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Say a kids coming up in the amateur ranks. What do you for in the kid? Style? Heart? Smarts? Resilience? The ability to lose a fight and not get disheartened?
Also does every prospect start off strong with good records? Or do some come off to a slow start and work their way up?
I would say it's all about potential, and continual postive progress win or loose. This question is a little out of my leauge since i'm not extremly knowledgable on the sport (hell i only even started to watch to have better knowledge of who i was betting on) but that just my opinion.
consistancy, how much they rely on basics and how much they rely on basics and defense. See what they try to get away with and what they are attempting to do. See their dimensions etc. Look at the rest of the people in their division and try to guess if they'd be able to defeat them etc. Also look at who they are fighting
southpaw.
I look to see what they have in their all around game. Are they all offense? are they mostly defense? how do they handle pressure?
Of course you can not expect each aspect of their game to be perfect but you like to see that they have a little bit of each. If I see an up and coming fighter who is one dimensional I lose interest pretty fast.
Natural ability isnt enough to see you through in this sport, you have to have the desire and the will to be a champion.
A footballer every so often can be great, do great things and not exactly be the most determained of sportsman, exact same with a basketball player or a pro golfer.
In boxing though your essentially going to get hurt at some point and its all about wanting it bad enough.
Uncle co-runs an amateur gym and he swears by the fact a great 14-15 year old prospect wont neccesarily be the kid that steps between the ropes and dazzles everyone with his amazing fast hands, accuracy etc, rather one that has courage and determination in him!!
Natural ability, sound technical skills, how natural they look in the ring.
Good quality shorts
I bet you want them as short as possible, huh. That way you can just stare at there legs. Damn queer. :LOLATYOU:Quote:
Originally Posted by Kel
Everything I look for in a prospect comes down to one thing "reaction"
How do they react to the fighter in front of them
How do they react to getting hurt
How do they react hurting the other boxer
How do they react when their style isn't working.
As far as skills go, they can be learned while still in the prospect phase. That's why at prospect level I really like to see what's natural to them. Those natural reactions and a good solid work ethic combined are what make a prospect become a contender.
Natural talent
Progress (Have they progressed from the last fight)
Heart
Strong fundamentals and heart; and like Mick said, progression. Only as good as your last fight.
Footwork,and strengthQuote:
Originally Posted by southpawed
Those are the hardest two things to teach,everything else can be tinkered with
[quote=killersheep;529701]Everything I look for in a prospect comes down to one thing "reaction"
How do they react to the fighter in front of them
How do they react to getting hurt
How do they react hurting the other boxer
How do they react when their style isn't working.
It is rare you get a prospect to acheive all that stated above and not be considered a contender.
[quote=Master;530175]Those are just the things I look for in a prospect, not that having all of those things in place is necessary, but for me to take notice at least ONE of the things from my list need to be on there. Like I said the skill sets can be learned. Conditioning can be trained. But how they react when they get hurt is not likely gonna change (at least for the better).Quote:
Originally Posted by killersheep
Basic things really, balance, punch variety, athletic ability (speed, reflexes, power, etc.) footwork, basic skills, that type of stuff.
Its questionable to me if you should be looking for heart, chin, etc in a guy with less than 10 or maybe 15 fights, unless you've really matched him tough for a prospect. If he's gonna be a big time fighter for the most part he shouldn't be having to show his chin and recuperative powers against part time journeyman. Definitely not on a regular or semi-regular basis.
Once the prospect begins to step up a little and face gatekeeper types, veterans, other good young prospects then obviously its important to see if he can take a punch, if he can recover from being hurt, if he can recover from a loss.