Looking back at PBF's career, especially the early part, he was always fighting the best. In 130, he fought and beat the best champion in Genaro Hernandez, and ended all doubt in beating Manfredy. At 135, he faced the iron of the division in Castillo in his maiden lightweight match. Though he never looked so good, (a lot thought he lost) he proved to be superior in the rematch. He also did the same at 147, although he took on Judah first, he fought a clinic on the man many lists as the top welter at that time in Baldomir. (he is the linear and ring mag champ anyway) But something sticks out on 140. Among his opposition at that weight, well, Corley, Gatti, and Bruseles were'nt even close to the top. The man there is really Kostya Tzsyu. I I don't know the exact reason why, but you surely noticed and cannot deny that in every weight he stepped on, he got a fight with the top dogs. But never on 140. Post all your opinions (whether percieved or based on facts) on why we boxing fans were forbidden to see such an excellent match-up.
I agree. PBF vs Tzu would have been the fight of the century. I am a huge Tzsu fan and i beleive PBF would win a very very close decision. Tzsu was amazingly accurate puncher and great head movement in his prime.
Nah no way......Tyszu was just leaving the sport, as Mayweather came into the 140lb division in 2005, Tyszu was just about to fight and lose against Hatton and go into retirement. They missed one another by a hair but it was not to be.
tszyu was injured for 22 months jan2003-nov2004 after his victory against mitchell in nov04 he immeditely got offered big money to fight hatton in manchester. if zoo had beaten ricky then he would have been the one getting knocked out and not ricky
Thanks......Although I think you told me that before, I downloaded the song and it sounded totally different to the one in the video! maybe I downloaded a stupid remix or something. Anyway thanks.
tszyu was too busy at that time injuring himself in training.... in retrospect a good thing for him. cause mayweather would have humiliated him.
I agree, the people who say his resume is poor are delusional. It shits on most resumes. Hernandez, Castillo, Corrales, Judah, Hatton and DLH are great wins. But he has that missing link as you say, of a real ATG near his prime in Tszyu. And I think that chance has passed him by now, given that there are still a lot of A grade fighters around, like many on his resume, but no near to prime ATG like Tszyu a few years back.
BTW, obviously Tszyu wasn't that near his prime when PBF was at LW, but he was still the man there and was coming off a great win in Mitchell, and was top 3 or 4 p4p. Whereas DLH, the only guy of Tszyu's calibre on PBF's resume was much more past his prime, nowhere near p4p top 10 and was only a credible opponent because of his size and win over Mayorga.
Not really sold on that. DLH was no more inactive than Tszyu was if you look at it objectively. He was coming off a win vs Mitchell, but just prior to that, he was injured for a very long time. He was also in his mid 30's. I think too often a fighter's p4p ranking makes people believe a fighter is still who he once was. A fighter can continue to win far past his prime, many do in fact, but show signs of slowing down long before. KT maintained his ranking due to not losing, not being anywhere near the fighter he was in his late 20's. Just my opinion.
If Tszyu had Joe Cortes as a ref for Ricky, he would have prevailed. Paris was ****ing dreadful and let Ricky get away with all kinds of ****, including fouls. That would have led to Kostya-Floyd. If there was a KO, it would have been Floyd with 10 toes up. And there's a good chance that would have happened. Zab, who is very similar to Floyd (better at the start of a fight than Floyd) found out when he learned a new dance. So Floyd could have been dancing with the chickens. More likely though, Floyd would have been smarter and this would have gone 12 rounds. In that case, I would pick Floyd by a slight edge. It would have been his toughest fight though, and with serious risk (40-45%) of losing his 0.
The only thing similar between Floyd and Zab is that they are both fast and black. Their styles arent even remotely the same.
It was contract issues that stop this fight from happening at the time Tszyu was on Showtime and Floyd is an HBO fighter. Floyd was on the come up so Showtime really didn't want to risk it. Tszyu was suppose to run over Hatton because he was the hard puncher and Ricky Hatton just bulled forward but Hatton ended up pulling off the upset and sending Tszyu into retirement. I think Floyd beating an undefeated Hatton makes up for not fighting Tszyu at least he knock the man out who put him in retirement you can't really ask for much more.