undefeated records in this modern era overrated the greatest fighter ever had 19 los

The amazing part about Chavez was that he was a pressure fighter. He should be dead, as most pressure fighters dont last!

 

Hey, I'm not saying that couldn't have been a factor but supposedly, they convened and medical experts told the sanctioning bodies, I think the WBC was the first even though it was a WBA title bout, that the worst of the damage they saw was done from 13-15. And after the WBC acted the other sanctioning bodies eventually followed suit so it would at least look like they gave a ****.

 

How many top fighters are undefeated? Undefeated records are rare even today. Dawson and Mayweather are the only top 10 p4p fighters who are still perfect. IMO, undefeated records are underrated by many hardcore fans. Sure there are plenty of fighters who sport undefeated records but most fans can tell the real from the fake.

 

these guys always have big ?'s at the end of their careers. for example, how good was roy jones really? we don't know because he didn't take any serious challenges at his peak

 

The problem with Roy is that he beat everyone so badly that he made them look worse than they actually were. Roy won titles in 4 divisions, he beat Hopkins, he beat Toney, and he beat pretty much every top LHW from his era when he was at his peak, and he went up to HW and beat Ruiz. Roy's body of work is much more impressive than he's given credit for.

 

It can work either way. Also as somebody else said people are a lot less forgiving today. If Mayweather loses it becomes the boxing story of the year and he gets clowned non stop.

And of course an unbeaten record is something to be proud of, especially if most of the wins are against top 15 p4p guys and top 5 in division. Most people can smell a manufactured record a mile away.

But in a way I'd like to have seen people like May/Dawson/Calzaghe lose so they can fight with more freedom and better fighters and not just fighting for the 0.

 

I don't see any of those 3 fighting to protect their "0". They all seem to be trying to get themselves the biggest fights available. Well, Calzaghe was before he retired.

 

when grass was greener

 

:deal A fighter with 3 or more losses today is not in the same level as an undefeated fighter, alot of it thanks to the media, who I also think has to affect many fighters mentally in the current times. That's why we really do need fighters with that old school mentality. There isn't a rule that says you have to be undefeated to be the best. Topple the kings, your the king. Should be as simple as that, unfortunately, it's not.

 

and when cows werent doped:yep

 

Jake LaMotta, by the standards of many people, "ducked" Charley Burley. His famous quote is "why would I need Burley when I got Williams?". Mind you LaMotta was known for taking on more high-risk/low-reward black fighters than others of the time and LaMotta himself was an avoided fighter. Robinson was an avoided fighter yet even he priced himself out of a Burley fight too and proclaimed himself "too pretty to fight Burley". Burley didn't hold a grudge and said he would've done the same thing. Roberto Duran's management didn't want him to fight Ken Buchanan again (Buchanan himself says he blames the management and not Duran), rejected a fight with 140 lb. champ Antonio Cervantes, and had him fake an illness to pull out of a fight with an old Carlos Ortiz for some odd reason as Duran would've likely beat him up.

A lot of interesting matchups don't always take place now but it didn't always take place in the past either.

Reasons why it gets more attention now is because the past is the past and people don't know as much about it, and because of the technology nowadays. Every little thing is blown out of proportion. "Oh look he's not fighting him and he was challenged verbally by him, what a *****!!!".

 

Superb post.

If you're looking for one thing that separates this era from previous ones, it's that each loss now is held to greater scrutiny than in years past, and that people are more inclined to criticize a champion's opposition...But even then, that's not always the case. People were writing off Ali has finished following his loss to Norton fourty years ago. Eighty years ago, people were questioning the merit of some of Joe Louis' challenge (referred to by some as "The Bum of the Month" club), and some were hotly debating whether eh would have lasted three rounds with a prime Jack Dempsey.

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

 

chavez jr should end the story

 

great post.

 

But nobody respects Chavez Jr. or rates him very highly.