The New Faces of American Boxing

via www.boxnews.com.ua

Out with old and in with the new is how its works in professional sports. Specially in boxing where older fighters get beaten into retirement. The 2008 year in boxing was the end for a generation of  future Hall of Fame American boxers. The most popular and best American fighters are now mostly past their prime and near retirement such as Roy Jones Jr., Evander Holyfield, Bernard Hopkins, and Oscar De La Hoya. So who are the new faces of American boxing?

The old American boxing stars time in the limelight is over. But, there are several young, talented, and hungry American boxers ready to fill the void left by the older American legends. Chad Dawson recently after beating former light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver said:"There is a new king in town." The new king of light heavyweight boxing is the talented Chad Dawson that is undefeated at 27-0. He is only 26 years old. He is the best light heavyweight in the world not named Bernard Hopkins. Likewise, it will be extremely hard for anyone to beat him because he is a 6-3 southpaw. He also has the good athleticism and great hand speed. Equally important, he has the toughness to remain champ, he already has beaten two very tough fighters in current cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek and ex-light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson. Therefore, he seems ready to dominate the light heavyweight division for many years to come. He wants to fight the best too. He has made offers for fights with Bernard Hopkins and Joe Calzaghe. But they both turned him down.

Paul "The Punisher" Williams is a welterweight boxer that fights out of South Carolina. He has taken Winky Wright's and Antonio Margarito's title as the Most Avoided man in boxing. He is a 6-1 Southpaw that throws an alost inhuman amount of punches in his fights. He has great offense and averages around 1,000 punches a fight.  He is extremly tall for a welterweight at 6-1. Equally important, he recently has been moving back and forth from welterweight to middleweight. He will be fighting ex-light middleweight champion Winky Wright on April 11th. Besides, he is fearless fighter that isn't afraid too fight anyone. His main problem is just trying to get people to fight him. The big name boxers keep ducking him.  But, eventually he will be able to prove he is the best because if he keeps winning they will have no choice but to fight him.

Kelly Pavlik is somewhat similar to Arturo Gatti because of his boxing style and popularity. He is only 26 years old. He is the most popular young American boxer. Kelly Pavlik has a crowd pleasing style come forward style where he keeps throwing punches until he knocks his opponent out. He did in 2008 get taken to school by future Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins. Nonetheless, that was a fight ten pounds above his best weight. Equally important, no one looks well against Bernard Hopkins. But, he is still middleweight champion of the world. He already bounced back from his lost to B-Hop by beating Marco Antonio Rubio on February 21st. Pavlik also has a good chin. In his fights with Jermain Taylor and Edison Miranda he took very hard shots. However, he still kept coming until he overwhelmed his opponent and knocked them out. Likewise, he showed he had a heart by getting off the canvas in his first fight with Jermaine Taylor. He evens ended the fight by knocking out Taylor. In a fight that was a fight of the year candidate in 2007. He now has the opportunity to take Oscar De La Hoya's place as the most popular America fighter. He is also likable because he is very humble and he has not forgotten where he came from. He always shows love to his hometown of Youngstown, OH.

Regardless of how many people say that boxing is dying in America that is far from the truth with good young boxers such as Pavlik, Dawson, and Williams. Besides, there are other boxers to that will continues the American boxing tradition such as James Kirkland, Andre Berto, and Andre Ward. It is sad to see legends like Roy Jones, Evander Holyfield and Oscar De La Hoya move out of the limelight. But, boxing is a young man's games so these young American boxers will use their talent to continue  the long tradition of American excellence in boxing.