Not near elite? With Calzaghe at LHW, who is the best 168 pound fighter active? Who are your SMW top five?
I agree. I whish people good drop the bull****. And for the most part real boxing fans do. But its not just a matter of nationality or people just randomly desciding to blindly root for a guy regardless of his precieved talent because they are from the same country. It's more then that. Its a matter of a lack of local talent to develop, challenge or expose up and coming fighters and local promotion that actually results in guys getting hyped. Too many times a fighter comes to the states with a great record and a story about how he's been killing guys left right and center, only to stink out the joint and get beat. The fustrating thing is that these guys 9 times out of 10 would never have gotten anywhere's near a title shot if they had fought their entire career's in the states. Thats why there is a real I'll believe it when I see it attitude over here. And also local boxing commentators and industry members in these talent deprived markets have a need to create hype and create interest in fighters in order to sell their fights to the general public because nobody's going to be interest in Jean Pascal if the quebec media tells you the truth, that "he is a no effort arrogant bum, with whole's in his game the size of his over blown head," cause whose gonna come watch a guy thats never going to amount to ****? Instead you get all the "comme roy jones" talk. Or some wanker that works for Setanta (all be it he's Irish and not British) going off about how Froch is the second best super middleweight in the world, "without a doubt!" I mean not everyone does it and there are always commentators who will say "now wait hold on, I don't know if he's as good as that just yet." cause all networks have to cover their asses and not look like complete fools when the enevitable beat down happens. But the method is tried and true. For every hype job their is always some local authority that is going off about how so and so is going to be the next great thing. And the problem is that when this happens there is always some people that come on here and try to say Jean Pascal is the next Roy Jones when he's ****. And guess what they're from Quebec. Or some jerk off from Aus spends two months making five threads a day dedicated to Munidine's greatness before he gets chased. But that doesn't for the most part bother me because those guys aren't numberous or loud enough to **** me off. What bothers me as a boxing is fan is the frequency with which I quietly get my hopes up about a guy I don't know much about only to see him get Lacy'ed. And the problem I have with these talent deprived (non-US markets) is that this isn't the exception, like Lacy was, it happens far to often to be ignored. Everyone stay tuned for the next hype job exposed: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMXaNd9InlQ[/url] p.s. there's a fifteen minute version of this fight somewhere out there which show's the third round as well, in which haye also nearly gets knocked out.
Being the top turd in a pile of **** doesn't mean you're not better than a pile of ****. "Elite Fighter" for me indicates they're in the top 20-25 P4P. Kessler can't be considered in the top 20-25 at P4P. He's a solid fighter in a weak weight class, he has the potential of proving himself something more but when your best victories are against guys that are either completely green (Andrade) or easily beaten (Beyer, Mundine) you can't consider yourself elite. Calzaghe has earned the right to call himself elite, Kessler hasn't.
Mundine has a near elite athletic ability, he never had the skill level nor mentality nor gameplan behind it. Please don't tell me that elite fighters lose to guys like Manny Siaca.
Yeah but Jean Pascal was evidently nothing to really pay attention to, for any knowledgable boxing fans. I'm talking about hype jobs that have too much of a glaring flaw to go anywhere, but also have some good qualities, like Berto and Dirrell and to a lesser extent, Jermain Taylor. All get overrated because people don't see the big picture. Pascal is a decent professional boxer, but that's it, not titlist material. That's what I accept him as and if he gives a good scrap on TV, then that's great, I have nothing against him.
Ok, put it this way. Between 160-190, there are 10-15 fighters who I would pick to beat Kessler. This makes him non elite.
Between 160-175, I pick only one, the guy who did beat him.:yep The rest of the lot - Taylor, Abraham, Pavlik, Bute, Froch, Dawson, Johnson, Erdei Tarver.... Which of those should be favoured over Kessler?:huh He's already schooled Mundine and Andrade, so I obviously can't add them as top 5 SMW's.
Firat Arslan Joe Calzaghe Bernard Hopkins Adrian Diaconu Antonio Tarver Roy Jones Jr Winky Wright (the Wright that fought Taylor) Kelly Pavlik Arthur Abraham David Haye Enzo Macaranelli Lucien Bute (If he learns not to drop his left hand)
The cruisers, I don't know...none are as skilled as Kessler, but they may all have meaningful advantages in size, as I think his effectiveness for his body type caps out at 175. Hopkins? Not this Hopkins. Diaconu? No. Tarver? No. Jones? No. Wright? No. Pavlik? No. Abraham? No. Haye is a heavyweight, give me a break. Bute? No.