The biggest hype-job of all time?

Calzaghe himself is the biggest hypejob of all time .

 

End Thread

 

Intentionally

 

Eubank was done by then.


Audley still gets my vote though.

 

About half of the 2000 U.S. Olympic boxing team...... Williams Jr., Bojado, Taylor.......

 

Lacy comes to mind,I was never overly impressed with him,always fancied Joe to beat him

 

Lacy, Broner, A Farce,

 

Just to clarify are we trying to identify the fighter(s) who received the most media and fan attention and greatest build up period, or the one(s) who failed most spectacularly to live up to their hype (even if other fighters may have received more attention)?

The singularly most hyped fighter in history, certainly in terms of promotional money spent and hours of media focus is surely FMJ, but I think, like him or loath him (I tend towards the latter), his ring performance has largely justified the claims made of (and by) him.

One of the saddest things about the sport over the last few decades is how it is managed to ensure that fighters who bring in $s continue to do so. Perhaps that's one of the real fascinating things in boxing, that occasionally the best laid plans are derailed either by misjudgement, exceptional performances or sheer heart.

There's also a very clear difference (for me at least) between media hype and fan hype. The broader public media is as a rule only accessible to the very top tier of the boxing world, whereas fan sites such as ESB develop their very own life which has little to do with the general public perception of the sport - would most of your friends know what a ******* or a ***** was?

Are you askin' about fan hype or 'real world' hype? - cos in the latter case, a real strong case could be made for Jim Jefferies; probably there was more hopes and concerns and misplaced beliefs on 'the great white hope' per capita than any man before or since. Schmelling of course shared a similar role in the European pre-war world

 

Lucian Bute end thread

 

Bute good call he was very Hyped, I would even say Dawson as well although he is better than a tpical hype job ///// not as good as the US media and fan boys made him out to be though

 

Quality post, and very interesting angle regarding Jeffries and Schmeling.

I think most people would view hype-jobs in the more simplistic sense of over-the-top promotion of their talents by fans and media, followed by a high-profile exposure of their flaws and a career of unfulfillment. You'd probably need to meet all 3 of these criteria to be a true hype-job.

For example, Junior Jones was heavily hyped at the start of his career, but was brought back to earth with a bump when he was knocked out by Johnson and Pinckney. However, he rebuilt and went on to validate his career with the two wins over Barrera. After the loss to Pinckney, had ESB existed back in the day he would have been lambasted as a hype-job, but looking back he had a pretty successful career overall - beating two Hall of Famers and winning titles in two divisions.

Michael Grant on the other hand is the epitome of a hype-job. Built up as the prototype of the 21st century heavyweight and the heir apparent to Tyson and Holyfield, he was brutally exposed by Lewis and never won another meaningful fight.