Who out of these 3 would you say has had the best career & is most deserving of potentially being inducted into the HOF at some point? Im Referring to Sergio Martinez btw
Sergio and Sergey are on equal footing IMO. Both very HOF worthy. I adore Linares' fighting style, but he's taken a few too many L's and doesn't have close to enough notable wins to put him on their level.
Why by a clear margin over Kovalev? Kovalev lost to Ward, Alvarez and Canelo. Two great fighters, he avenged the loss to the decent fighter in Alvarez. Sergio lost to Cotton, Williams and Margarito, three great fighters, and he avenged his BS loss to one of them. Arguably Sergio should have a draw against Murray, Kovalev should have beaten Ward. Which leaves them their wins to judge them by. And when you do that, they're pretty even in my estimation.
Sergio lost to Margarito early in his career, but he went on to have a career afterwards. While Martinez lost to Williams in a disputed fight like Kovalev against Ward, he avenged that defeat by knocking Williams out cold. Against Cotto his knees were gone. Taking everything into account, Kovalev has three major blemishes to Sergio's 1. If Kovalev had rebuilt after Clenelo it might have been a different story.
Kovalev beat Ward, Cleverly, and Pascal. He held three belts with a three year reign as the dominant champ. Martinez beat Pavlik and Williams. He held two belts for a three year reign as the dominant champ. Linares beat Campbell. He held a title for a year but was never a dominant champ. Kovalev had the best career.
Yes, of course Sergio was young against Kovalev, old against Cotto and robbed against Williams. For some reason while I was dictating my response into the phone earlier (I was too tired to type) it came out as Cotton and any events his BS, as opposed to Cotto and avenged his BS loss. Regardless.... that doesn't negate the fact that Kovalev, when he was on top was an absolute beast, and his wins over Hopkins, Pascal, Pascal, Cleverly, Alvarez, Chilemba, Yarde, Mikhalkin, Mohammedi, Campillo, Thompson and what should have been a win over Ward, were damn impressive. Easily as impressive as, if not more so than Maravilla's over Williams, Pavlik, Dzinziruk, Chavez Jr, Murray, Macklin, Barker, Cintron and Bunema. SO downfall of Kovalev has yes, been greater, but based on his wins, he's still there neck and neck. And by the way, you're speaking to probably the biggest Sergio Martinez and Sergey Kovalev fan on his site. And if you think I'm kidding.... I'm not. The only reason I didn't do more Maravilla threads is because he retired right after I started posting, after lurking for over 5 years. Sergio Martinez: La Maravilla A Look Back At The Early Years Of The Argentine Great. Sergey Kovalev: Krusher The Monster Of Chelyabinsk-The Russian Of Mass Destruction. Sergey Kovalev: A Young Amateur Russian Kid From Chelyabinsk-And Bonus Kandid Krusher Into The Abyss: Krusher Shrugged-The Painful Fall From Grace Of Sergey Alexandrovich Kovalev. The Madrigal Of The Krusher: His Fistic Syncopated Polyphonic Symphony Of Destruction. My Initial Thoughts On When The Chelyabinsk Krusher Meets The Cinnamon Boy Of Guadalajara.
Kov isn't done quite yet. Who knows, maybe he comes back and KO's a champion again. But the way he lost to Canelo is going to taint his career, because the factors won't be taken into account. A dominant 175 champ shouldn't be KO'd like that by a former LMW, even a weight draining one. Yes, Canelo was enhanced and Kov still concussed and drained, but those causes will be smothered away. You'll have Mayweather and Cotto and Golovkin going the distance with Canelo or beating him and Kovalev, far bigger, smashed with one combination. It's just going to look bad, I think. He shouldn't have taken that fight, it will haunt him forever. What's worse, I think it's likely he turned to PEDs after that loss. Maybe he was using before, but it wouldn't surprise me if after being on the end of roid power and corruption he thought f it, I'm not fighting without gear now. So then he got busted and that harms his reputation too.
kovalev and martinez were dominant at one point in there careers, and were on the p4p list. linares has never been either.
Linares isn't even close to the other two. Kovalev's run was significantly stronger than Sergio's, I feel, enough to mitigate his more jarring fall.
