You’re being too harsh on him. He fought Lemieux for the IBF belt, and waited for the winner of Cotto-Canelo. His goal was to obtain all of the belts. He knew he was either going to fight the winner or that they’d have to vacate the belt. He’d already let the Cotto-Canelo fight go ahead, so he wasn’t going to fight another guy from a different division at that point. You can’t criticise him for that. There was no indication at the time that Canelo/Oscar would stall him for a prolonged period. Hindsight’s a wonderful thing. Now we have the opportunity to look back and see what happened, we can say that he took the wrong option. But would Andre or anybody else have acted differently in his exact position? I don’t think they would have done. And Canelo did fight in his weight class. He became the WBC champ. So he obviously didn’t believe at the time that he was chasing a ghost. I have a huge amount of respect for Andre having taken the Kovalev fight. Because he didn’t have to take that. A lot of people in his position would have taken a lesser fight. But he’d done all he could at SMW and he didn’t know if he could make the weight again. But if the Kovalev challenge had come at an earlier point, whilst he still had goals at SMW to achieve, he may not have taken that fight. Everyone’s circumstances are different. And I believe that Adonis Stevenson wanted to fight him before Kovalev did.
I’m good, thanks. It’s a very good thread. It’s created a lot of interest and it’s stirred up a good debate. I agree with what you’ve written. Sometimes fighters and promoters don’t want to risk what they have. But sometimes, the fights can’t be made for a variety of reasons.
Ha! I don’t know about that mate. I really like the look of Beterbiev. He’s immensely strong. I’d still like to see more of him though before I made a prediction like that. His win over Gvozdyk was great though. I really wish we could see him fight 4 times per year. Time’s against him now.
Vitali was 100% ready Lennox was ready for Kirk Johnson who's heart had been broken when he was blatantly robbed by Joe Cortez & John Ruiz everyone knew he wasnt ready. Suddenly Lennox had to face his #1 contender at a few days notice. Name me one other champ that had the balls to do that ? Lennox retired at exactly the right time
Bradley ducked Khan and Floyd ducked Khan also. The only legit excuse for Floyd to have ducked Khan picking Maidana instead was for personal reasons (not liking Khan). Which is fair enough. But if it wasn't for personal reasons then it was a duck. You can't tell me Maidana would have drew bigger numbers. Maidana did bring a good fight though because floyd underestimated him big time.
I know this. But the whole world wanted to see a rematch. People were rightly frustrated, especially as everyone thought it would happen.
Freddie Roach already debunked that. Pac ducked the test. If he take the test, the fight happens. So ur wrong. Start at 2:45 This content is protected
No. Manny eventually agreed to everything, but it still took ages to make afterwards. The testing was never the issue. If Manny had agreed to everything straight away, Floyd would have just put up another obstacle. And have you ever asked yourself why Floyd wouldn’t give Manny his number of cut off days, seeing as though he had a legitimate reason and he’d have given immediate after fight blood and urine tests? Nobody else had any issue with fighting Manny. Floyd didn’t want any of his other opponents testing. There was zero evidence of any wrongdoing. And the icing on the cake was Floyd’s own IV.
He didn't fight for any belts in 2016 when the Ward fight would have taken place. Look who he fought instead - Wade and Kell Brook. Yes , hindsight is wonderful. The chasing belts excuse was made to avoid seeking out better fights at 168. Unifactions haven't been a priority for Golovkin since better fighters than Lemuiex and Geale have gotten hold of belts. Your whole defense on Golovkin is predicated on the grounds he never made attempts to fight guys at 168 , but he did. He sent out challenges. He chased Froch for years after he retired. He tried to fight Chavez. He claimed to be open to fight Ward at 168 TWO years after Ward moved up to LHW. Ward simply offered to be an opponent and made him a very good offer. It was shut completely down in favour of fights against a bum and a welter weight. Thats a duck. If GGG never attempted to made fights at 168 and Ward requested a fight and was denied ? That wouldn't have been a duck. The fight would also have been one of , if not the best to make at the time. So it was very viable from a matchmaking perceptive. Golovkin just din't have the mustard to take the challenge. Thats really all she wrote mate!
dinovelvet, I know mate, but he couldn't have forseen that the previous year. He didn't know that Oscar was going to BS him by telling Tom Leoffler to stay by the phone etc. I don't think it was an excuse at the time. I don't have to defend him when we now know that Oscar had just been stringing him along. Yes, he was open to the idea of having fights with Carl and Chavez, but not at the end of 2015. No, you can't say that Ward was turned down flat for a bum and a WW. He'd already got the Lemieux fight lined up which gave him the IBF belt, and the winner of the Canelo-Cotto fight was mandated to fight him for the WBC belt. Again, I doubt that Andre himself or anybody else would have acted differently in that exact situation. Why would they have? Also, as I keep mentioning, Andre publicly declared at that point that he wasn't sure if he could comfortably make SMW. He fought Smith at a C-W after having over 18 months out of the ring. We'll have to agree to disagree my good man.
Did u even watch the video? Pac did not agree or the fight would have happened. U assuming Mayweather would have made another obstacle holds no weight. It's an assumption. Mosley went on to get the fight with the same demands and tested with no complaints. Pac wasn't asked to do anything different from what Mayweather had to do.
No. Manny agreed to absolutely everything in the end. He publicly declared that to get the fight done, he'd agree to all of Floyd's demands. Did Floyd then want to make the fight? No, he didn't. It still took Marquez laying him cold before he had any real interest. And that proved all along that the hold up was never about the testing. Go and follow the timeline of the saga. Regarding testing, Floyd never made any of those demands for any of his previous opponents. And Manny had a legitimate reason for wanting the cut off days. He fought Morales in 2005 and he gave blood samples that were misplaced. So he was then requested to give another close to the fight. And after giving them, he said that it made him feel weaker. And Erik Morales himself agreed with Manny's opinion. The articles from 2005 were still online the last time I looked. And they were 4-5 years before anyone spoke of a potential fight between them. Manny had no issue with being randomly tested within a 7 week period, but he wanted a cut off at the end of camp. He was however more than willing to undertake an immediate after fight blood and urine test. Now considering that there was no evidence of any wrongdoing, that should have been sufficient for Floyd. But of course, it wasn't. Also, Manny wasn't just requested to do something. He was slandered with racism. Floyd is the sole reason why this fight never happened earlier.
