nothing unpopular about this opinion at least from my point of view. toney from this time would eat up calzaghe. no pun intended.
The heavyweight division is overrated currently? People **** all over the division no matter who you ask.
More than a few, unfortunately. The frontal lobe damage is also a cause for poor decision making skills-including business decisions- which is another contributing factor as to why so many ex-boxers and ex-NFL players (the numbers around 75% or so for ex-NFLers I believe) go broke after retirement.
Exactly, and while I guess I was a bit strong to say that it's underrated historically, you also get people who absolutely **** on it in the historical context too.
I don't think it's a bit strong to say it's underrated historically. The biggest problem I have with it is that contenders aren't fighting each other as frequently as they should, but I don't think it's any worse from a talent standpoint than the early 60's, 80's, and early 2000's were. The fights just need to get made.
I guess it depends on who's doing the underrating. Casual fans? It might be overrated. Here/other places where it's more boxing 'experts' I think it tends to get underrated.
The fights are actually being made now. I'm not gonna list them out, but there has been a decent amount in the last year and scheduled for the near future.
The 100+ fight careers of "classic" boxers are overrated. Very few of them had extensive amatuer careers if at all. Some turning pro as young as 15. Throw in some meaningless "Non Tittle" fights which amount to exbitions and you have 100 fights.
I suspect, but can't prove, that either Lennox Lewis or Jack Dempsey is the GOAT head-to-head. These are mutually exclusive statements, though: if Lennox is the GOAT, then Dempsey isn't even close to top 10 quality, and vice-versa. All has to do with the relative popularity of boxing compared with the marginal advantages of modern training. We'd be in for a surprise either way if we put old timers and modern fighters in a time machine.