has your opinion gone up, remained about the same, or gone down on the following fig

GONE DOWN: Mosley, Jones
STAYED THE SAME: Lopez, Tyson, Klitschko, Hopkins, De La Hoya, Toney
GONE UP: Lewis, Calzaghe, Pacquiao

 

All up, except Wlad.

 

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Hopkins, Pacquaio and Calzaghe all up

Everyone else the same.

 

Mosley - DOWN.
In the last 5 years, he got a decision he did not deserve against Oscar De La Hoya, and lost convincingly to Winky Wright twice, and dropped a close but clear decision IMO to Miguel Cotto. Compare those names to his better wins: Vargas (well past prime) and Collazo. Before this 5-year period began he had been beaten twice by Forrest but he was still so highly rated on account of that fantastic 1st performance v Oscar. He has done nothing to come close to matching that these past 5.

Ricardo Lopez - NO CHANGE.
He retired in 2001. Then I thought of him as a great fighter and a great champion whose legacy was spoiled by a weak resume. His win over Sorjatorung suggests he could've beaten big names like Carbajal and Gonzalez which would've made him an ATG, but he never fought them. My feelings haven't changed since.

Mike Tyson - NO CHANGE.
In the last 3 years, he beat Clifford Etienne and lost to Danny Williams and Kevin McBride. Defeats a fighter suffers once they are shot never change a thing to me, I couldn't care less. I feel the same about Jones Jr, Duran, Chavez, Holyfield, Leonard, Ali, etc etc etc. I still think of Tyson in his late 1980s prime as being one of the greatest heavyweights in history h2h.

Lennox Lewis - NO CHANGE/UP.
Has only had 1 fight in the past 5 years - the win over Vitali Klitschko. I think Lennox performed well in a brutal fight with a very good opponent, especially considering he was a bit past his prime by then. That in itself didn't change my opinion of Lennox, but the next 5 years have. Boxing is nowhere near as good a place to be without a dominant and brilliant heavyweight champion. Every time I watch Wlad fight, I miss him a bit more.

Wlad Klitschko - NO CHANGE.
I wasn't a fan even before he lost to Corrie Sanders (just over 5 years ago), since then I have seen good performances (Brewster II, Byrd), a dreadful performance (Brewster I), indifferent performances (Peter- yes he won but he raised more questions than he answered about his propensity to hit the deck and his cautious nature), and thoroughly insipid performances (Thompson, Ibragimov). I am no more of a fan now than I was before. IMO, he is the best heavyweight in the world just now, but I think Chagaev or maybe even Haye could change that. He is nowhere near as good as Vitali or Lennox Lewis were.

Bernard Hopkins - UP.
I understand completely if the 3 losses to Calzaghe and Taylor (twice) mean some people think less of him now, but IMO he performed very well in all 3 fights, and I think he deserved the decision in the Calzaghe fight. I think the way he nullified Calzaghe's attack and didn't take one significant punch in the full 12 rounds even when it was obvious he no longer had the stamina/energy/workrate to compete, were evidence of a true master boxer. Outwith those defeats, he became the 1st man to stop De La Hoya, became the 1st man in 8 years to beat 'the best defence in boxing' Winky Wright, and bounced back after 2 defeats to jump 2 weight divisions at age 40+ to dominate the linear lhw champion, Antonio Tarver. He's slowing down yes, and I think he should retire now, but in the last 5 years I think he has been remarkable considering his age.

Roy Jones - NO CHANGE.
I think of this one the same way I do about Tyson - losses when shot do not affect in any way my opinion of him. Jones lost to Tarver and Johnson, two very good lhw's, but if he had fought them even 2 years previous (think of Jones v Kelly and v Woods) he would've wiped them out. This past 5 years do not even dent my impression of Roy Jones 1993-2003, a true all-time great.

Joe Calzaghe - UP.
A significant upswing for Joe IMO. Before '03, I thought he was a guy content to pack the crowds in at the Cardiff Ice Rink, beat up nobodies, present himself as an undefeated great, and pretend the big names were ducking him when really he was making zero real effort to make the fights. Since then, he has taken on three genuine 50-50 fights (the only 3 of his career IMO) in Lacy, Kessler and Hopkins. He was superb in beating Lacy and Kessler, but pretty unimpressive v Hopkins. However, the wins over Lacy and Kessler proved to me that he is a fighter of genuine quality. I doubted this pre-2003.

