is the best innovator in term sof promoting sport.

What he's done with Snooker, Darts, Poker over the years.

If this is a success, I can see it being repeated.

Personally, I think the slower, plodding heavyweights are a more plausible subject than the fast, speed based feathers, lightweights etc.

Weight making in those divisions also effects performance, recovery etc.

Heavyweight is the natural subject.

Just a pity it wasn't say -

Greenberg, Krence, Reid, Long, Kenna....etc.

Is this the best they can come up with to compete with the UFC?
Ok, it is good for the fighters to earn a few more quid, but UFC haven't done these types of tounaments for years - UFC started making real money when they dropped these tournaments.