Cervantes was jr. welter champ and Napoles was welter champ. Don't believe it ever came to the negotiation table or even offers. But they both certainly cleaned out their respective divisions.
Ya I know.. I mentioned it because I think that is why, in part, Napoles went up .. Trying to remember but I do not think Cervantes wanted it .. @klompton2 @red cobra or Morlocks when he comes back … any input?
Everybody know now that you don't like lewis if not you would not say this bunch of nonseses, you would have saved time
If Muhammad Ali had not been forced into exile because of his Draft Evasion conviction on June 20 1967, it is conceivable that he would have cleaned out the heavyweight division. He was in prime form, I know that a scheduled title defense against Oscar Bonavena was slated for May 1 1967, in Tokyo,Japan, followed by a title defense against Thad Spencer. Ali made mention also of a possible defense against Buster Mathis, following his last title defense against Zora Folley, on March 22 1967, in Madison Square Garden, won by Ali, KO 7. Yank Durham was asked about a possible fight for Joe Frazier against Ali, Yank responded with, Joe Is Too Green For Clay. We Will Wait.
And that is the thing with Ali. It's not what he did but what could have been if he didn't miss the 4 years of his absolute Prime .. It is crazy to imagine what his resume would look like on top it already being the best, or one of the best, in HW history .. I know it's speculation , but oh man
It's also amazing to me that he could go out and perform at the highest level consistently with the things swirling around him. Ali literally needed some kind of chaos around him so it seems. He feed off it. Religion to Vietnam, Racism to the Pentagon looking at him. Like being the heavyweight champion enough
Usyk missed Makabu and Dorticos, but he beat two guys that knocked them out - Tony Bellew and Murat Gassiev. So I think it would be fair to say Usyk cleaned out his division just like Holyfield did
I think the bigger problem with Lewis is that Holyfield was clearly past his prime when Lewis beat him and Tyson was downright shot to pieces. But as for younger generation he did his job. I mean you can't fight literally everyone. Ike Ibeabushi has claimed recently that Lennox ducked him choosing Golota instead of him for his fight in October 1997. But in reality Golota was far more proven than Ibeabuchi (who had only one good scalp in his resume back then) AND far more popular. I think most people considered Golota to be a tougher challenger for Lennox back then
Oh I don't hold it against him, but I'd have liked him to go for those two after the WBSS, simply because he would waste a year daring to test the waters at heavyweight.