Manny Pacquiao - UP.
I had saw his name in magazines before 2003, but that was all. I hadn't read much about him or took much interest, and hadn't seen anything at all. Now I think he is the best fighter in the world pound-for-pound. I think that's about as "Up!" as it gets!

Oscar De La Hoya - DOWN.
Oscar has gone down in my estimations, but that is not because of what happened in the ring. Before 2003, I admired him enormously. His desire to always fight the best since the mid 1990s revitalized boxing, and I thought he was an excellent fighter. His performances against Quartey and Vargas were fantastic, and he even impressed me in the way he controlled Trinidad (I had that one 8-4 Oscar). In '03, I thought he deserved the decision v Mosley. He was ok v Sturm and Hopkins, but he simply wasn't a middleweight, so that didn't affect my opinion of him as a fighter. It actually improved my opinion of him, as he actually wanted to risk it all by taking on the toughest challenges out there, unlike so many of his zero-protecting contemporaries. He was good v Mayorga, competent v Forbes, looked good then bad v Floyd. As a fighter, my opinion hasn't changed much. He used to be excellent, his ability has naturally dissipated with age. However, the Pacquiao decision has changed my opinion of Oscar. The fight is a joke and should not have been made. It's a shame that this will be many peoples' lasting impression of a magnificent ambassador for boxing.

James Toney - UP.
The win over Jirov was a little over 5 years ago, so at the start of the time-period in question, my opinion was very high. Since then, Toney (a former middleweight) has performed very well at heavyweight. He stopped Evander Holyfield, was robbed in a stunning performance against Sam Peter first time around, and looked good against Brooker, Guinn, Rahman and Ruiz. A middleweight competing regularly at heavyweight? UP.

 

GONE DOWN: Mosley-He has done nothing but steriods, Jones-really look at his resume it is alot thinner than most think-avioded Joe C. for years.
Toney-Steriods, I just have no respect for cheaters.

STAYED THE SAME: Lopez, Tyson, Klitschko, Hopkins, De La Hoya,Lewis,

GONE UP: Calzaghe-best SMW of all-time, Pacquiao-as good an all-time great at 29 there is-simple as that.

 

How can you say Roy avoided Calzaghe for years and not the reverse?

Calzaghe wasn't some top level internationally successful fighter until very recently, and was never in Roy's division except his pre-WBO title years at SMW. Roy did not avoid Calzaghe. If you want to say ignored, then that's fine, but where Calzaghe was at 5 or 6 years ago was no where near where RJJ was at. It's not like Calzaghe was calling Roy out to fight him.

 

The big critic I always lay on Jones is that he was a rare breed of fighter around nowadays who had the possibility to become a top10 atg - the other one beeing PBF - but he didn´t do anything which showed that he wanted to become one. That´s not about him ducking anybody but that he, if he wanted to become great, should have made certain fights happen, even and especially when the circumstances and odds were against him - meaning he should have gone to Germany to fight Michaelchewski and to Wales to fight Calzaghe, meaning he should have granted Hopkins and Toney rematches, meaning he should have fought numerous other fighters he didn´t, meaning he should have made more than one fight at hw. He never showed the desire to be great even though he not only had the talent to do so but also the media behind him to make all that happen. It´s a very similar thing with PBF and that´s imo a knock at their legacys.

 

Shane Mosley - Same
Ricardo Lopez - Same
Mike Tyson - Same, maybe down
Lennox Lewis - Up
Wlad Klitschko - Up quite a bit
Bernard Hopkins - Up
Roy Jones - Same
Joe Clazaghe - Up quite a bit
Manny Pacquaio - up ofcourse
Ocsar De La Hoya - down
James Toney - up (including the 2003 wins as 5years ago then quite a bit)

 

Perhaps LOEWE puts it better than I that RJJ (and certainly Mayweather-don't even get me started) should have made the fights happen how ever they need to happen as they were the bigger stars. But Calzaghe certainly called out Jones and numerous boxing writers now that the fight has been made have confessed that Jones "avoided the fight for years" their term not mine.

 

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