Any fighters during their careers you guys were a fan of but changed your mind? I was a big Mayweather fan around 1999-2003. You may not even recall that humble & dedicated fighter.
The very 1st one to come to mind. I was a hugh fan of his when he was The 'Pretty Boy". But when he became "Money" he began the "Smoke and mirrors part of his career. I have no problem with his arrogance. But you can't be that arrogant carefully picking who you fight and when you fight them. Or fight a Conor McGregor just to go 50-0. McGregor know as much about boxing as I know about flying a space shuttle.
I was and remain a huge Julio Cesar Chavez fan but at a certain point he got coddled, old and less committed. Don King didn't help. I've never even seen his fights with Oscar, maybe clips. And the Kostya fight only once. He just wasn't the same fighter, even factoring in that he was fighting way above his ideal weight, his age and the wear and tear of so many fights.
lots of fighters I wasn't a great fan of, i.e. Eubank, Roy, Mayweather and a few more... but the only fighter I lost Big respect for was probably SRL, a beautiful boxer, loved his skill... but he turned out to be a vain, blowhard self loving put off... like Roy, & Floyd and oddly Oscar too.
I was a huge Chavez fan of seeing his dismantling of Rosario, it was awesome. The way he rallied to put Meldrick Taylor (another of my favourites) was terrific, could do no wrong in my eyes. Camacho and then Haugen. Actually thought he might be able to beat Whittaker, that robbery was painful to watch and then the Randall fight. Frankie Randall was a class act who never seem to get the breaks. He fought superbly, took Chavez´s best body punches to come back and score a tremendous knockdown. I was glad for Randall but hoped Chavez would win the return. He did but in a horrible way. Chavez seemed to want the fight to go to the scorecards and I never forgave him for not giving Randall a third fight at the time, made even less sense since Randall beat Coggi for the WBA title soon after. I lost a lot of respect for Chavez after that fight.
Technically, he did give Randall a third, when they were both geriatrics. But yeah, he was a whiny btch by then, which hurts to say because he is one of my very favorite fighters. You just can't go a hundred fights in the modern era and expect to maintain your form, especially with all the distractions of being a superstar.
When he did finally give Randall a 3rd fight he was damaged goods. He looked shot when Marjarito stopped him. After that he suffered a further 6 knockout defeats, surprised Chavez couldn´t stop him. Gutted when Randall died but considering his health at the time it was probably for the best. I try to remember the Chavez I first saw on ITV stopping Francisco DaCruz and Ruben Castillo, his beating of Rosario and his coolness in finally getting to Meldrick Taylor. The way he surgically took decent fighters like Frankie Mitchell, Vernon Buchanan, Kenny Vice, John Duplesis and Angel Hernandez apart with terrific body punches, superb defence and non-stop attack. At his best he was a near perfect fighting machine.
I still respect him, he's still one of my go to classic fighters but the Randall fights didn't show him in his best light. King was just being... Well, king.
I am still a huge fan. The pre-Meldrick era was him at his best. When the Randall fights rolled around, Julio was a bit shopworn, 90 fights in, fighting guys who were naturally bigger. He should have packed it in. But ego and the limelight kept him going and he started getting to be something of a prima donna.
I was a huge fan of Floyd but got tired of his **** later in his career and rooted against him a couple times. Still love watching his highlights though. Beautiful to watch.