The Ripple Effect - An Illusion of Credibility

First to Calzaghe, and I gotta get this off my chest: I'm not saying he isn't a top P4P fighter, I'm not saying he isn't a great fighter, I'm not saying he wouldn't beat Hopkins. But I am saying, none of this is written in stone. You see, in some cases the term "exposed" can be properly used in this sport. Its when an aura of confidence in a fighter, a false sense of greatness is created by a fighter hand-picking opponents. Now no matter what, to be able to hold a belt and an undefeated record as long as Calzaghe has you have to be a very good fighter...tough, skilled and determined. But as I was just pointing to, he has not fought elite, a-class competition while doing it. If anyone knows anything about boxing, a fighter can look like the spawn of Superman and Flash Gordon against a string of fighters and then made to look like absolute garbage against another. Look at Judah, If you watch him fight a "b" level fighter, you are very tempted to claim he is one of the best fighters alive.....but everytime he steps up another flaw is exposed of his. This point has to be made about Calzaghe after the Manfredo/Lacy fight the other night. Those are two fighters that are nowhere near the level of the top american fighters of today....being Floyd, Wright, Hopkins, etc etc. Same goes for Sakio Bika. I know the rebuttal to this, what about Kessler? right? Well, it may be a case of what has gone on with the heavyweight division in the past few years. I call it the ripple effect, and it is where fighters get credibility by beating other fighters with no credibility as far as "elite status" is concerned. Who did Kessler ever beat. How can you be 100% sure that if Kessler fights Hopkins, we're not going to see a sad night for him.

Back to the Heavyweights, I'll give a quick example of this thats going on right now. It started with Dominick Guinn beating Grant (who was badly exposed by Lewis), then Guinn was exposed as a lackluster, lazy fighter by Lyakhovic. Lyhakovic gets some credibility off of this win. In the meantime Brewster beats Wlad in a "freak show" which didn't display any "world class" skills at all, he was basically used as a punching bag. Wlad lost that fight, Brewster didn't win it. But afterwards Brewster is the top Heavy behind Byrd maybe. Why? Lyakovic then beats Brewster, and overnight he is the man in the heavyweight division. Now fat ass Briggs is coming back in the picture. Remember this guy, put up a good fight against Lewis once....before getting the **** beat out of him, and then did nothing else significant in the division. Well he fights Lyakhovic and wins. Now overnight, he is the man. Why? I'm still wondering what was so great about the 'white wolf', I'm not even on to this chump yet. Well the 'world beater' Briggs then goes on to fight a guy who is coming off a draw against, who? Ray Austin? Yes Ray Austin! The guy Wlad KTFO with one hand, his weak hand at that. Well this guy inevitably beats Briggs, and then goes on to beat a 60yr old braindead Holyfield, and now has a fight with Wlad :deal Holy ****!

In summary, there is nobody in the heavyweight division even close to the class of Wlad. Wlad will brutally beat Ibragimonboovov, because that is what Wlad does to B-Class fighters. :deal

Another account of this happening is with Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield. Riddick Bowe did 2 things at Heavyweight, and 2 things only. He beat Evander Holyfield in 2 out of 3 fights. Holyfield is an All-Time Great, but before Bowe his resume at Heavy sucks moose-****. Bowe is defined and overrated by these two fights to the point of nausea......and Holyfield is defined and overrated by this trilogy as well, when in reality he lost a trilogy to a guy that never did one other thing at the pro ranks to justify rating him even in the top 25 Heavyweights ever. :deal

 

I like Calzaghe but it has to be said. Come on man, did you see Lacy vs Manfredo??? Lacy is his 2nd biggest win, and manfredo was one of his fights this year. Those two are awful. I really don't care how 'overrated' Lacy was, Calzaghe exposed him for what he is, and in doing so exposed his own win for what it is too. :good

 

Oh, and I got some last night......and this morning.