I used to hate Erik Morales since his first fight against Barrera. I was just a huge fan of Barrera and I thought judges robbed him in that fight. For the long period of time Morales was one of my least favorite boxers, but in the later part of his career I started to appreciate every single great thing he did for boxing. Fantastic boxer, fantastic warrior! Also I didn't like Povetkin for a very long time, and not because he is Russian, but because he ducked Wladimir Klitschko for years and because of the antics of his manager Vladimir Hryunov. In reality it wasn't his choice to duck Wlad - it was Hryunov's decision. In the fight against Klitschko Povetkin got beaten badly, was knocked down and hurt but kept getting up and fight. He earned my respect in that fight. Since then he beat some good opponents and was knocked out against Anthony Joshua, but again he gave everything he had in that loss. Also, ulike some Russian fighers (Chudinov brothers for example) Povetkin never said a single bad thing about Ukraine or Ukrainians. So he deserves my respect for this as well. Povetkin is actually a very good guy, genuinely good. He never said any bad or offensive things about his opponents - the only offensive thing I've read from his was his quote about Lennox Lewis whom he called a "coward". But it's probably because he is a huge fan of Mike Tyson, I don't know.
Fury - Fury actually took me from a Fan to a Hater to back to a Fan! I was a huge supporter of fury leading up to the wlad fight. Then after he won he started coming out with all sorts of dribble, blamed the world for taking PEDs. ****ed about with fight announcements and trolling AJ on twitter while he was clearly in no position to fight. But he has won a supporter back with this wilder fight and the way he got up that last round was brilliant!
Povetkin has always come across as very respectful and a gent. Even during his fights he always quick to sportingly touche gloves if a punch strayed low or was after the break etc, even if he was on the receiving end of the illegal blow. You can just tell by his general demeanour in and out of the ring that he's a respectful kind of guy.
Recently Joshua. I resented him for his gifted gold medal at the London Olympics, screwing over both Savon and Cammarelle, and because of the way he "bulked up" at the pro's so to speak. But now I'm actually a bit of a fan.
Mayweather - He did it in every fight. I hate him from what see as a person but as soon as he steps in the ring im a HUGE fan. Fury - still not a huge fan but i have way more respect for him than i did, i still think he ducked Price though. Groves - Never liked the little ginger twat but he turned me into a huge fan when he fought Froch. Bellew turned me the opposite way, i used to actually like him and my mates would give me stick but these last few years he became unbearable.
Joshua is the first to spring to mind. The matchroom and sky b.s used to annoy me in the early days. He's proved himself to me .now.
Agreed , incredible come back physically and mentally. I couldn’t stand him at one point , now there’s nobody in boxing I want to see do well more than Tyson - he really deserves it.
This. Not just his amazing recovery in the last round but everything in the build up. And after the fight as well (which he clearly won but didn't moan about it).
Recently... Whyte, hated his guts before the AJ fight and slowly became a massive fan of him, just a geniune guy with a tough upbringing.
Pacquaio. Think it was his fans more than anything that made me dislike him along with his demolition of my favoroite fighter at the time, Ricky Hatton. Then he beat cotto, another of my fav fighters. The fourth Marquez fight made me a big fan. The way he got up from the first knockdown to go straight back to war and then the way he stuck around to give an interview in the ring after such a brutal knockout....that impressed me. Looking back, I was just being a hater because of his fans.
