In this era of Boxing it seems as if majority of fighters want the highest paying matches before the legacy making fights where the purse wont matter nearly as much as the money would. As Robert Duran once said, "There were better fighters with less money back in my time than now where there are worse fighters with more money." Ward vs Kovalev and Garcia vs Thurman are the perfect examples for the non greedy legacy making fights. All 4 fighters aren't fighting for the money, they're fighting for the glory and the top spot. Many argue that the current state of boxing is at an all time low, and if that were really true, I'd definitely blame it on the promoters and fighters for wanting the money more than the reputation. I mean what happened to Tyson after he signed with Don King? He found all this money and his career went down south. Greed truly has ruined the sport. It what bothers me most is when casuals, and even non-casuals, argue that Mayweather is TBE mainly due to his record and the fact that he has gained more money than anyone else. Sure that 49-0 is impressive to *****s, but that record can't compare to the real fighters who had way more fights than that. Some may say, "JCC Sr. had over a hundred fights, but most of them were bums and insignificant." Even if JCC Sr's record did consist of more average Joes than real champs, the importance is that he loved to fight! He never backed down anyone and his record proves it! He would fight anyone and everyone that challenged him, just for the love of the sport we call boxing. When I grew up my family had me watching the old school style fights (mostly Julio Cesar Chavez, Erik Morales, Marco A. Barrera DVD's) and I see the difference on how fights were made, and built in those times, it was so simple yet BADASS. Which makes me wonder-- Will boxing ever be as great as it was then?
