Fighters you used to hate for stupid reasons but knew they were the real deal?

Lol, I used to hate him also but he have grown on me. I still don’t agree with some of his matchmaking but I do appreciate his aggressive style nowadays, it was great to see when he stopped Saunders and Plant.

 

Yeah I still don't consider Calzaghe the real deal either his best win is Kessler and I respect that win also his demo job on Lacy but the rest to me is smoke and mirrors. Prime Jones would've ironed him out and prime Hopkins would've schooled him. Don't get me started on fans saying he would've beat Andre Ward no chance in hell also the version of Kovalev that fought Ward would've destroyed Calzaghe at 175

 

Barrera is one of those for me. Love him in a lot of ways but always rooted for Morales

 

He underestimated Lara and fought like an idiot. He didn't cut the ring, he walk inside Lara's punches without head movement and lost first 4 rounds in a row. His punch accuracy was also sh*t.

Kirkland fight should have ended much earlier. Kirkland prepared for Canelo 2 years. Canelo underestimated him and Kirkland pressured him sometimes. Kirkland was too limited fighter.

I also said Mayweather because Canelo fought "too respectfully". He tried to outbox him in middle of the ring. Another stupid strategy.

 

Saying Loma uses the clinch a lot in a negative manner shows you haven't been watching him much. Whenever I see Loma use the clinch, it's to set up a shot on the inside. He's constantly trying to stop fighters from clinching him and he's shown that so many times to date.

 

Ofc, that had nothing to do with Lara's movement.

Canelo did not have the stamina or temperament to fight like Maidana.

 

Hi Quina.

 

That was prime Hopkins who won plenty after that fight. Hopkins prime was later than most fighters or do you mean the Hopkins who was clowned by Jones?

Ward would have been outworked doesn't have half the gas tank to hang with Joe.

Joe was a career Supper Middle and had the Light Heavy fights at the end of his career when he was passed prime himself.

 

When they were first coming up as prospect I used to lump in Shawn Porter, Karim Mayfield and Omar Henry (rip) as guys who exemplified a trend in boxing of just relying on physicality and workrate at the zero-sum expense of accuracy, defensive craft (ie footwork, shoulder rolling, slip-and-counter etc) and old-school technique. I used to say all three of them were overrated and would get exposed although, in Porter's case at least, it was more wishful thinking just because stylistically they somehow offended my sensibilities. Really they're just all strong volume pressure fighters, by no means a new archetype in the sport (and not all elite boxers have always resembled a Toney or Mayweather or McCallum or Mijares or Kessler or anybody else I personally uphold as paragons of a spectrum of "technical" skills)...and truthfully speaking none of them have or had anywhere close to as sloppy or ugly a style as it gets nowadays. In hindsight I'm not really sure what the bug up my butt about them was. I've come around to appreciating Shawn's ability in particular quite a bit over the years, and find him quite likeable in general.

 

Floyd for wearing that Sombrero / Serape combo when he fought Oscar.
Walking in with 50 Cent Rapping “Str8 to the Bank.”

as a hip hop fan it was fire. . .
As a Mexican American , I saw it as semi disrespectful - the only saving grace was the “Mayweather loves Mexico” stitched into the garment. That was quite the disclaimer.

anyway it worked like a Charm & the rest is Money’s History & Legacy.

 

if I had to list anyone, back in the day, never cared for:

Oscar
Floyd
Lennox
Wlad...

Never doubted their abilities though.