Having Heart is overrated, and is a liability in fighters today.

That attitude is one reason why this thread is valid.

In other sports, nobody blames an athlete for using their best asset. Tim Duncan will never be spectacular, but has helped his team to championchips. Why should he try to play more flashy? Wlad is like Tim Duncan in boxing and gets blamed everywhere for being boring. He isn't Hagler, why should he try to fight like Hagler? Holyfield fought with so much heart because he needed to, he could never control fights like Lennox or Wlad.

 

if a fighter has no 'heart' he may aswell pack the thing in, without heart a fighter will go nowere, to say mayweather has no heart is laughable

 

Diaz wouldve lost to Marquez, heat or no heart

 

i think your mistaking heart for bravado

 

The case of duran quitting against leonard was not a case of not having heart. That was just pure and utter frustration and Duran let it get to him. Duran had a heart as big as a house

 

look at khan, his first half of career was mega exciting cos he got dropped every fight, now with discipline he wins every round.

haye when he fights disciplined, aint that good to watch, but when he comes out swinging it is great.

tbh whilst heart gets more fans, discipline gets a better post boxing lifestyle. check out hopkins, he wont be eating through a straw anytime soon

 

Have you ever bad mouthed Wlad for just staying behind the jab/straight right all night?

 

isn't it one of the reasons why they fight, to give us boxing fans some quality entertaining fights? of course they need to win for themselves but they also have responsibility to us as paying fans.

 

Slow down. What I'm saying is if someone has the skills to fight in a style that will negate your heart then having heart isn't going to do anything for you.

No. I like fighters like Void, Whitaker, Hopkins, etc.

They fight to get paid. People who watch Void's are what they are. No one buys his fights expecting to see a hard AZZ brawl, but he still has enough people following him to be the biggest draw in the sport. They might appreciate his boxing skills, or they just want to see him plain lose. Either way he's still doing the best numbers for someone who isn't so crowd pleasing.

Brawling and putting your heart out on the line is a popular way to make money by having fans, but it's not the only way. Personality is another method to have people watching your fights. Look at Paul Williams he comes in every fight trying to be a hero, but he's not a star.

 

I think sometimes it's easy to confuse heart with ego, for example Marquez fought for Mexican pride against an opponent he believed to be only half-mexican, and refused to leave a Diaz exchange unanswered.

Another fight that comes to mind would be Hearns against Hagler, he let his ego lead him to trade shots when he should've boxed on his feet.

 

LOL, you are right. Having heart is so over rated.

Me? I much prefer having SKILLS. Skills win fights. Heart makes you a great contender, ala Mickey Ward or Ricky Hatton.

 

Fighting with heart isn't always fighting smart. EM had a much shorter career than he could have by fighting with too much heart and brawling when he could have just as easily boxed and there's countless examples of this. If a guy like EM fought more conservatively and boxed in spots he could have prolonged his career and took much less damage in the process.