36yr old Ali lost to a 7 fight novice (Spinks), 39yr old Usyk beat kickboxing legend with 77 fights

Dude got at least a handful of brit decisions. probably where the Brits got the idea.

 

These were mostly pro boxers with tons of experience (except Nnganou and Rademacher)

People are deperately grasping at straws. Being knocked down by a pro boxer isn't the same thing as being down vs a 1-0 novice.

Again i do not believe Rico would have survived round 12 but it is insane to compare a kickboxer to established pro boxers who had lots of experience.

Besides most of the heavies you are mentioning weren't holding up the division by fighting once a year. They were active and consistently taking on challenges.

Holmes defended his belt 20 times in 7 years. He wasn't fighting once a year. And he lost to a guy who was undefeated, a former olympic gold medalist and one of the most skilled boxers of the modern era.

The criticism is one guy is holding up the division and not only is he wasting fighters time with one useless fight, his performance vs Rico will likely lead to a rematch. By the time he is ready to defend vs someone else, another year would have been wasted.

 

He was diagnosed formally in 1984 at the age of 42. He likely did not have it at 36 but had considerable damage by this point which meant he was speaking slower than normal, a fact that many around him noted.

Freddie Pacheo, his physician, left his camp after the Shavers fight when he was 35 due to concerns he had regarding how much damage he had taken. This isn't stuff i am making up, this is a fact.

Dude was done. He had considerable damage at this point and should not even have been licensed to box.

It is absurd for the OP to use a guy who likely had considerable brain damage by 36 years of age (Ali) to defend this silly exhibition fight we saw yesterday.

 

What I liked about Mayweather in this kind of fight is that he treated it different than fighting a boxer. He boxed differently. Used a high guard and figured out what he needed to, then started putting it on McGregor.

I'm not a Mayweather fan, but he showed a good example of how to fight an unknown commodity (in boxing).

Fury just looked too much like he thought it'd be easy.

I think Usyk had the toughest opponent with the best game plan out of these matchups, but he probably could have been better prepared for this with a better game plan.

 

Capablanca, arguably the greatest natural chess player of all time, had an enormous plus score against Alekhine prior to their match for the world championship. Prior to the match he never lost to him. However, Capablanca was 37 years old (many believe elite chess players noticeably decline after 34), underestimated his opponent, and did little or no preparation. Alekhine was extremely well-prepared and won the match. You have to take all your opponents seriously and as soon as Usyk took his robe off, I thought he might be in for a long night.

 

Hey dmt, can I ask ya a question?

Would Mike Balogun beat Rico? Mike Balogun is a pro boxer. He's that ex-NFL practice squad guy that Itauma starched in 2 rounds. He has 23 fights. 21-2 with 16 KOs! He's been fighting since 2014 which makes him an experienced boxer. So you think a win versus him is more impressive than a win versus Rico?

A follow up question, good sir. Did your parents feed you lead paint chips as a child?

 

I have not seen him fight so i don't know.

This is besides the point.

My point is very simple: every great fighter has struggled vs a lesser fighter but struggling vs a pro fighter with 20,30 or 40 pro contests is not the same thing as struggling vs a 1-0 guy. Period. It doesn't even matter if Rico could beat some pro boxers. Fact it he hasn't.

 

That 1-0 guy wasnt ANY 1-0 guy like Ngannou wasnt ANY 0-0 guy.
They had combat sports history.Pete Rademacher had an amateur career.
It s not Mike DiBiase fighting old Archie Moore and getting embarassed and bloodied up.

 

Yes but some of them were very poor, or a division or two underneath in weight.

Well, Uysk got a TKO victory, so I am not grasping at anything.

I like you very much as a poster, but this is very strange. Usyk wasn't down. He put the other guy down. It's almost like history is being re-written here.

Again, this is being oversold, as if Troy Dorsey, James Warren, etc, didn't exist. The fight went exactly as I predicted, and I told everyone almost exactly what happened. Rico had a professional fight, but more importantly, trained with Peter Fury for 14 years. He has every skil he needed to make this a good one, and it was. But at the end of the day, Usyk stopped him, and would have been ahead on the cards after the 11th.

This has nothing to do with anything I have addressed. I wish Uysk would fight a little more often, and I said that I am furious that Kabeyal is being targeted for next year.

Holmes never unified, and even contributed to title proliferation by taking a belt from the gutter. He bragged about fighinting little guys for big money. He is not in Usyk's class, and his division was a joke of fat guys and drug addicts that he mostly refused to fight. IN HIS TIME, this was how it was viewed. After the 90s, the cult of Holmes developed.

No, he just didn't fight the best out there.

Coming up two weight to fight him. Holmes bragged that is jab would feel like a LHWs right hand.But his plan to fight a soft touch to break Marciano's record backfired, and he ended up bitterly saying that Rocky Marciano couldn't carry his jockstrap, and telling Peter Marciano that he was living off his dead brother. So not only did he miss out on fighting most of the best of his generation, but he was prety classless, as well.

This is not what we are addressing, here, but Holmes held up the division for seven years but seeking the worst fighters he could find.

 

Indeed. It was a fascinating period in chess history for reasons that cannot be mentioned here without risking a ban.

 

Capablanca! When I learned the game of chess his name came up as the best .Never thought I'd see that chess masters name on this boxing Forum! And anyone who says he's the greatest chess player of all time is on very solid ground. Nice analogy about how even he couldn't afford to underestimate anyone

 

Holmes fought circa 15 ranked opponents. He wasn't holding up the division or looking to fight guys who were unranked

How is fighting Norton, Witherspoon, Smith, Williams etc missing out on most of the best of his generation?

 

After Cooney Holmes was indeed holding up the division as he was fighting lower ranked or unranked opponents. The closest he came to fighting a top contender was his David Bey fight. Bey was rated as the number 3 contender after upsetting Page whom Holmes ducked. He also swerved Pinklon and Tubbs. Him not fighting Dokes is understandable and his fight with Coetzee was signed but didn't materialize. His wins over Witherspoon, Smith and Williams aged well, but these guys weren't considered top fighters at the time.

 

But in reality they were top fighters even when they faced Holmes. And aside from Thomas the guys he missed didn't amount to all that much.

It's the equivalent of complaining about Usyk not fighting Sanchez and Ajagba. Solid guys but not better than Dubois or Fury

 

Mayweather is not only p4p great but champion of cross over fights
Look at how he fought Big Show!!