I think the word Legend is starting to take on some different meaning these days!!!

I was thinking the same thing...

 

DLH and HOpkins are not legends YET, this POV will shift once their careers are over:deal

 

yeah, accomplishments tend to grow with time. i don't think i'll ever consider hopkins a "legend" though (and i'm pretty much a fan) for the reasons I stated earlier, dlh i don't know about but probably the same.

 

Legendary should be reserved for guys like Ali, SRR, Duran, SRL, Dempsey, Tyson, RJJ. When you think of these guys, their more than just great or HOF fighters, their image as a fighter is of mythical proportions. All guys are perceived to be, on their best night, more or less unstoppable. I dont think 50 years form now they would refer to Hopkins or Oscar as "legendary". I could certainly see it for Floyd as hes exactly the type of fighter where the legend can only grow once he retires. Could see it for Pac too providing he has some impressive wins at 135.

 

sven ottke is legendary for winning gift decisions in germany

 

I think a guy should be called a legend if he has a massive impact on a sport - say football. A lot of Brits consider Paul Gascoigne a legend (I don't) yet a guy like Jack Charlton (world cup winner) isn't, which is strange.

This could also be applied to boxing - you can have British greats such as Calzaghe and Hatton, American greats such as Bernard Hopkins and Oscar De La Hoya, and BOXING greats such as Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali.

There is a difference!

 

No Roberto Duran?

*closes thread*

 

Dela hoya's fame is not really legendary. Ali, Tyson are worldwide fame, ODLH is famous in his own country of USA. Alot of fighters have much bigger fame in their own country, in a global sport, we should look at legendary fame on a global scale.

 

You're talking about the common public. The common public doesn't know SRR, SRL or Roberto Duran, not even in the US, and these are unanimous legends.

ODLH definitely is a legend. He's one of the names of 90's-00's boxing. He's fought them all, he's held a lot of belts at a lot of weights and he has an olympic gold.

In the internet age we have less respect for sportsmen ever since we started slagging them off on forums where nobody could see/hear us. In any other age PBF and ODLH would command respect.

PS: I forgot to add, if RJJ is a legend (which he is) then ODLH is definitely a legend.

 

Hopkins and Holyfield are headbutting legends.

 

Guys like Duran, SRL, SRR got their legendary status through their feats. Just hear people talk about them in their primes sometime. Guys like Tyson get it from their fame and unbeatable image, worldwide fame.

40 years from now, if they were to ask who was the most physically gifted fighter of all time. Many will say RJJ prime, superman. Even now plenty have him uptop head2head, his speed and athleticsm is legendary, cant think of any fighter who was as athletic as he was.

Now as I explained above, theres a few ways to become a legend. One that was highlighted for DLH is fame. Thats simply not the case, in terms of fame he really is no more famous than Trinidad, Hatton or Pacquiao. He is famous in his homeland, but he has nowhere near the same global appeal as say someone who got their legendary status through fame such as Mike Tyson. When mike came to Japan, he was worshipped, when he came to England, the whole town was standing chanting outside the building he was on. Now DLH cant be a legend through his physical attributes, not through resume, not through fame, as I just explained fame has to be on a global scale as this is a global sport.

 

DLH is definitely a legend through his resume. And he's much better known than Hatton! Hatton was almost unknown this time last year.

DLH has fought the big fights, won the belts and has his gold-medallist status.

He doesn't have the fame of Tyson, but nobody has that apart from Ali.

 

Hatton was just as popular in UK as DLH was in US. And Tito & Pac are more popular in their homeland than DLH is in his. So his fame is nothing amazing, its amazing for an american but this is a global sport, words such as boxing legends should be used on a global scale, you can claim hes an american boxing legend but thats it.

No hes not a legend through his resume. 50 years from now people will not think it is legendary, infact he dont even break most peoples top 50 ATG at the moment. If you look at how many legends there are in any proffesion, its very limited, its not a HOF list where you can have hundreds, only a select few. I see legends as the greatest of the greats.

 

You have legends in every time. In the 98-08 time frame, the last ten years, which names do you think will be remembered MORE than ODLH?

If you think his resume is unimpressive, I'd have to ask you to show me a better one. He lost SSM and PBF on decision (one judge had him beating PBF), Hopkins is his only professional KO loss, and the only other man to beat him was Trinidad due to his own foolishness. Nearly all of these were close fights, except maybe SSM I.

He beat Julio Cesar Chavez twice, Sweet Pea, Ike Quartey, Camacho, Gatti, Mayorga, Vargas, Sturm and others. He had titles in 7 different categories (some better recognized than others).

As an amateur he won gold medals at the olympics, national championships, world championships and more.

One hell of a resume.

The Golden Boy is known to the entire boxing world since over a decade. He isn't just popular in the US, anyone who follows boxing knows him.

Hatton was not even known by the British public until the PBF fight, and had little credibility in the boxing world until 2005.