Fighters say that they rise to the skills of their opponents. Meaning, facing tougher competition forces them to rise their game and kick in another gear to compete. Facing stronger opposition also forces the fighter to adjust their styles to deal with an opponent with higher than average skills. But, what happens when a B-level fighter never faces an A level fighter and they become accoustomed to facing and over powering mediocre opposition for their entire careers? Sort of like Lucien Bute, who prior to facing Froch, had only Glen Johnson listed as his most skilled opponent.
David Price also gets hype and as soon as he stepped up, back to back knockouts. Felix Sturm steps up and loses. Adrien Broner steps up and loses. Lucien Bute as you mentioned is not as good as he looks when facing great comp as he is beating up journeymen. Too many journeymen and too much hype = Ronda Rousey level embarrassment.
The REAL embarrassment is that all those hypes you mentioned were all past know-nothing-about-boxing ESB'er favorites, until they step up and get exposed. Then, it's on to the next hype.
That seems pretty apparent, except to Euro-bum fans. If boxers fight to the level of their opposition, then Golovkin must be fighting at a 9th grade level. He will never step up, so he won't ever learn the Calculus.
