Which Fighters Have Benefitted/Suffered The Most From Revisionist History Here?

Lot of guys, especially those who only remember his 90s comeback, treating Holmes as if he were not the Hector Camacho of the heavyweight division. In Holmes' own time he was heavily criticized for ducking, and that seems to have gone away.

A few determined, misguided souls keep crying about Marciano not fighting big fighters, when he beat the fighters that beat the big fighters. The greatest sin to historians is anachronism, and it is utterly foolish to pretend that Marciano's achievements IN HIS TIME were not special.

Liston of course, but that seems to be all over boxingdom, not just this site. A cult grew up over him because of the praise of Tyson and Foreman.

I actually agree that Leonard was a bit high due to his high number of controversial fights, but there is no doubt that his repuation has come down some from its almost godlike status in the 80's.

 

I think the trouble is, there is always too many details and history for anyone to remember any of them. So if people keep repeating only the facts that support their views, then people start to pick up on them etc. and it shifts the consensus rankings.

There's almost things you can focus on to embelish or demminish fighters. I don't think you can take all time rankings that seriously for that reason.

 

I think everything needs a bit of time and space to be properly brought into focus, but the troubling thing about this phenomenon is that it does first have to swing like a pendulum from one extreme of opinion to the other before it settles into a sensible light.

 

You’ll find sometimes that extreme opinions are presented without attributing sources or research materials.

I tend to take those with a pinch of salt.

 

Well who wants to be bothered with research, really?

 

Don't get me wrong here.

If my instinct tells me that that contemporary observers were wrong about a fighter, then I will trust that instinct, albeit with a bit of trepidation.

 

Roy's speed, reflexes and athletic ability don't seem overrated to me - he's perhaps the greatest of all time in that regard but his resume is overrated IMO. Oh and BTW I've never watched a highlight video of any fighter for more than a few seconds, they're a waste of time, it's like choosing a film as your favourite of all time after only watching the trailer.

 

I want to add I feel JMM gets badly underrated here especially when compared to MAB and EM. Marquez was great fighter IMO who pulled off some of the most brilliant counter punch combinations in the pocket I've ever seen.
Ray Mancini also gets undersold. The Kim fight broke his heart. He was never the same after that.

 

Corbett seems to be suffering lately.

 

I've only seen one poster on here actually question Duran's greatness, for what it's worth.

 

Great fighters don't get dropped that much...balance issues? you usually do with a shaky chin when it gets hit....and you should go back and watch more of his fights which he was usually in a upper type drug frenzy....Arguello was not a natural 140 he was a former 126-130-135 champion when Pryor fought DuJuan Johnson a natural 147 who came down to 140 because he wasn't talented enough to make a run at 147 he was faceplanted in the first....Pryor lays there then seconds later he jumps up in a frenzy and starts fighting like but he looked spark out 2 secs before hmmmmmmm

 

From both sides of the historical argument none the less.

 

He got buzzed later in that round too, but it’s a split second thing both times. His legs are under him straight away.

I find Pryor to be a very overrated fighter but he didn’t have a bad chin IMO. He could be hurt, so could a lot of fighters who were not susceptible to actually being knocked out.

 

Roberto Duran has more excuses than any fighter in history. ...and I’m a fan of his. He is Considered the greatest of the fan four. And he lost to every single one of them. His fans act like the no mas fight was a no contest or something

 

as Mr Fancy Pants should suffer. Forever and painfully.