Fighters that you admire but dislike

Sugar Ray Leonard

He was/is fake as hell. He had all the leverage and weaseled his way to advantages. He even magically fought for two separate weight class titles when the rules shouldnt have applied. Worse though the squeaky clean all American boy was snorting coke and beating his wife. He didn' give Hearns or Duran rematches for 8 years when he thought they were both shot.

In the ring as a fighter no complaints. He was about as good as you could wish for. A great showman and brought many fans to the game.

 

Right on the money

 

I started to soften on Ray until a few years ago in need of attention he makes a documentary about No Mas and how he was a victim that night. He flies all the way to Panama to bother Roberto Duran and get him to say something Ray wanted him to say. You could see Duran was at peace and enjoying his life. It was embarrassing

 

I dislike all the white champions who refused to give top black fighters a shot at their crown because of the color of their skin

 

Wow, is that really true of Sullivan? What little I've read paints a different picture, but most of it was not from any primary source. For instance a couple years ago I read some recently written article that talks about one occasion where Sullivan was beaten bloody with brass knuckles by a small town sheriff while he was falling-down drunk. According to the writer of the article, Sullivan sought the sheriff out as soon he sobered up, and there was a good deal of tension among those present as everyone assumed Sullivan was going to give the guy a serious beating. Instead (so the story goes) he apologized and said, in effect, "I had it coming".

I also thought he was one of the few white people to publicly give full credit to Jack Johnson not only after the Jeffries fight but leading up to it as well.

On the other hand, the look in this photo says quite a lot:
[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Sullivan#/media/File:John_L_Sullivan.png[/url]

I can all too easily imagine him turning to some completely innocuous passerby and saying, "What the **** are you looking at? You got a problem?".

 

I'd say maybe Mike Tyson, but I get the sense that he's more of a Jekyll and Hyde personality than an unmitigated *******. He also seems to have mellowed considerably in recent years.

 

I saw it too and felt the exact same way

 

Yes saw that too and agree 100%

 

Floyd Mayweather.

 

Monzon, Mayweather (although he amused/entertained me at times), and the white supremacists and others who refused to fight nonwhite fighters.

Ali too, if I'm being honest. Never liked the buffoonery and cartoonish trash-talking, especially when he demeaned Frazier racially.

 

Well, if their entire resume consists of only one race, how do we know how good they are? Some really really talented African American fighters in the 20s and 30s and 40s who were denied their chance

 

"a nice guy when he was sober, and a complete arsehole when he was drunk"

I have known guys like that.