My guess is Carl "The Cobra" Froch's next opponent will be none other than Karo Murat

Kessler's situation is holding the division hostage to some degree, and we are slowly seeing the prime of a possible HoFer waste away. Although Palle is a total ****, when theres a will theres generally a way, i think if he wanted it badly enough he could have made financial sacrifices to get out of the contract more quickly, though obviously there is a question of honor and morals, its a tricky situation. To some degree it is unfair to blame it on Kessler, though a fighter chooses their promoter and i don't believe he can be considered totally guilt free. What is more unfair is holding a division hostage, disallowing active quality fighters the right to be considered the best in the division.

Last year i would have rated Kessler number 1, but its getting to the point where it isn't really fair on the active fighters in the division. I also might be slightly bitter about seeing a fighter i like a lot having his career pissed away, but i think my ratings are logical enough.

 

I AM A BIG *****!!! :happy

 

Not at all. I think we just use different criteria in our rankings. Activity plays a big part for me. Rankings aren't about head to head ability for the most part. You need to exercise a time frame of some form in your rankings.

Kessler hasn't proven he is the best out of the current crop of top dogs, he hasn't earned a solid number 1 ranking. Beating Mundine and Andrade within the last 5 years isn't enough to hold a number 1 ranking forever. Just because it isn't solely his fault that he hasn't beaten anyone of note for 2 years doesn't mean he can hold a number 1 ranking forever.

If Kessler didn't fight for another year, would you continue to hold him as the number 1?

 

Rankings are about what a fighter has achieved at that weight and how able they have proven themselves to be, with reference to a time frame. You say Kessler performs at a B+ level (and i agree with your ratings from an ability standpoint, although he hasn't proven to be a top level operator for over a year), but the issue is he doesn't perform at all. Which effects his rating as a fighter.

Its pretty clear that a fighter can't hold a division hostage forever, the only question is at what point do you say enoughs enough and decide that an active, arguably less capable fighter deserves the number 1 rating.

If you asked me for purely head to head ability rankings, it would look something like:

1. Kessler
2. Bute
3. Andrade
4. Froch
5. Taylor

Do i think Froch would beat Andrade? No, but i would rate him higher in current SMW rankings based on holding better wins.

It isn't about making a political point, it is about Kessler lacking recent wins to maintain his position. Who is to say he fights this year? If he doesn't why should he be rated higher than someone who has achieved more in the last year or two?

At some point you need to draw a line in the sand. Mine is at not winning a fight against a top 10 (i don't mean alphabet soup ratings) in two years.

On the same token, you would probably rate Vitali as the number 1 HW. I wouldn't, as Wladimir has achieved more in the last few years at the weight. Do i think Wlad would beat Vitali? No.

 

Agree to disagree (in this thread at least).

I agree with most of what you are saying, i honestly just feel as though the difference between you and i is that i put more weight on how recent a fighters best wins are. There is an element of decay when you discontinue proving yourself as a top fighter ( for a significant period of time more than a year, same reason i wouldn't have Vasquez and Marquez high in my p4p ratings).

Wouldn't everyone faces be red if Kessler didn't fight this year and showed serious signs of ring rust when he finally did come back?

 

While we're hijacking the thread. Looks like Kessler wont fight until late this year, and maybe not at all. Danish papers today reports that Palle is about to take Mikkel to court. This could take a good 2 - 3 years, like it did with Larsen.:-(

 

That's so obvious,WBC mandates 2 mando defenses upon winning the vacant title,one was Taylor,one is Murat.

 

What WBC rankings are you looking at? Murat is #5. Ward and Dirrell are nos 2 and 3, respectively. Ward fights Miranda in a couple of weeks, and if he wins, it would be the perfect set-up fight for Froch/Ward. And I bet he'd travel to the UK if necessary.

 

He said Murat is three once Taylor and Pascal are taken out.

 

Ah, I misunderstood.

Thought he meant Murat was #3 with Taylor and Pascal ahead of him, and with them taken out Murat would be #1.

Can anyone give a little insight on how this might work? If Ward, Dirrell, and Murat are the top 3 available for this fight, who decides which one fights Froch next? It would make sense for Ward to be the mandatory, since he's the #1 challenger, but I know that's not always how it works... does the WBC tell team Froch they have to select an opponent from the top 3? Top 5? Top 10?