You dont have to move up in weight to be great,just fight top comp

well today so many fighters weight jump and rack up titles even paper and meaningless ones but get major respect

most top fighters weight jump for glory

some greats still hold their belts and fight everyone

long reigners with many defense include (recent)

Chris John, Jo Cal, Bhop, Navarez, Ottke, Dariuz M, Wlad,

 

All the truly great fighters have one thing in common. They all fought top level competition and won more often than not. You don't need to retire undefeated. You don't need to be a 5 weight world champion. If the opponents in your division aren't of a certain standard than you either change weightclass or you consistantly win over a sustained period of time, winning in style.

 

of course you have to.
case at point: ricky hatton

 

Agreed.

Marvin Hagler
Carlos Monzon
Victor Galindez
Kid Gavilan
Max Rosebloom

Case Closed.

 

I'm getting bored of weight jumping to be honest. I want to see more guys just unify a division and defend their title 10+ times

 

A guy like tim bradley at 140 or ward at 168 would be the guys for that job. even canelo at 154 should try that.
There are different ways to become great if you need to grow bigger than it can be via jumping weight but if your already at your ideal weight then you could stick there, in the end you should fight the best if you want to be considered great.

 

i don't mind weight jumping if its to fight the best of the best, if its just to beat a paper champ though then its spoiling the sport, Id rather see someone clean their division and defend against the best at their weight than jump about winning ABC title of weak competition

 

:thumbsup exactly what I mean dog. Nobody can accuse you of ducking anyody if you clean out your division

 

martinez could carve a great legacy for himself beating Pirog, Lemieux, Jacobs, GGG, NJikam, Korobov, Sturm, Macklin, Geale, Proksa, Chavez etc etc.

if you get the big fights take them if not keep on campaigning and you'll earn your respect by beating everyone

 

Hopkins was considered a great built on 20 MW defences. What's happened since is phenomanal but people already considered him one of the best MW's ever.
Guys don't stick around to fight all comers anymore, they move up and chase the money.

 

Martinez isnt 26 though man, he only has like 4/5 fights left, he even said so himself a while back.
You need to have a young guy that basically cant move up or down without getting into trouble, thats why I mentioned Canelo, he is stuck at 154 for several years, he cant go to 147 and he is too short for 160 they eat him up there, his best option is staying at 154 for years then eventually he might get a belt at 160, thats possible.

 

But.. you can't call it a paper title when.

B-Hop held all four belts.
Joe Cal held all four belts
Wlad held the belts that mattered.

Chris John, Navarez, Ottke and to a degree Dariuz? Yeah, paper champions who stayed at a single weight and fought decent but not legitimate threats.

B-Hop, Joe Cal and Wlad have fought the best at their level and in the case of B-HOp and Joe Cal, they moved up successfully too.

Racing through the ranks and only fighting one or two guys per division doesn't win you anything for me, because you're skipping mandatories constantly, you're not fighting the guys who come up after you and ultimately, if we want to talk about weight so drastically we should really rate any HW who at 240lbs can beat 300lb heavyweights.

 

yeah but he is unlikely to get a pac or may fight by the looks of things. If he's not willing to move up he may as well beat 4-5 of the guys listed and be considered the best middleweight for 4-5 years of his career. As I said if the big fight comes then take it but otherwise he may aswell beat everyone in his division

 

as long as your fighting the best fighters you get credit for moving up as well, especially since its harder than staying in one division.