Is Turki going to make the ones highest in the poll? Or just make what he wants and media will convince us it’s what we’ve been asking for? Sorry….nothing to do with your thread. apologies.
I chose Fury vs. Joshua, Usyk vs. Kabayel, Bivol vs. Beterbiev III, Shakur vs. Haney. Fury vs. Joshua I've wanted to see for so many years now. It should have happened years ago, but they are still Britain's two biggest stars, and although I think Fury wins, it would be great to finally see them both in the ring together. Usyk vs. Kabayel... Kabayel should no doubt be Usyk's next opponent as far as I'm concerned. Kabayel deserves it, and it would be fascinating to see how Usyk deals with Kabayel's body punching. Bivol vs. Beterbiev needs to be wrapped up, especially before Beterbiev gets any older. Two terrific fights... these two have both took each other's 0 and seemingly cannot be separated. Two absolute geniuses and it was a pleasure to see them share the ring. I personally thought Bivol edged the first fight, but they were both so close a third has to happen, sooner rather than later. We waited so long for these guys to get it on, so we deserve to make the most of it now. Shakur vs. Haney I chose with a slight smile on my face. If you want entertainment, this one's probably not the one, however... It will be one for the boxing purists. I'm just fascinated to see who wins the battle of the jab. I think Shakur. He has impressed me far more than Haney has, particularly recently. It feels rare we get to see these types of matchups, probably due to the lack of excitement, but it still intrigues me anyhow.
Usyk kabayel Don't care how much of a favorite usyk is. Who else is there for him? It would be the most meaningful fight for usyk. Shakur haney Expectations will be adjusted to a boxing match. And it will deliver on the technical side. Would love it. Bivol benavidez Beterbiev is probably not getting younger and this way they have a sweet 1-1. Beterbiev being old in their first fight you would have to expect a beterbiev win if he had been in his prime, as bivol now is. So i don't want to see him lose to bivol mostly because of that. On the other hand against benavidez, bivol gets to show off his skills and get great Promotion doing it. He still seems to be a little under the radar, but since the public needs name recognition and us names, this fight might spur similar awe for bivol as crawford and shakur have been getting now.
Boots vs Ortiz. It's been too long and overdue for this fight not to happen. We've been clamoring for it 5 years ago while they were both prospects at 147. Let's finally get these two in the ring against each other so we can finally see who is the better man. Potential fireworks that can end with a knockout.
I feel like we do this, even if not on an actual poll, all the time.... It's tiresome as a fan of the sport honestly. Boxing seems to be the only major sport where they don't put the fans as a high priority for the product they put out. NBA and NFL changes rules all the time to help the product used to entertain the audience. I don't know much about Hockey, but baseball constantly talks about how to keep the game more appealing to the new generation every so often. Boxing, it's simple. Give us match ups that we call for and let the fighters do what they do. 9x out of 10 the match ups that we beg for are as entertaining as we expected or more. At the very least satisfying and gives us more to debate about going to the next match up. Teo vs Shakur was a damn good fight even though it was very one-sided. Would still loved to have had Haney vs Teo, Keyshawn vs Teo, Haney vs Shakur, Abdullah Mason vs Keyshawn, Ortiz vs Ennis, I personally still wanted to see Crawford vs Charlo, or Thurman vs Spence....Fury vs Joshua........ But honest we as fans don't motivate those with the $$ to make it happen enough for them to push us up the priority list because they feel we'll spend our $$ regardless of the product they give us.
All are good fights. If I had to only pick 3 though: 1. Benavidez vs either Beterbiev or Bivol (even though I highly doubt Benavidez cuts back down to 175 after fighting Zurdo at 200 unfortunately) 2. Inoue vs Ball 3. Usyk vs Kabayel
Shakur vs Haney Usyk vs Kabayel Hrgovic vs Wardley Fury vs Joshua Also: Ennis vs Haney and Usyk vs Wardley There are at least 20 heavyweight matchups I'd like to see. Kabayel vs Wardley, Wardley vs Fury, Kabayel vs Joshua, Hrgovic vs Kabayel, Hrgovic vs Usyk, Ajagba vs Torrez, Jalolov vs any top 25 opponent.
I'm really bummed about Benavidez going tweener tbh. I was really looking forward to a round robin between the 3 Bs. Was looking forward to it for years now and one day I see the press release hes fighting at CW and its just like ****. Just like that it ain't happening. CW hasn't ruined that many 175 matchups this is probably the single biggest two matchups the divisions ruined.
