So fighters that maybe you started out liking or even respecting, but for one reason or another not so much as time went on? One I can think of personally Is James Toney. Loved him at Middleweight, thought he had the ability to be a ATG. But the move to heavyweight and the abuse of his body had me sick of the sight of him! Lol just an example.
I became a Boxing fan in 2019. Lomachenko was probably the first currently active fighter that I had ever learned about, and his hype train was huge, back then. There were some people calling him the best ever, some posters here were picking him to beat Roberto Duran and even Sugar Ray Robinson ffs, so my expectations were such that I was waiting to see an unbeatable God. I didn't want to watch previous fights of him because I wanted to see what he was all about in an upcoming fight, so I waited for my first Loma fight. That first fight was against Lopez. My disappointment has not been cured.
Josh Taylor. First time I heard about him was before O´Hara Davies fight and how he was going to be the next Ken Buchanan. Was shocked at how he took Davies to pieces and made him quit. Became and instant fan. Super impressed at how he took on top opposition and won especially vs Ramirez in the States. Then came the Cattaral fight. Josh is a better fighter but be it weight problems, motivation, all the hard fights catching up with him. He lost that fight. No problem there but his attitude afterwards, then cancelling the deserved Cattaral rematch and then blatantly taking another fight leaving Jack in the lurch. To be honest, I´m not interested in the rematch. I wish them both well especially Cattaral who should have been crowned champion and made a decent living out of that win instead of wasting over a year with Taylor´s shenanigans.
At the risk of being bombarded, definitely Muhammed Ali for me. I think hes a good boxer, a great poet, a fantastic showman, but NOT a good person. What he did to Fraizer was ABSOLUTELY DEPLORABLE. The most volatile act I have ever seen and absolutely ZERO sportsmanship. Do I DESPISE Ali? No, he had a good message on the Vietnam war and did fantastic things for the sport of boxing. Was his actions against Fraizer at ALL ok? Absolutely not.
I'll keep it to modern active guys: Keith Thurman.......................he became everything that he was supposedly against (avoiding guys, trying to pick and choose). Especially since I had known of him since he was a teen sparring with Winky and Jeff Lacy. That's a big loss to me as I had been a fan for a while. Haney was never really a fave guy of mine (I'm a Shakur and Tank guy) but I at least had some respect for him. His (unearned) hubris fueled by his father had me rooting for Ryan Garcia. I can't see myself rooting for him against anyone at this point (unless he were to fight Rolly )
Certainly, Floyd Mayweather Jr. I can just barely scrape together the memory of the young man who talked about breaking Joe Louis’ title defense record & went quietly about his business moving up the pound-for-pound rankings in the early 2000’s.
I think you are correct about what you say but that is just part of the story. He was a man who bought into his own hype and with a lot of yes men around him his ego became huge. Add to that the militant times America was going through and Ali had a lot of anger to help flame the fires of his ego. The thing is that he mellowed considerably as time went and maturity set in. He became more playful in the teasing of his opponents and more respectful of them. Eventually he returned to his showman roots to try and build the interest in his fights and no longer had the angry bombast that marked the first 65% of his career.
I think All is the GOAT and he became a better man when so much was taken away from him but I can’t dispute a thing you said. The first two fights, a lot of that was just him doing his deal to sell the show. Unfortunately Frazier wasn’t the type to let it roll off his back. But Manila didn’t just cross it hydrogen bombed the line.
Ali. Holyroid. Fairweather. Pedquiao. Wlad. I would add Duckelo and Fury in a special category: "Fighters I never liked and my opinion became even worse later on".
Man I get so much hate from people for saying the same thing , he was a great fighter but he crossed the line with Smoke I’ll leave it at that.
Roberto Duran was my favorite fighter. He’s still one of the ones I most enjoy watching because I’ve never seen that combination of savvy, animalistic savagery and relentlessness wrapped up together anywhere else. But when he quit like a dog against Leonard, I lost something for him. He’s never been the same again in my eyes and I see the flaws as brightly as the brilliance.
Evander Holyfield used to love the guy, now I can't stand him. From his having countless children out of wedlock, the steroids and PEDS, being a dirty fighter, and his post-fight interviews constantly raving about God.
