Fair criticism of your favorite fighter

Same...

 

Regarding Roy, honestly, I can't criticise him too much.

With the benefit of hindsight, I could say that he should have done things differently. But I can fully understand why his career played out the way it did.


Not signing with a promoter:

If he'd have committed himself long term to a promoter, we could possibly have seen better fights. King reportedly always wanted future options on him. If he'd have signed with King, maybe he could have fought the likes of Jackson, Benn and Liles etc. But due to how his father controlled him for 23 years, I can perfectly understand why after they'd split, he wanted to be in full control of his life. He took great delight in getting to the top and fighting the likes of Toney on his own terms.


Retiring early/adapting his style to compensate for his age:

Roy needed to do one of the above to prolong his career at the top level, or to preserve his reputation/legacy. But Retiring early and not coming back was just too hard for him. Because he's being doing this since he was 8 years old. It's all he's ever known. Unless any of us had stood in his shoes, then we can't criticise him for carrying on. Because we can't even imagine how hard it would have been for him to have made that decision. Regarding changing his style, when do you admit to yourself that you're ageing and you need to change? Do you even know until it's too late? Looking back with hindsight, he should have taken a long time out after the first Tarver fight, and then came back with a more conventional style that wasn't based around his extraordinary athleticism. But he felt great in camp, just like he had for all of his other fights. If you don't feel any different and you're used to doing the same thing over and over, then realistically, you're not going to change. You're going to carry on with what's been working. You can't see what others can. It's like looking at an old photograph of yourself. I'm now 37, and I feel exactly the same as I did when I turned 30. But when I recently saw some old photos of myself, I could see noticeable differences in my appearance that I hadn't really noticed that much before. So I can't really criticise Roy for not seeing that he had to change before it was too late. You obviously don't have the benefit of hindsight when you're living in the moment.


Being more media friendly:

I think it would helped his career if he'd have been more media friendly. But the reason he wasn't, was because he felt so underappreciated, whilst guys like Oscar took all of the limelight.


The only real criticism that I have of him, was how he messed Michael Nunn around in 1997 when he became Roy's mandatory at LHW. Roy should either have fought him, or vacated the belt straight away, instead of letting it go to purse bids.

Also, the WBC scandal. He should never have asked for that belt back. Although the WBC deserve far more criticism for their ridiculous actions.

I can't criticise him for not being willing to go to Germany to fight Dariusz, and I think that Bernard Hopkins was solely to blame for their 2002 rematch not happening.

 

What do you think would have happened had he have enforced them?

I think it's clear that Cotto and Martinez wouldn't have fought him.

Canelo gave his belt up.

 

The biggest criticism was that he let his greedy brothers talk him into cutting Brendan out.

That was the beginning of the end.

He left Brendan and hired Oscar Suarez.

After that, his heart was never truly in it.

 

Cotto had trouble saying GGG's name, Martinez would've reluctantly fought him !

 

Oh I thought Canelo or Oscar got brave after a couple of lacklustre performances from GGG, not really a money thing imo. Thing is, it doesn't matter if he offered 10 million, if its a shite cut of the money they were going to say no !

 

Correct..I think he was slipping with Ingle too. The respect for each other had gone imo

 

He didn't just choose the money to let Cotto and Canelo fight. There was no point in trying to prevent it. He had a written contract that stated that the winner had to fight him afterwards or vacate. And in the meantime he fought Lemieux for the IBF title. If he'd have prevented the fight from taking place, Cotto would just have vacated.

He didn't fight Canelo earlier, because Oscar was being ridiculous with the C-W.

It should be as clear as day to you that Oscar delayed the fight for as long as he possibly could.

Regarding Ward, that fight was never viable.

Again, I don't see how you can knock GG for fighting Brook. He only fought Brook because Eubank Snr went crazy with his demands. His camp had been set up, his purse had been agreed, and it was his U.K. debut. He'd signed to fight Eubank. There is no way to spin it. It was either accept Brook as a last minute replacement or cancel the show. What would have been the point in him declining Brook and walking away? Fine, he doesn't deserve credit for the win. But he shouldn't be criticised for having taken the fight. Again, he only agreed to fight Eubank in the first place because Oscar didn't want the fight. If Oscar hadn't asked to fight Khan, GG would never have have ended up fighting Brook. Again, the circumstances are completely different.

 

Come on now.

Oscar wanted to delay the fight for as long as he possibly could.

Everyone knows this.

 

I don't think he would have done.

 

I really didn't like Pac's Bieber-like hair leading up to the Mosely fight.

@KiwiMan
@Aussie Invader
@Badbot
@MVC!

 

I'd love to see Bailey and MVC discussing Joe and Floyd.

 

To me it's clear that Cotto would've just vacated. Martinez might have fought him with reluctance but honestly I'm not even sure about that one.

That's correct. On second thoughts though, even if GGG had enforced his mandatory Cotto would've vacated and GGG would've fought Heiland or Johnson for the vacant WBC.

GGG would've got his belts more quickly that way, but he'd still have a bad resume.

IMHO where GGG consciously chose money over belts was when BJS offered to fight him last year. BJS had ducked GGG for years as he admitted himself, but saw GGG getting slower and thinks he can take him now. GGG (understandably) preferred the Canelo mega-fight, and he's also going to opt for the rematch over the chance to be undisputed.

My point simply is that whenever a fighter claims to be all about the belts/legacy/etc. it must always be taken with a grain of salt.

I'm not too sure about that, maybe at a catchweight 155 lb, but Oscar said in 2016 that if GGG wanted Canelo at 160 lb he'd have to wait until September 2017. Which is exactly what ended up happening. The $10 million offer was for September 2017 anyway.

With regards to Brook, that was a late replacement which to me mitigates it somewhat, but perhaps Team GGG should've been wary of such a thing happening and insisted on a real MW as backup - sort of like Takam was a backup to Pulev for Joshua's last fight.