Khan-Bradley on the horizon

Well its a point that cant be empirically disproved so as far as he's concerned it has merit. Its akin to saying Alexander may be a future ATG but theres no indication of that at all other than he's unbeaten record and a belt. If the criteria is 25-0 and to unify a world title then i guess theres alot of boxers out there on their way to Canastota.

 

Empricism? Objectivity? Have you swallowed a philosophy textbook? It's not a testable hypothesis, so talk or proving it or disproving it is completely irrelevant.

It's like asking someone to prove that Bananas are the best tasting fruit, you can't because it's all a question of taste, just an opinion. Objectively, you could of course say that they're the biggest selling fruit, so they must have something going for them. Just like objectively you can say that an unbeaten unified beltholder at 25 years of age must have something going for him.

And just looking through Boxrec, the only other current unified champion I can see of a similar age that's unbeaten is Chad Dawson. So it's hardly a common situation really. Or at least not nearly as common as you make out.

Obviously the time to judge is 15-20 fights down the line, when he's at the end of his career, and like I pointed out initially I don't mind being shown to be wrong. But even then there's no guarantee there'll be a clear consensus, there's still debate about whether many retired fighters are ATG or not.

Because?

 

Roach wants Morales ,Hatton and Juan Marquez.

 

Yeah I thought that but have limited knowledge of the practice of the sweet science, but my guess is Hopkins' greatness has come about more thru his sheer monastic dedication that enabled him to keep improving thru learning and have a longevity that more naturally talented boxers didn't have. In such a case, there's no way a young Hopkins would have shown signs of potential greatness.

 

Hopkins was definitly one to watch but he was overshadowed by Toney and Jones. But you are very correct in that his dogmatic dedication to this sport is what makes him the ATG and great throwback that he is. There was a time when i rooted against Hopkins because his attitude got on my nerves. These days my opinion has changed as he will be sorely missed when he finally does call time on a glorious career.

 

What qualities do you think Bradley has to indicate ATG potential? I'm no expert either, but as other posters have pointed out, he's very fast, well conditioned and has a high work rate. Presumably there must be some other qualities that have to be demonstrated that previous ATG had to consider a fighter to have ATG potential?

 

Fast, well conditioned, high workrate are just 3. Technically he's also very good.

As someone previously pointed out he scores 7-8/10 in every department (I'd probably say 6-8). For me it's the all round ability he shows that suggests he could go on to become something special. He doesn't rely on KO power, he doesn't rely on a rock solid defence, he doesn't rely on outrageously fast reflexes, he doesn't rely on fast handspeed or footwork, he doesn't rely on a granite chin. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if he ends up with a few losses on his record from the occasions when he does come up against someone who is outstanding in one of these departments.

He's young and obviously has a very solid base from which to progress, he doesn't overly rely on any aspect of his game that is going to decline quickly as he gets older and gets into wars, he does everything right and has skills that he can develop. This is where my comparison with Hopkins is coming from. He is very, very good all round, he is skilled and he is dedicated. He can evolve in exactly the same way over time and show the same longevity as Hopkins has.

I think it's safe to say that both Hopkins and RJJ are ATG, and it's useful to compare how they got there. With RJJ it was always obvious, but he's aged badly. With Hopkins it wasn't always obvious but he aged like a fine wine. Bradley is more Hopkins than RJJ. It's not obvious now (as this debate proves), but the same qualities are there, no doubt in my mind.

 

khan will lose first defence of his title.

 

This is again Frank just hyping things up, Right now for Khan to fight Bradley would be a risk. Bradley for me bar Manny is the best fighter at 140, a well rounded fighter and does everything good, and has a steal look to his game. Khan to fight Bradley needs at least 2 more fights to start to round himself off under Roach.

People are looking too much into the Kotelnik fight and saying Khan has no power, but you people must understand Kotelnik has never even been KD in his whole career, and in his last fight vs Maidana who had 25KO from 26Wins could not even hurt Kotelnik, so what chance did Khan have to hurt him or KO him?.

When fighting at world title level top trainers devise top gameplans to win fights not to please drunk crowds. The plan was for Khan to not waste too much energy trying to KO Kotelnik and pace the fight because there was a very high chance of it going 12 rounds something Khan had only done once before a few years ago and win the fight on points off the back foot. Khan did land most of his shots on the gloves because Kotelnik for me has a great defence and guard no wonder no one has ever has even knocked him down.

The point I am making at 140 we really dont know what Khan's power is like unless he plants his feet and puts good power into his shots which I last saw him do vs ***an for his 2nd KD watch that KD you will see Khan plant his feet and let off full power shots.

I rate Khan for not doing that because that is his natural style, but in the MAB and Kotelnik fights you can see the control Roach has started to install in him now and has now made him stick to gameplans and not let him off the hook and keep him focused. The plan is to win fights not to please the crowds and risk getting KOed. But there has to be a balance in fighting off the back foot and trading time to time, sometimes he might have to trade, but plans will differ depending who he is fighting.

If Khan does fight Bradley down the line and Khan keeps winning and improving under Roach, he has a good chance of beating Bradley, but then so does Bradley it would be a good fight. Bradley stands at 5'6, Khan at 5'10 this could be a key factor in the fight in my view.

 

The unification fight is a carrot that Warren will use to get Khan to stay with FWP

 

Warren has no choice. If he wants to pay the money that Khan is demanding he has to take alot of risk's with the kid that he usually wont do. Plus this fight is PPV so its not like he can bring in a roadsweeper and then expect anyone to pay for it. The fact its a PPV (courtesy of Team Khan) is an even bigger joke.

 

I'll never pay for a Khan fight I don't think

 

Iv never paid for a Warren PPV. Thats not going to stop now for a guy like Khan who has no business on PPV.

 

Cmon now you cant expect khan to go for unification after ******g winning a title. Thats ridiculous. He should be fighting other guys in the top 10.

 

khan simply isnt experienced enough yet to beat someone of bradleys experience.