That's the only way for some fighters to get a big fight. If you have 2, 3, 4 belts then eventually you will secure the big fights. Of you're a unified champ eventually some top fighters will want to take them. Just monopolize the belts. That's what guys like Crawford should have done. He should have stayed at 140. He would have been able to fight Mikey, Prograis, Taylor, Lopez, etc. He had all the belts. Any route to becoming a champ ran through Crawford and then he vacated. But his best win to date is Viktor Postol FFS.
To be fair to Bud, at the time there was not really much hint of Taylor, Prograis and Ramirez coming through, 140 was just a stepping stone for Crawford to get to 147 - where I assume the big target was Pacman. Only Arum and Crawford themselves can really shed any light on why Bud hasn't fought at least one of:- Porter, Thurman, Spence, Danny Garcia I blame Arum 1st, and Crawford second for resigning with Top Rank. But if he'd stayed at 140 he would have got shellacked a heck of a lot worse for not 'daring to be great' - sure he hasn't got the fights at 147, but not sure staying at 140 was a better option either.
Spank everybody in your division hard enough, and you will see all (ALL) those so called "top fighter" running away from your division like running away from hell. You can ask rigondeaux if you dont believe me. One of the fights that I was more excited about in the last few years was leo santacruz vs rigondeau. I really wanted to watch that freaking fight. Santacruz is still runing, I think. Maybe he cought frampton, btw, who knows. There is only one thing that will put you in the ring with one of those so called "top fighter". Money. The better you are, the more expensive it will be. Sad, but they will have no shame at all running away from you if you dont mean money enough, with or without belts, it does not matter.
Not only. The same boxers like prime Beterbiev and Gvozdyk were avoided boxers. The best fight they could get was Beterbiev vs Gvozdyk nothing more. Yeah, and therefore there in forums are noise posts like : they fought no one etc noise. No one who already might had earned big money from fights wished to be in the ring vs 30-35 y.o Beterbiev version or Gvozdyk pre fight vs Beterbiev version. It is what it is, now Beterbiev is old, ppl might start to brag and Gvozdyk had retired. They were too much for sure even for prime Kovalev to handle. In forums they " had fought nobody " etc casual noise. Beterbiev now is old, he did not had boxed for judges cards there and therefore, Gvozdyk was boxer, not a puncher but very heavy handed, this was what this was. Yeah, today Beterbiev really is " old " and bragging posts might start to appear. LOL, if some from these " not nobody " had in the ring 30-35 y.o Beterbiev. Expect Gvozdyk.
