Before the 2000s it was very common for world champion boxers to have multiple losses on their record. Now if a fighter has more than two losses people say they need to retire and they are “overrated.”
It can be if the resume doesn't justify it. If a fighter is doing what Usyk is doing right now, can we really say him being undefeated is overrated? I think being undefeated becomes overrated when people use it as a sole parameter to justify a fighters standing. The biggest issue IMO with being undefeated today is that a lot of fighters have nothing on their resumes prior to losing. Usually these guys haven't stepped up in competition. They have padded their records for years. Then when they finally step up and lose, they get called overrated because there is nothing on their resume to suggest they weren't. After they lose, they usually do nothing of consequence which further proves the point. So being undefeated can be overrated but it is a case by case basis IMO.
Yep 100% agree most undefeated fighters are cherry pickers the only current undefeated fighters who are legit impressive are Usyk, Inoue, Crawford and Beterbiev.
At the current moment going undefeated is incredibly underrated. Especially if its a long streak with some solid regional competition and minor belts. Right now people are tunnel visioned for top 5 wins and they don't care about anything else. Why do you think people have Usyk in the top 10 all time at HW with 7 wins? Because they literally don't care about the rest of a boxing resume. Hes 5-0 against the 3 best fighters and thats all they care about. People are deeply skeptical of undefeated records and almost see it as a sign of fraudulence if an undefeated fighter doesn't have top wins. In terms of how people treat fighters with losses it is a structual neccessity not a matter of fan preference. The same way fighters not taking chances is a neccessity. If everyones undefeated a loss is going to set you back further unless its a competitive loss to a champ or champ like fighter.
Usyk has a record of 23 wins and zero losses. But the quality of his opponents is crazy, so to be undefeated against this competition is extremely impressive. Glowacki Huck Breidies Gassiev Bellew Joshua Joshua Dubois Fury Fury So he has 10 wins against former world champions in 23 fights. That's really impressive. Crawford is incredible, but his has not the depth of wins in comparison to usyk. Canelo has a crazy stacked resume with more wins against world champions but some of them are tainted because he lost in reality.
Undefeated is very over rated. Unless you've fought the best it just means you haven't been challenged. Usyk has fought the best in every division he's fought in so has Inoue and Beterbiev.
