"Golovkin has to move up" -wrong. Lemme cut you off there. He actually doesn't, ever.

If that was Choc's best weight class, why did he abandon it eight years ago to muck about down at 160 and (mostly) 154 since 2008? :huh

 

JT will be free (provided he doesn't shank anyone during his suspended concurrent sentences) in 2022. He will be 43 years old.

I guarantee he will then immediately call out whomever the MW champion happens to be. :-( (probably citing himself as the emeritus champ having not lost his belt in the ring)

That champion damn well better respectfully decline, or we are going to see the long, strange and sad tale of Jermain Taylor come to a grisly fatal end, right smack dab in the middle of the ring.

 

I don't get why people treat "pulling a Hagler" like some weird thing. It actually is the normal, EXPECTED thing in boxing. You're supposed to find & stay in the weight division that is best suited to your adult body. Your fighting weight shouldn't fluctuate past your early 20's. Once you find your niche, you stay there and fight guys your own size, with the aim of becoming the champ. Once you become champ, if you're so lucky, you take on all comers. Until you retire. THAT IS WHAT BOXING IS, and has always been about, for as long as it has been a thing.

Weight-jumping is the weird, anomalous thing. And it shouldn't be revered so much as it has been of late, because usually when you scratch beneath the surface there is all sorts of deck-stacking in favor of the smaller guy (who is often the A-side) be it with catch-weights or various ancillary contractual demands and stipulations etc.

 

:good Fair point, a guy many believe gave Calzaghe and Ward a top 4 (at least) toughest night of their respective careers.

 

Felix Trinidad established his legacy between 1993 and 1999. 100% at welterweight. Nothing he did after moving up did anything to enhance that legacy. It was a complete body of most important work at the same weight.

Chris John? Ride or die featherweight for fifteen years.

Joe Calzaghe - did it all at one weight, unless you really want to make the argument that subtracting geriatric Jones and Hopkins from his record makes his legacy vanish. Which is stupid. RJJ and B-Hop aren't Calzaghe's legacy, they were icing on the cake and a way to tack some big names on at the end and make some bank. His legacy was already made.

Pretty sure all three of them are considered great.

 

No, it really doesn't matter. Fans need to stop expecting boxers to climb weight; it doesn't automatically make them greater.