How Does A Fighter Become A Legend In Boxing?

I think the levels go something like novice, journeyman, contender, gatekeeper, champion, HOFer, ATG, Legend.

In my book, Cotto is a champion, possibly a HOFer. He falls short of being an ATG. I can't make a case for him being in the top 100 p4p greatest fighters, not when I can think of 24 guys better than him in his own era.

To be a legend, I think you have to have the talent, the opportunity, and the drive to be the best. Cotto had good talent, but not great talent. He wasn't fast like Leonard or strong like Golovkin physically. He didn't have skills bordering on otherworldly like Mayweather or Lomachenko. So he falls short in that regard. He had the opportunity. He fought everyone who was good in his weight classes Pac, May, Canelo, Martinez. If he'd actually beaten them he'd be a top ten legend.

He had everything you need to be a legend except for talent. At the end of the day his skills and physical powers were very good but not great.

 

Leave him alone.

 

A lot of fans mistakenly treat the term 'legend' as if it were a measure of sporting accomplishment. It's not. A legend can arise from infamy as much as fame, referring as it does to the storytelling tradition rather than the annals of hard historical data. A legend may or may not be true.

If we're talking about analytics and assessing pure sporting accomplishment, the term 'All-Time Great' is the highest praise you can earn outside of 'GOAT'.

Legendary status isn't part of a scale of accomplishment. All-Time Greatness is.

 

I agree, but so far in the 2010's this decade has not produced a single legend that Americans actually know.

 

Cotto's destruction of the wildly overhyped Sergio was legendary. Cotto started at 140, fought everybody as he rose in weight, drug free, and then conquered the legendary lineal middleweight title. All the Sergiosexuals said Sergio would KO Cotto easily. Instead, Sergio, a moron who fought with his hands down, was exposed and destroyed by Cotto, the legendary and beloved future Hall of Famer. This happened in Cotto's second home, the home of legends, Madison Square Garden. A legendary cherry pick gone wrong that was, well, there's no other word for it, legendary.

 

Media hype and a rich promoter!

 

To create a legend you need to be remembered, to be remembered you would have needed to be in memorable fights, I suppose there is a lot of factors involved in becoming a true great, for instance Larry Holmes, his legacy was/is always understated because there was nobody great for him to fight in the late 70s early 80s this affected his legend.
You need dancing partners of equal talent, so to speak, and you have to confront everybody there is by way of a challenge, us boxing fans aren’t daft we know when a fighter and their promotion team are doing everything to avoid another fighter. So if you are a fighter that has other great fighters in your weight class and your era, you fight them, show heart during battle, being gracious in defeat and in victory and do it for an extended period of time, that is how a legend is created.

 

Guys like Ali, Tyson, Leonard, Hagler. Fighters that transcended the sport.
FMJ as good as he is, is not and never has been entertaining, isn't fan friendly and imo has make boxing worse. The cost for PPV fights in the states is absurd and has cemented the need to cherry pick fights to protect the 0. Good for fighters, bad for fans. He will be remembered for having the highest grossing fight ever and one of the most over hyped lacklustre fights of all time. Chuck the McGregor fight in there. So hes got the top 2.
Cotto is a great fighter but not an ATG. He may well have went onto be an ATG but was beaten by the cheating cement hands of AM. Things like that will be remembered.

 

Cotto has been overrated a bit. He really lost to the great guys he fought. Mosley was his only good win and other guys beat Mosley before that. He is not great. Hall of fame. maybe..

 

HOF for sure. In boxing it clearly is the Hall Of Fame, not the Hall Of Accomplishments.
But I totally agree with you here.

 

I wish I could say he was great, but that first Margarito fight proves he was not.. And I don't think he improved in other fights as much as had the right opponents.

 

everyone has there own definition on what a legend is. is cotto a legend?? i dont think so legends are the faces of boxing imo. if ur legendary your like ali or mike tyson . those for examples are legends.

 

legends stand out. We know who they are . They are memorable. He was good and put on good fights, but he never was in what I call a really great legendary fight against another great nor did he beat many greats or demolish them. I don't see the legend or great fighter definition with him.I see a top rated fighter who won titles in a very watered down era where there are titles to handpick. He won and lost..

 

Cotto isn't a legend and neither is Pac. Pac was ktfo too many times to be called a legend. Floyd is a legend.