Quote:
Originally Posted by CelebritySexist
Sophea has a long way to go before he's considered one of the world's greats. I would not classify Ei Phoutang (has anyone even really agreed on the right way to Latinise his name? I digress) anywhere near the status of Apidej; his opponents were nowhere near the calibre of the fighters Apidej had to face, bearing in mind that this was a time in Thailand's boxing history when there really was something in the water. Cambodia WILL inevitably produce one of the greatest fighters - he may well be starting out in our times, maybe even Bheut Kham if he'd worry less about his hair - but there is no-one that I know of - currently fighting, retired, or victim of a "previous administration" - who would be apt for the category.
By the way, do you think Ei took a dive today at TV5?
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I didn't see it, so I'll have to ask Rob from PPP what he thought, he was planning on being ringside. After Thursday night I was enjoying my weekend off and I thought he was fighting Queensberry Rules...so not so much interest for me. You know his wife's a ref now...
I agree that currently we can't say definitively that any of our local boys are world class (except for the two who have belts and then we have to acknowledge which organisation those belts come from). The biggest problem is that we simply can't put Thais in the ring.
We need to bring a JWP to Phnom Penh, but who's gonna pay him the ten grand he will no doubt demand? Once someone like Sophea defeats him (as would be hoped) then we can say "there's your proof right there".
The fact is the money isn't there to do that. I'll go out on a real short limb and suggest that the last time TV5 held an international show their entire budget didn't go much beyond $10,000...
I'm not necessarily stating Ei/Eh/Ai is in the same class as Apidej, just pointing out that he's done the same thing several times (and therefore that doesn't make Apidej particularly amazing, but something else about him might). Of course the thing that makes Ei so amazing locally is that he was the perfect combination of build, athleticism, strength and skill and that no-one else in the country brought all those things together. His curse is that he was born in Cambodia and had his career at a time when the rest of the world didn't give a shit about this country and the sporting authorities had no clue about how to attract international attention (they still have no clue, we have to do the work for them).
Viva may be lucky enough that world attention comes his way. He's still young enough that he could have a healthy international second-half of his career. Sophea is certainly tough enough that he could make a serious mark on the world stage.
His problem is that he doesn't understand that fighting foreigners and fighting locals are two entirely different games. For locals it's their day job, they need to fight every month, so KOs are a bad idea. You can't fight 300 times if you suffer from a concussion every other month. A win is a win, points or KO. So why expend the effort hurting someone when you don't need to? But in the international game, audiences are a little wary of judges. Judges can be bought, judges can be influenced, judges can be biased. But a KO is definitive proof of who won. And if you're only fighting 4 fights a year (instead of 12, 15, 20) then you can afford to fight harder and hurt your opponent more.
Having seen half-a-dozen Sophea fights I'd say he was cruising at about 65-70% against Zidov. But I wasn't in the ring, I was only watching from outside.
Bheut Kham/Bird Kamm might be the lightweight World Champ of the future, Kao Roomchang/Rumjohng is a hot property. So is Lao Sinath.
