The real problem is, that most Boxing fans go from one extreme to another, whether that be in a positive way or a negative way, they are also too easily pleased. If there is a debatable decision, its a robbery, if someone puts too much gauze on their hands(Trinidad), he is a cheat, if you are perceived to be ducking multiple challenges but eventually decide to man up, you will get more credit because! you have, in the past shown reluctance. I mean, im far from a Margarito fan, but to hear fans you would think he had knuckle dusters under his wraps, now im not saying he did not cheat, that he should not be punished or banned, just that the overreaction to it has been ridiculous. Take the P4P rankings, they are mythical, yet you have fighters swanning around like the list is absolute, like once they get to number 1, they can fight whomever they want, and as long a they dont lose, they dont have to fight fighters, who stylistically could pose potential problems, and the fans allow them to get away with this because they dont demand enough of the fighters, dont get me wrong, i respect fighters, but you have to demand more than they are willing to give just to put pressure on them, if they start thinking this guy, that guy is sufficient to keep the fans happy, they will take the most money least risk fights, and you, as fans, wont get the most competitive match ups.
imo Jones & Hopkins are 6 of 1, half dozen of the other. And this is what I mean. I'm the biggest Roy Jones fan you'll ever meet. But Roy wasn't a great boxer, he used his physical gifts to win inside the ring and those obviously went away when he hit his mid 30's. There's little that can be said to convince me that other than in a fluke that prime for prime Hopkins would ever beat Jones. That being said Hopkins imo has achieved more in his career than RJJ did. Because Hopkins won based on his skills and as we've all seen skills last to an older age than physical gifts. To me its just like the Klits. ARe they good boxers? Of course they are. But they're 6'7 and 6'8. None of the fighters they face can even reach them. Im not taking anything away from them. Alot of sports is about using the physical gifts you are given. But I highly doubt if they were roughly the same size as their opponents that they would be so dominate. Same way if Roy Jones wasnt pound for pound in his prime probably the fastest boxer in history he would have just been an average fighter.
good post, but the real problem is actually the federations and how they fragment boxing into seperate pieces. all you end up with is each federation looking out for themselves and so the fighter and - or promoter do exactly the same. fans will always watch sport and there will always be fairweather opinions and back and forth views, but in the end it's the wheels that turn the sport that are flawed.
I think most of us are not naive enough to think there is not a conflict of interest between what a Boxers strives for, to what a fan strives for, which is precisely why i believe more pressure needs to be put on them by fans. Fans want to see exciting, high contact fights, fighters want to make as much money as possible, preferably taking the least risk, least punishment.
how do you intend to do that? the federations give elite fighters the key to the city because those fighters don't need belts anymore....
By not recognizing their achievement if they are not fighting the best available opponents. Its seems the ring magazine belt is more prestigious these days than the official world title belts, simply because the fans/media recognition that you are THE best fighter in the division means more to the fighters, and no matter how much fighters, first and foremost, strive to make as much money as they can, they also have pride, only that pride is only addressed at their own discretion, that is where fans/media pressure would help imo
Bernard Hopkins did not peak until the late 90s Bernards own trainer admitted bernard was not ready to fight a roy jones jr in that time period. Roy was coming from the olympics and won fighter of the year in same period Bernard faced him you guys act like Roy beat him up or something lol Bernard did a great job dealing with his handspeed specially in the fact that bernard was green at this time. Bernard was a late bloomer was a textbook boxer who thrived off ring iq timing ect so ofcourse he got better over time after that fight had they fought in prime think it be different story. As for James Toney u guys complete neglect the fact that in that time period that james fought roy many ppl including toneys fans beleive those were Toneys worst performances he lost to montell griffin too toney looked incredibly lazy and was not at his best int hat time period.
Tarver on the other hand hes a guy who thrives off timing they had close fight in roy-tarver1 so when he faced him second time he had him timed and well u know the rest "You got any excuses tonight roy?" Funny u guys say tarver was old and done when bernard beat him Tarver was coming off beating Glen johnson and beating Roy jones for a second time lol so it doesnt say much about roy getting beatup by an OLD tarver i guess lol
Not only did bernard beat tarver but he made him look amateurish. Like Roger Mayweather said Boxings a thinking mans game Bernard at his peak could outthink just about anybody was one of the smartest fighters had above average handspeed great athelete disciplined great counterpuncher and had a smothering offense didnt need alot of room to hurt u inside great chin as well Bernard at his peak was the total package.
Ok now on this topic i assume your talking about Floyd Mayweather Jr and pac so ill start with Floyd. Floyd when he was reignin the superfeather-lightweight he was a guy who was taking all comers taking names made 8 title defenses at supefeather and beat castilo for lightweight title and defended it against castilo who was best of that division at the time. But over that time period into the later 2000s 06-07 Floyd began to taste the bigmoney fights and finally got a shot against oscar once he hit that superstardom he lost a bit of his hunger which is ofcourse natural in most cases but he did move backdown and face a undefeated Ricky Hatton defended his ww belt then ofcourse retired. Now floyd similar to Leonard later in his career wants the big money fights Floyds still here to fight the best but hes not gonna fight as often hes just tooken out Sugar Shane which is the fight everyone wanted outside of pacman. Once Pacman agrees to that testing well see the fight.