These boxers don't do it for me

If you really know your sports inside out (not falling for what the media says, lots of experience watching and knowing how to analyze everything in different angles) eye test is by far the most important aspect when judging athletes.

I'm not nearly as experienced in a lot of the posters here, however I believe I know more than most 'casuals' about the sport.

I mean... we as boxing fans, are unknowingly biased towards the sport because we love it. We are craving the best fights, and the next superstar.

The majority of the topics on this forum, and talks about boxing outside of this forum is usually decorated with Joshua, Wilder, Fury, Crawford, Canelo, GGG, Spence, Manny, Loma etc.

Well... in my personal opinion, only a few of these athletes are 'all time greats'.

It reminds me of basketball in a way. The media has been feeding the general public so hard on Lebron's 'greatness' when in NO SHAPE OR FORM is he even in the same REALM as Jordan. So many factors. The NBA isn't played with microsoft excel. Filling the stat sheet is so damn meaningless. If you really knew ball, the eye test and subtle things that doesn't show on paper should point towards his true ranking in the all time rankings, which in MY opinion, is fringe top 10. But enough about the NBA, we're in a boxing forum.

I won't even go on about Joshua nor Wilder. Lol. Trash. Seriously. If you really knew boxing, you would be able to tell a lot from just training footage alone. Joshua and Wilder is in no shape or form special at all. Straight up probably 30 heavyweights from the past that would make them look silly.

Spence... I had a lot of question marks about recently. I wanted to believe he truly was special. Well simply put, he isn't. He simply doesn't pass the 'eye test'. The moment he is in a very 'scientific' or 'chess' match, he would be in serious trouble. I still have questions about his power, his defense is underrated but at the same time basic. He is simply not an all time great.

Canelo is very very solid. Rated properly. I feel the bad politics surrounding him leaves a bad taste in a lot of fans but purely boxing, he would be respected in any era.

I won't go into past prime fighters that put in their work such as manny or mayweather. Just the new breed of fighters that are on top of boxing right now, aren't nearly as good as the media or the fans make them out to be.

Not even sure where I'm going with this rant. I believe a big part of the decline in the top elite skill level is due to competition. Anywhere that has solid competition, breeds better skills. For example E sports in Korea. None of those Koreans are playing games for 'fun'. It is so ridiculously competitive and they play with each other all the time, resulting in the most lopsided skill levels compared to rest of the world in gaming. Past all time greats never worried about their record. Sure ducking was still present, but not even remotely close as it is now. Floyd ruined everything. Boxers think getting a loss will ruin everything. When in REALITY THAT IS NOT THE CASE. Fans don't give a crap about losses. As long as you give it your all and go down like a warrior, fans do not care. Every past all time great has losses. Hell look at Jacobs, his stock rose after putting up a great fight against GGG. Instead of fighters truly testing themselves and fighting with each other, theyre scared of that loss. I hear people talking about Garcia after his loss, how his stock went down. His stock didn't go down because of that loss. His stock went down due to his performance in the ring. Even if say... Joshua and Wilder or Crawford or Spence went at it twice, and one fighter comes out 2-0 but the fights were very competitive and entertaining, none of the losing fighter's stocks would go down. After having those fights with fighters on your skill level, they would learn and improve as a fighter, win or lose. Just a bad mentality overall. Every boxer wants to be like Floyd. Isn't that a major problem?

 

Love it! This is the type of trolling I love, but sadly this is genuinely how people that are caught up in the moment think.

 

I also rate GGG higher. I said Canelo is very solid, and rated correctly because no one really considers him an ATG, but a very well all around fighter that no one would really have an easy field day with him. I don't think he would be able to unify in most eras.

What I meant to say about all the current top level boxers is, no one really has that 'aura'. Aka you never bet against him for a set amount of time. I don't think he isn't even close to being in the conversation for ATG status as of now due to the fact that there is even a debate on who would win vs Joshua and Fury/Wilder in this severly depleted era. The way I wrote down my opinions about AJ and Wilder came out a bit wrong, the way the media portrays them and how their fans talk was all over my head at the time and it was my way of saying "no way theyre even close as good as you make them sound".

 

It's happening everywhere, in all sports. Can break it down into so many reasons why.

Social media? Athletes are scared of the potential clowning and backlash they may get, so maybe they're extra careful

Money? ... Obvious

Society? Even the most basic daily routines are getting easier now. The mentality of working hard is being understood less as time goes on. This is the crazy part. I remember times when I had absolutely 0 idea when my ride was going to arrive to my destination and sometimes I spent hours mindlessly waiting for my ride. I had to travel to the library or a bookstore to pick up a magazine or a book for information that I was interested in. Spent hours next to the phone for an expected phone call... All these things in current society could be done in a much shorter time. Im saving 2 hours for my round trip to the bookstore for my information, my uber will be waiting for me by the time I'm done with class, etc. That gives people that much more time to work towards their interests and their craft (these small times definitely add up over a span of a year) so technucally we should be producing more historical figures and greater athletes (even the youngest people have access to how to train and eat properly etc. Even in the year 2000, 90% of the people I spoke to had no idea what a 40/40/20 diet was, what creatine was etc) but the new scientists doesn't even compare in greatness compared to the past and we're getting less and less iconic sports matches/athletes.

I don't know lol. Wicked bored at work, just writing down random thoughts.

 

Legit made me lol!