There is a p4p top-tier boxer, in his prime, that nobody brings up anymore.

Well he was picking up steam where he left off, racking up five straight world class wins in fourteen months (Barros, Salido, Lopez, Martinez, Burgos) so yeah, he was on pace to have by now done considerably more than any of those guys provided he didn't take a sharp and prolonged downturn in his LOC.

Crazy that he went from that active (5 fights in 14mo) to being this inactive (not appearing for 22mo, and presumably much longer as there's nothing on the horizon). :-(

 

Fine but then don't mention what a bummer, say, Pirog being sidelined is since we can't see him establish his place @ MW. Sure, he was sidelined through external factors beyond his control as opposed to García, but the end result is the same: us left wondering.

 

He certainly got more of a chance to prove himself.

I take it you're not of a mind like some that Pirog would have been the one guy with a chance to beat GGG?

 

I mean, we only really saw him take on a few world-class fighters, but we can extrapolate from those performances a rough idea how good he was.

He didn't stop him like Golovkin did but he did thoroughly school Ishida, as pure a shutout as you'll see.

Maciel is a very good fighter and was peak & prime when they fought, and though he was removed a division from where he belonged (undeniably more comfortable & effective @ 154 than 160lbs) the fact that Pirog fought him through his already debilitating back injury more than counterbalances this fact. Plus, while he lacked the usual strength advantage he enjoys at light middle, this was among the best tactical performances of Maciel's career - and Pirog still defeated him with relative ease.

...and of course we have Jacobs getting KTFO. Again, there are nitpicks and potential asterisks to be placed on this (Jacobs having battled off cancer and mourning the recent death of his grandmother, along with some revisionist history I've seen with some claiming he was getting the best of the action before the KO) but this result has really held up given that Jacobs has rebuilt himself and is poised to very likely become WBA middleweight champ.

Beyond those, we have robust showings against many solid B grade Euro opponents. You have tough Serb journeyman Geard Ajetovic, who nearly always makes it a hard night for the best he faces even in losses, many of them by split or majority decision, and Pirog toyed with him effortlessly compared with the likes of Geale, Chudinov, Simon, Vlasov, De Carolis, Wilczewski, and Macklin (and there are some nice upsets on Ajetovic's record, like Chanet, Uzelkov, and Gerlecki). Pirog is the only man against whom Ajetovic didn't arguably take a round. Gennady Martirosyan is another reliable test, and while the result on paper was the same as HNN's, with both stopping Martirosyan in 10, Pirog again had an easier time with him.

Even the shutout against Jantuah reflects well on him, as Ouma dropped a few rounds to Jantuah only a few years prior, as did Abraham. Jantuah also boasted impressive stoppages over Marco Antonio Rubio, once-beaten Delray Raines, rarely-stopped Marcos Primera (blitzed in two minutes) and Donny McCracy faster than Bute managed.

 

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