It does seem a little bizare. Most great fighters have a reputation built on a fine legacy with some serious flaws and a legend that has built up around them (see the endless debates about Jack Johnson Jack Dempsey etc). You can usualy make a good case that they are overrated. Then there is a small hardcore withing that group, who have bomb proof legacies, that nobody has ever realy matched in certain key aspects e.g. Sam Langford, Benny Lewonard, Harry Greb, Joe Louis, Ray Robinson, Ezzard Charles, Muhamad ali. These fighters are simply not overrated. They enjoy their present lofty status because they were so damn good, and their resumes withstand the most critical scrutiny.
I mean, i have no problem with someone thinking that Robinson is a little oversold for a few reasons. He certainly has a resume built mostly on sluggers and crowding fighters...I think that more capable mobile boxers like those of the Row would have gummed up his works quite a bit. And we already saw how a good crowding type could frustrate him. Robinson was great, but was certainly protected and had his pitfalls in style and technique.. I DO have an issue with terrible arguments. Like holding a loss against a LHW against an ex welter as evidence of a man being overrated
It's got to be Montreal Duran. People act like he was this H2H 12 foot tall 300 pounds of pure muscled out monster. They act like he's John Hancock put in a blender with The Hulk and given specially made steroids from the gods. They act like his fists move three times faster than the speed of light, and that he'd knock out an elephant with the air waves of a missed punch. They act like his chin was laced with super reinforced adamantium (unbreakable steel) and if he was blasted in the chin with a shotgun at point-blank range, the bullet would bounce off of him. Then he got his ass kicked against Leonard, and shamelessly quit against a superior boxer because he needed to take a ****. Oh, we must make allowances for him. I bet the **** was some toxic gunk that unless it came out, if would have exploded and erased the cosmos from existence. Because that's how ****ing good Duran is!
In the past week alone,I've read NINE excuses of why Hamed lost to MAB.And the person that made 8 of them in one thread denied they were excuses.Just peruse the General and you will burst out laughing.
If we didn't mention Duran in this thread, his fanatics would eventually, as he deserves a mention by default
Nother 1 : Mickey Walker :yep people here actually list him as a great mw , p4p and mention him as a worthy win .
And then Thomas Hearns , he couldn't stop Kinchen , Olajide and DeWitt whom were stopped at almost every one of their big outings but people here picked him to stop (nonetheless ) Charles Williams (Hearns also was stopped and decisioned by Barkley and couldn't stop Virgil Hill) except from an old and fat Duran and a shot Leonard Hearns couldn't beat nobody.
Not the most overrated ever, but the HBO Legendary Nights hype machine has done wonders for Aaron Pryor and Meldrick Taylor.
I tend to think of most legends as slightly overated, with the exception of true phenomenons, i.e Gans, Greb, SRR, Joe Louis and the like and the rest of the TOP MEN as slightly 'underated'... the fact is, There is Very Little difference between True Top men, and we have to get away from all this media hype & achievement based thinking and ratings! with hundreds of greats in over 100 years of Boxing History, some periods obviously better than others, the amount of TOP Level fighters is staggering, and again particularly from better era's, to make lists of 10, 25 and even 100 is IMPOSSIBLE... so the BEST are MANY, the Greats are GREAT and the Cream are, a strand out sure, but NOT rediculiously better than the rest!!!
True enough. As great as some fighters are, no matter who, even if they are not odds on favoured, there are always dozen of fighters who have a respectable chance and are more than capable of defeating them. The fact that this true, makes the top echelon guys all the more great. A few losses is okay when you've fought everyone but won most. And thats the difference between a Sugar Ray Robinson and a Floyd Mayweather Jr. The gap in greatness is massive.