Jerome Le Banner - Is he French Level/Euro Level?

[RonnieHornschuh]

He just beat some fat Czech guy with a 8-4 record. Do you think he can get as far as Matt Skelton who made a quite successful conversion from K1 to boxing?

[Akxtinguish]

Haven't seen the guy or heard about him for years now! I remember he used to have huge legs like tree trunks and kick really hard, don't really remember much about how well he punched.

I don't know if he can even get to Euro level because pure boxers would probably be able to avoid his punches and counter him. But like I said, I can't remember much so maybe he actually has decent handspeed.

[cubex]

He doesn't even want t ocompete in boxing.He just took this fight to keep in shape and probably some confidence for the upcoming GP Final fight vs Schilt.

Somewhere in the 90's he wanted to be a boxer but finally decided to be a K1 fighter.His age and injuries won't allow him to compete anyway.

[Kid Dynamite]

Le Banner is an interesting story for sure. He plans to retire from kickboxing in the near future and he may continue with boxing or mma.

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

Personally I hope he sticks to boxing. The promotor of the event in Deauville plans to do a series of boxing events with Jerome being the main attraction. With Jerome his charisma, presence and popularity he draws a lot of people and attention to these boxing events, which is good for boxing in general.

Continuing with boxing will be less hard for his body and contrary to what someone claimed, he will have less injuries. K-1 is way more demanding and Jerome had issues with his left arm since he broke it back in 2002. They won't be able to kick it anymore in boxing.

The question is where could he go eventually?

Can he do the same like Matt Skelton?

I doubt it. He has more potential then Matt ( they also fought back in 1999 and Jerome won by KO round 1 ), but Matt edges him when it comes to chin, stamina and defence.

Jerome is a big guy at 120 kg and often takes a punch to give one himself. He can't do that in boxing. Eventually he will probably get countered as someone correctly said and get stopped . But hey, who cares, the guy is always fun to watch and in boxing he can just follow his instincts and search for the KO instead of defending his arm in K-1.
For a big guy, Jerome definitely has very good handspeed. With the right training, who knows what he can achieve.

In K-1 he holds a 80% KO ratio and I'll be following his closely to see how translates in his boxing career.

His career has been made already, he's just having some fun for the remaining years. We'll see how far he can go ...

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

[ogii3]

Kid Dynamite said the most of the story for Jerome.
He is not so young, will make 37 next month. Le Banner is power puncher and has amazing movement for his weight, mainly thanks to K-1 Heavyweight fights, which are far more dynamic then Heavyweight boxing. For sure it will be different with 8 or 10 rounders for Jerome and he will not be so active.
The Frenchman has very good chin and his last KO/TKO defeats in previous years from Remi BOnjansky and Semmy Schilt are mainly due to his injuries. The problem with his left hand (power one, cos he is lefty) still exists.
He will draw big audience in France, where is very popular. The problem in France for K-1 is that the knees are not allowed. So maybe with boxing shows Jerome will have a chance to be active in his home land. Just as another very good kickboxer Gregory Tony did in last months

[Kid Dynamite]

One correction ... Jerome is right handed ;-)

[ogii3]

Nope, he is sowthpaw ;)

[cubex]

One correction ... Jerome is right handed ;-)

He might be right handed but her fights southpaw.

[Kid Dynamite]

He might be right handed but he fights southpaw.

Yup, that's how it is. It's not something you see a lot. Fighting southpaw and being right handed results in a powerful jab.

Here's a clip that can give you and idea of his handspeed;

[Only registered and activated users can see links]