After being continually shocked at how people can talk aboult the like of Roy Jones Jr as though he is ****, Im forced to the stark realisation that it is impossible to be good enough to escape a certain idiotically stubborn and hard to please section of boxing fans.
Nearly impossible, all fighters have critics no matter what happens and there will always be a certain opponent who they think would beat that fighter and if they don't then they're all bums. Only time a fighter is appreciated is when he's shot or after years of retirement.
Impossible to please all the people all the time. There will always be someone he didn't fight. Or that he fought someone when they were green or past prime/shot. Far from enough credit is given to fighters for what they did achieve. It is actually sickening at times the hate boxers are given from fans.
There is no fighter ever without critics. Mention Ali...people scream overrated (tho fact doesnt back it up)... Roy Jones and people say his resume is weak (Hopkins, Toney, Hill, Mccallum, Woods, Tarver, Tito, Ruiz, Paz, etc....I dont think so)... Whitaker and he was boring (even tho he regularly threw in excess of 1000 punches a fight and was the best defensive fighter ever)... Duran and JCC fought too many nobodies (give me a break on this one)... Hopkins only fought smaller men (like Tarver, Johnson, Calzaghe, Taylor, Jackson, Holmes, Eastman, Echols, Vanderpool, etc...again, I dont think so)... Lewis had a glass chin (yet took BOMBS from some of the biggest punchers of his era in Tua, Tyson, Mercer, Rahman, etc.)... I could go on and on with this...but I think you get my point. For every fan of a fighter, there is at least one person hoping that fighter loses and will use anything in their power to discredit them...and most of them post here (LOL). The problem is, there are too many fans of certain fighters out there nowadays and too few fans of the actual sport...you can usually tell them apart fairly easily, only problem is, the bad far outnumber the good in this right. Sad really...
You can deminish any fighters win by saying their opponent was this or that. So really, it doesnt matter what you do, you can always said to have fought nobodies. Really? I myself think that Ali tends to be overrated at times. Not that I dont rate him as a great, I just think that a lot of people tend to look at him through rose coloured because of the heroism of his story. But I dont express that opinion much because I feel ill be blasted.
All fighters have detractors. Can't please everybody...Is it not quite likely that various fighters that are supported by various other fans would evoke what would be called by them 'idiotic stubbornness' from you? That's part of the fun of places like this, no? Rock on.
As in any realm of public life.. All fighters have critics. The ones that try to play politics and please everybody usually get criticized most (ie DLH) Striving not to have critics is not a worthy goal for anybody, fighter or not. If you don't stand-up for something you will fall for anything. The fighters who you mention get criticized because of percieved lack of character, IMO, evidenced by opposition that could have been more staunch, personality, actions outside the ring, and percieved willingness to take a true test or challenge. I think Jones Jr. gets unjustly criticized, FMJr deserves his fair share.
I'll go as far as to say that the greater the fighter the more critics will want to see him fail. Then when the fighter finally looses through passing his peak or whatnot the critics go on and say about the same fighter, "When will the next so-and-so appear?" This goes for Clay/Ali, Leonard, Jones, etc..