If a fighter's "Greatness" is judged by his "prime", how long does it have to be?

But he is better than his peak performance (one of the greatest performances ever seen), we never actually saw his true prime -fullstop- We can only assume the Calzaghe that beat Lacy was at about 75% -fullstop-

 

I dont think we do, well not exactly sometimes maybe but to lose is to be human, on any given day a fighter could not be there best for any variety of reasons. I am not making excuses I am saying coming out of that bad period for Holyfield to come back at his age and unify at this stage would imo make him top 3 of all time. We have to look at the greatest parts of a career more than the bad parts. Almost every fighter has something they wish they could erase on their resume but if they get stronger for it then maybe its not as negative as we all make it out to be.

 

I dont think time is as important as number of fights. I usually define prime as being the point to which the fighter reaches his best against the best competition, and how many fights he can sustain that level before he starts to show inconsistencies or losses. In regards to Tyson his prime may have been short timewise, but in that prime he got a lot of fights in and dispatched his opponents in ways noone else could or did.
Greatness must be defined or argued upon consistency and performance, level of opposition, and win percentage during that prime period. In regards to a fighter like Calzahge, he has shown consistency, but lacked the top competiton on his resume. I believe Joe can be a great, but he has lost a lot of time with meaningless fights and fights with guys far past their best, regardless whether its his fault or his promoters.

 

Calzaghe never actually tried hard before the Lacy fight though -fullstop-

Calzaghe is actually better than Calzaghe ever was, just he never got motivated enough to prove it -fullstop-

 

Oh shiznick its the Jizzman......long time no type in general boxing forum eh

I think when judging a fighters greatness you must include all aspects of their career including career paths and choices, some guys battle all who come forth while others pick out their next contestant. I guess a fighters prime would give you the best image of their potential, skills and conditioning but how many fighters are actually pampered correctly to the point where they have reached their pinnicale.

 

Can we agree Calzaghe is better than he ever got a chance to show though -fullstop- If he had fought Hopkins or Jones (causing high motivation) in 2000-2003 (more around his physical prime) he might be the official GOAT right now -fullstop-

 

Calzaghe GOAT????????????????? NO!!!!

 

Is any painter greater than any painting that he ever painted? Is any composer greater than any piece of music she composed? No. So why would a fighter be greater than any fight that he ever fought?

 

And if Jesus didn't die for all our sins we might officially end up in Hell once we die......

atsch

 

True..... Can`t say well if this happened then this blah blah. Things either happened or they didnt.

 

This post is also acceptable.