Fighters you disliked but now admire

Hopkins and Floyd , i hated hopkins cos i thought he was arrogant as fook and just feeding on blown up welters and people naturally smaller than him , but i like him now, boring as he may be he is a master of what he does an its very difficult not to respect what hes done and still doing exact same reason i dislike floyd.

Khan as well - ive gone though various stages with Amir, i liked him at 1st he seemed a nice humble guy , then he got to big for his boots and i couldnt stand him , then i respected him because he started clearing up light welter and fighting people i thought hed avoid like the plague and now im back to not being able to stand him again.

 

Holyfield, MAB and Mayweather

Being a Tyson and Hamed fan

 

Due to ESB I have come to gain an appreciation for all boxers, and can almost (Not sure if 100%) say I hate/dislike no boxer...

Some that I have changed my mind on....

Joe Louis- I thought he was a slow, plodder who old timers allowed nostalgia to blind them to....He has now become my #1 ATG HW (#10 overall P4P) and my favorite HW outside of Philly.

Rocky Marciano- I thought he was a slow, crude slugger (Perhaps in the vein of Fullmer-but even less so?) with no defence and nothing more....He has impressed me not only with how great he was but also how difficult he was to catch clean.

Mike Tyson- I actually liked him early inhis career, but then the media, his hype and early annointing as unbeatable and best ever along with his fans (To me RJJ/Tyson have the most horrible annoying fan base in history!) caused a knee jerk reaction in my to discredit every thing he has every done...I still don't call him best ever, but he has gone from #15 ATG on my list to around 8 surpassing guys "I liked" more than him.

JCC- For Meldrick Taylor I 'nuff said!

Joe Calzaghe- I thought he was "Your typical euro-bum" which is now a term I don't even use anymore....I still don't think he is as great as his fanboys make him out to be (but then I guess which fighter is?)...but @168 he is a tough out for anyone ever....Although Hopkins still beats him by 1 on my card.

Floyd/SRL...well there are always exemptions, and I still don't care for either guy, but I have tremendous respect for their skill/accomplishment.

 

:yep I disliked SRL with a vengence along with plenty of others due to his machinations in & out the ring along with the simpering, winking, Aw shucks, flutter eye lashes for the camera "Princess Diana" style. But i've always admired his grit & tenacity in the ring juxtaposed with his taking on Hagler albeit a worn out one. It still took massive balls to get back in there.

Floyd i've a sneaking respect for, it's to do with his bizzness acamen that i like most. Moraly speaking from a boxing sense he does not deserve the praise that is heaped upon him as he's avoided all the dangers on his way to the HBO $$$$ trough & his ducking of Pacquiao is absolutly shamefull.

But i really do respect him for getting so much out of the sport $$$ wise considering he's put so little in. He's a fantastic boxer & i'll not knock him for doing whats right by himself. He's brutaly honest about it all which so many fail to see. He's so see through it's hillarious. Never liked him when he on the up & i'm not that fussed in watching him now, but he's a survivor, thats for sure.

 

like with all childhood innocence and ignorance I used to believe the World Champion was the greatest boxer/fighter in his division at his time, and with every age better than the previous ones...

I not only discovered how far from the truth this is but also that often times it was widely misleading. I used to think that we in North America were the best of these, I discovered too that was simply not the case (generally speaking more as in numbers yes, but not necessarily in fact), but that a percentage of top men from all around the globe we're their equal or superiors.

the biggest disappointment was to discover just how crooked boxing was and that it wasn't a sport at all, but a business and just like all business mostly corrupt, big or small.

I also discovered Era's and just what some of them meant and that throughtout this whole history of the sport there are literally hundreds of great fighters, hundreds.

I have the greatest respect for the TOP Men, Champion and Contenders alike, and I am in awe of fighters like Greb, SRR, Archie Moore and Ezzard Charles. I too think Joe Louis is the greatest HW of alltime and that fighters like JJ Walcott & Lloyd Marshall represent a plethora of Great unsung hero's (of course they've now got it).

the fighters that intrigue me most are Joe Gans, Bobby Dobbs, Tony Canzoneri and Britains Joe Bowker. I would love to see a major motion picture about Tony C's story it has all the required elements for one, and the other three deserve the treatment of the likes of Ken Burn's attention for proper documentaries.

there are just hundreds!!!

 

Great thread. I'd say ODLH because he seemed to be pampered, but gradually I came to see that he deserved the vast majority of his accolades.

 

Lewis and Wlad.

 

Dislike Leonard but admire his skills

 

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Paulie Malinaggi.

 

Ricky Hatton

Amir Khan

Ray Leonard

Floyd Patterson


Fighters I admired but now dislike would be Gerald McClellan, Roy Jones, and Muhammad Ali (in a sense, he was a supreme ******* at times, like a real **** of a person)

 

Ali always thought he was a bit of a twat but the was real good in the ring

 

Same here.

 

I used to dislike mab. I've since grown to really appreciate his skillset and adaptability. For a man who started as an all action brawler he sure developed a great jab and right hand.