hearns would destroy cotto, margarito, mayweather, judah, quintana, williams etc... inside 4 rounds max. but money may would win cause he had better nutrition and a hightech regimen compared to hearns, who just ate a lot of red meat.
gamboa is a beast, i first saw him in the olympics and said to my self if only he could turn pro, and thankfully he has, and i would back him to beat pretty much anyone. the most talented fighter of this generation.
hearns would take margo, judah, quintana and williams for fun. his straight right would have been to deadly. against floyd i can't call it.
i'd personally would want him to become a multi division champ starting at 126. I hope he could, linares-gamboa, or guerrero-gamboa are huge matchups in the future. If hatton was successful at 140, i think gamboa can too..he has the speed and i think he could carry it at a higher weight just like mosley and floyd did.
Mayweather over Hagler atsch Hagler = Margo atsch atsch . Thats absured. Although I do have to say that I don't believe the welters of the past 10 years are that far behind the great WW of the 80's. Prime Mosley, Trinidad, Dela hoya, Mayweather, potentially Cotto, to a lesser degree Margo, quintana. Are all very very solid fighters. I would say that Hearns, Duran, and Leonard would beat those named but I think there could be possibly some really good fights in there. For instance I think Prime Mosley and Mayweather would be tough for Duran (not saying they would win but I could see it) I think a huge reason why we believe there is a huge decline in talent is due to the media and the fans. Back then you could lose 10 fights and still be considered a very good fighter. For instance Pipino Cueves (35-15) is considered A level fighter and he got beat by some rather crappy opposition and never really won a meaningful fight. El Radar lost a couple fights against lesser opponents (end of career) and is still very very highly regarded (which I agree 100%). Mugabi also highly regarded eventhough as soon as he stepped up the competition he lost many fights. Today's fighters as soon as they lose 1 fight there journeyman/overrated/exposed/washed up. Where (minus true knowledgable boxing fans) just not very kind to fighters today and then we wonder why all these great potential fights don't happen because as soon as they lose there "finished". Paul Williams is a perfect example.
Paul williams, is getting a rematch with quintana. I don't think he's finish..even if he still lose, i think he could do better at 154. MAB was beaten twice before by junior jones, and he wasn't finish. Good point
No doubt Paul Williams isn't finished even if he losses. Quintana might just have his number. What was the first thing you heard though as soon as Paul Williams Lost though, ohhh god Paul exposed blah blah blah blah blah, I think this is why we feel the talent in the WW division or make that boxing in general has fell so much. The people that actually know boxing more than likely would agree here. Although I feel in the next 5-10 years unless we get a ton of prospects that excel the talent is going to drop more. (Jones Jr, Bhop, Joe C, MAB, PAC, EM, Toney, Mosley, JMM FMJ, among others all retiring soon)
I wouldn't say anything out of the ordinary. I think just like boxing the media has a ton to do with this. For instance look at Reggie Bush he's all over adds, all over everything and to put it frankly I think (so far) he's one of the most overhyped athletes out there right now. But to your casual fan there gonna be like ohh look this guy is on a TV commercial so he must be really good
I'm not disputing whether or not more kids are playing American football/baseball than are getting into boxing, it's just that the argument is used when people talk of a decline in the boxing talent pool and I don't know whether it's fact or it's a means of discrediting other nations that are catching up/have caught up with the Americans. Just curious... Thanks though.