Welcome to the World of Al Haymon

No big fights in February until the 27th, when a few European fighters will have a couple of good fights in Germany and England (no thanks to Al Haymon).

Ever since Al Haymon hijacked a group of good fighters and created the PBC (Public Boxing Crаp), lots of big fights have been blocked from happening, because Al Haymon doesn't like it when his fighters enter the ring against an opponent who has a chance of beating them.

Nowadays, in most divisions we have a Real Champ (who fights real opposition) and a Haymon Paper Champ (who fights bums). Here are a few examples.

Heavyweight:
Real Champ: Tyson Fury
Haymon Paper Champ: Deontay Wilder

Light Heavyweight:
Real Champ: Sergei Kovalev
Haymon Paper Champ: Adonis Stevenson

Middleweight:
Real Champ: Gennady Golovkin
Haymon Paper Champ: Danny Jacobs

Welterweight:
Real Champ: Timothy Bradley vs Manny Pacquiao
Haymon Paper Champs: Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman

Super Lightweight:
Real Champ: Terence Crawford
Haymon Paper Champ: Adrien Broner

Featherweight:
Real Champ: Vasyl Lomachenko
Haymon Paper Champs: Leo Santa Cruz, Gary Russell Jr.

In all cases, the Haymon Paper Champ is protected from having to fight the Real Champ. This is why we go a full month with no big fights. If Al Haymon would allow Jacobs to fight GGG, Stevenson to fight Kovalev, Wilder to fight Fury, then I would have no problems with him. Instead, he has created his own boxing world, in which his big names fight overmatched opponents; and the real champs are unable to fight the one guy that every fan wants them to fight.

Haymon's is a world I don't really care for. It's free, but you get what you pay for.:deal

 

You can make a case for Brook being the welterweight king based off his win over Porter, but that's his only good win. It's a hard sell.

Bradley has wins over Provodnikov, Marquez, Alexander, and Rios. Provodnikov is equivalent to Porter, and Marquez is probably close to that. Bradley's resume is much deeper and shows he can beat different styles. I think Brook can beat swarmers but not a good boxer.

 

Great points I hadn't thought of. It just goes to show how one man can ruin an entire sport by basically kidnapping a large group of athletes and keeping them away from their peers.

 

Yes, Adonis beat a Chad Dawson who had just been weight-drained and knocked out in embarrassing fashion. Dawson basically died inside that night. Andre Ward conned him into taking the fight at 168, and Dawson just wouldn't listen to the people around him who were telling him that it was career suicide.

We have to stop looking at "lineal", because these days that means nothing. What does it mean? When Cotto beat, the lineal champ Martinez, he beat a "champ" who had been ducking Golovkin for years. Then Cotto ducked Golovkin and lost to Canelo. Now Canelo is ducking Golovkin to fight Amir Khan.

So "lineal champ" does not mean "real champ". The real champ is the fighter that we fans know has proven himself to be the best.