Tyson Fury on why P4P is a load of bollocks

If Loma were a CW his joints would be shot from the constant side to side motion. He's only able to do what he does because of his size.

 

P4p is rubbish.

Heavyweights are the best group of boxers. The top heavyweights can beat the rest of the boxers from all divisions.
Cruiserweights are the next best group.
Light-heavyweights are the third best group. And so on ...

It's okay to say "I prefer to watch bantamweights, because I like their skills" or whatever.
But there's no reason to invent a concept or a set of rankings to try to prove some little guy is "better" than the bigger guy.
Because we all know damn well that the little guy would give his left eye to BEAT the big guy.

Boxing is actually VERY FAIR to "small" people by having weight classes at all.
Lots of sports don't have them. There's no weight classes in Rugby or (American) Football. If you're little you get crushed. Go find something safer to do. There's no height classes in basketball or the high jump. If you're short you're probably going to get no further than a certain level, whatever your talent.
The Olympics doesn't have a featherweight class for the hammer throw or the discus events. You need to be huge to be powerful enough to compete.
Tennis doesn't run a special tour for men under 5'6.
etc. etc.

Boxing is already more than fair to the SMALL people.
There's absolutely no need to invent the "pound for pound" concept to pretend these little guys have somehow overtaken the big guys in the "rankings".

 

The whole idea of divisions is to find out who are the best fighters relative to their weight. If pound for pound is worthless then there's no need for divisions. Just put in Roman Gonzalez against Tyson Fury.

any ranking list is a subjective fantasy. How do you know who is better between Joshua, Povetkin, Parker, Wilder, Ortiz, etc? it's a subjective fantasy as none of those guys have fought each other.

 

Well, firstly, divisions exist because watching smaller men fight is entertaining.

I disagree. Pound for pound is worthless because it has nothing to do with anything.
Divisions make sense from the standpoint of making fights that people want to see. People are happy to watch Roman Gonzalez fight men his own size, for entertainment. There's a demand for fights. People are happy to have belts and titles in weight classes to give boxers of all sizes the incentive to compete as professionals.

Pound-for-pound has nothing to do with divisions. It totally tries to do away with the divisions but at the same time it doesn't say Gonzalez and Fury should fight each other. Therefore, what's the point of "pound for pound" concept ?

It's just silly notion to heap unnecessary levels of praise and prestige on hyped boxers. It's not a world title, or a regional title, it's just a vaguely defined opinion, and probably complete nonsense.

But they are not totally subjective. Those ratings are meaningful, because :

1. The ratings absolutely suggest those guys SHOULD fight each other. The fact that they haven't fought each other is reason for making those fights. We expect those men to fight each other OR fight others within the "top 10" or "top 15" of the divisional rankings. And if they don't do so, they ought to be criticized for it.

and

2. Those fighters you listed already do have common opponents and results that can be compared. They became highly ranked by beating men who were ranked, whether in a "top 5" or "top 10" or "top 20". And the more ranked fighters who fight ranked fighters, the better. And if a man's ranked #1 he should absolutely be defending that position against challengers in the top 5, 10 or 15.
The whole division is competing with each other, with world titles, regional titles etc.

That's completely diffferent to the "pound for pound" rankings, where the rankings shift and change mysteriously, and men who are in no way close to competing with each other are falsely made to look like they are competing with each other.

 

fair enough, but p4p is a pointless fantasy. being that in no way can it ever be proven.