Top 3 most overrated boxers of all time

I was just talking about generally, not in rankings.

It's as though people have forgotten how great he was, or they never really saw him. This forum is GGG and Kov crazy, and many fans laugh at the mere idea that Roy could have beaten them in fantasy fights. Then they trash his resume, while hyping guys who haven't even achieved half of what he has.

It's just ignorance.

 

Nonsense.

If he'd retired after Ruiz, or even Tarver 1, he'd ba a lock for top ten.

I rarely see him get a mention here, other than getting pi*sed on by the iconoclastic and often strident Klompton once.

Whatever.

Hardly.

We have a bit of a measuring stick. Two actually.

Holmes and Foreman, both at their best in the seventies (or close).

Both men were still very competitive in the mid nineties when well past prime.


So maybe the 70's cohort were a bit special. :think

 

Can't understand how anyone could think SRL is overrated. The man defeated Hagler, Hearns, Duran and Benitez when they were all either in their prime or very close to it.

 

1) In this thread alone we've had people suggesting any version was the favorite over a 45 pound weight range of fighters today, arguing for him as the GOAT, and now being a top 10 lock if he'd retired at the right time. People get insulted if you suggest that "styles make fights" remotely applies to him.

I like Roy and I've gone to bat for him on certain 175 threads, notably against Foster, but I don't even need to leave the thread to find the ammo for putting him on this list.

2) OK, so you don't think Cerdan gets enough props to be able to be overrated. I can buy that argument.

3) While beating 2 top ten contenders combined in the 90's is notable, the old-age exploits of Holmes and Foreman are hardly enough to suggest the 70's fighters deserve the untouchable H2H status the era as a whole still gets. Ali's aura and the extremely top heavy nature of the names (especially in the early half of the decade) is what's left in fans' minds today because the forgettable, Cruiserweight-sized talent that comprised most of the top 10 in that decade was indeed forgotten about (if it wasn't overrated H2H itself, like Shavers and Quarry).

Eras with superstars get overrated by fans because the attention's there, and the hype's got to go somewhere- especially if the cash cow is vulnerable enough to lose or struggle. This isn't a new trend.

What I'm not saying is that the decade was terrible or that it didn't produce some great fighters- being overrated isn't a function of quality, but a function of popularity and hype. What I am saying is this: I don't buy that 2nd and 3rd rate 70's heavyweights (a good portion of which would be Cruisers today) compete with top level heavyweights of the modern eras, and the biggest names of the 70's would have their hands full.

 

And because I don't care what you know, or what you think you know, I will repeat T.B.E.,,,,,,, DO NOT end up being punchbags for journeymen. End of proposition that Jones Jr could even be possibly considered as the anything you like really wan't him to be considered as

 

It's really pretty unfathomable (unless they're talking about the clueless casuals who rank him top #2 all-time, maybe)

 

iT IS REALLY QUITE SIMPLE.

The man LOST to a guy that was to all intents and purposes a career LIGHTWEIGHT whilst being proposed as the greatest WELTER in the world at that time, and perhaps ALL TIME EVER.

There is NO denying this, it is FACT. Muricans were so gullible they believed he was gonna be the 80's version of the legitimate SUGAR RAY, or even better.

But the former LIGHTWEIGHT Duran came along and FUKKED the ALL AMERICAN boy.

Hard for some to swallow, but none the less true.

Please don't bother with any FEEBLE revisionist excuses. At the time this guy was commanding more money than Heavyweights for his performances. THAT is how much stock the boxing world put into him.

 

All of his wins over the above were close and/or controversial and none was followed by a timely rematch. Hagler was past his prime and it remains one of the most disputed splits ever. He was also 1-1 with Duran before Duran turned 38. He should be 1-1 with Hearns. Doesn't make him a bad fighter, I just can't have him top 10 p4p based on a handful of wins in a pretty brief career.

 

1) Mayweather
2) Vitali
3) Holmes

 

Nobody seriously believed him to be the greatest welter in the world in 1980. He was thought to be the greatest at the time, with the potential to become the greatest ever.

And he fought a respectable fight against a man who also distinguished himself at 154 and 160, and whom I rank at #5 all-time pound for pound.

Hardly disgraceful.

He clinched the best-welter-of -his-day with a come-from behind victory over Hearns.

I believe him to be a tad overrated on account of his overall record and I put no stock in him whatsoever at 168 and/or 175 on account of the artificial conditions he imposed. But being the top 147 and 154 man in a very strong era, and given that his fight with Marvellous was competitive at a minimum, against an ATG Middle weight, I think he can be ranked somewhere in the top twenty and definitely in the top thirty.

A little bit of non-boxing consideration there, maybe ?

 

Yes, true, but this is also balanced out by the chin-checking brigade of morons, led by Rico Spad (a troll, suspended from the classic) who constantly denigrate everything he did on account of being KO'd by a perfect hook he didn't see coming, at a point in his career when most have retired.

Can't see anything overly unreasonable in that proposition.

Except he fought all styles over his career from Hopkins to Castro, from Toney to Hill, from McCallum to Reggie Johnson, and he didn't seem to give up more than a very few rounds.

It's probably a very unpopular opinion on here, and Roy may very well have fallen victim to Foster's considerable power, but I think a meeting of the best versions of both at LHW would result in a near shutout for Roy.

(BTW, I watched a lot of Foster's fights when they were being fought or within a few days.)

I hear what you're saying here, Rock, but even taking it all into account, I think the 70's had a better crop of HWs overall than any of the decades since. That might be nostalgia on my part, but there it is.

 

ali

 

So which one is it? The underlined, or the enlarged seeing as they are EXACTLY what I claimed. The time was in fact June 1980.

I wrote.

Nobody claimed his record was disgraceful, so your point is?

Are you denying Leonard was seen as the " All American Boy " in 1980?

So again your irrelevant reference to " non boxing consideration " is???

A little hint for you, if you are going to challenge someone's posts, it helps if you don't simply repeat what they wrote.:yep

Unless of course you want to cling desperately to the difference between " perhaps " and " potential " :rofl:rofl

 

Apologies, Foxy.

Looking at your post (and copying sections), I originally intended to write:

This content is protected

This might have been inferred from the second sentence, but ...guilty of mistyping ? yes.

My point was that his performance in that fight was hardly disgraceful, given who he was fighting.

Are you suggesting that some peoples' perception of him in such terms (a minority, as it happens, as the race situation in the US at the time would never allow such a perception to be widespread) constitutes a boxing consideration ?

And are you telling us that this part of your post...

...doesn't smack of an agenda, little to do with Leonard's boxing, per se ?

...is fairly obvious to most.

Yes, I mistyped what I meant to say.

You got me there.

No argument.

You're too easily amused.

The POTENTIAL referred to SRL's future career, as it was headed in 1980.

The PERHAPS was your term, referring to what you believe some folks of the that day (gullible Muricans, you termed them) believed about him as of 1980, so obviously there is a clear difference.


Bottom line is, the man is certainly an ATG and can justifiably be placed in the top thirty, probably higher.

And while some might overrate him slightly, unless he was being claimed as a top ten or higher, that would hardly make him a candidate for the three most overrated boxers of all-time.

 

Vitali Klitschko
Joe Calzaghe