In someways it is true. Sugar Ray Leonard whether he had the greats to fight or not really went for the best. Benitez, Duran, Hearns.. He knew that to be the best and to get that recognition you have to fight the best. And Ray did that and really had so few fights up to his first retirement that he could live off those 3 fighters for many years. They were that impressive.
Don't see much willingness to fight the biggest threats like Lamar Parks or a young Joe Calzaghe, but they were largely unknown anyway.
Again, I respect your position. But you can't even discuss any figures at all, if you aren't even able to meet with a promoter and his fighter. I do know what happened behind the scenes. Mark Taffet has spoken of it, and Hopkins has never denied it. And you can watch the interview that I uploaded where Hopkins said that he wanted to fight the JMW champs. He turned down $6m when his biggest purse had been $2.7m. And he demanded $10m or no fight. A guy like that can't be reasoned with. That was him saying that he didn't want the fight. Again, Calzaghe's comments and actions are there for all to see. No amount of money would have gotten those 3 to the table, as they simply wouldn't put their records and reputations on the line. We know what they said, and we know what they did. There are no excuses here. Those three 3 fights were never viable at the time, because those 3 fighters would not fight Roy. It's that simple. Ali did travel, but he loved to travel. Roy wasn't going to drop back down a division and fly to Wales, to pursue a relatively unknown fighter who held a lightly regarded WBO belt. Ali was a global icon who lived in a different time. His circumstances were completely different. Roy did not follow the path of least resistance in his prime. We're going around in circles. If what you were saying was true, Roy's advisors along with HBO would not have tried to have made fights with Dariusz and Hopkins. Both Mark Taffet and Kerry Davis of HBO, are on record saying that they tried to secure those fights in order to complete his legacy.
I'm not saying that it wouldn't have been big. They could have shown Roy's fights and built him up like how they did with Gerald. What I'm saying, is that it wouldn't have been huge, and in no way comparable to the Eubank-Benn fights. Benn's fight with Gerald wasn't as big as his rematch with Eubank. Eubank was a U.K. celebrity back then. He was always in the news. Even non boxing fans knew of him.
I can't argue with this. But the opponents have to be willing. Duran, Hagler and Hearns would fight anyone. Roy's circumstances were different. A guy like Duran never turned around and said that he wasn't chasing Hagler because he didn't want tough fights. Yet that's what Calzaghe said regarding Roy. Ray never had a top level opponent who wasn't willing to even meet with the promoters and the head of the network in order to discuss a fight. Yet that's what Dariusz and his promoter wouldn't do. Hearns would never have turned down 3 x his biggest purse to fight Roy, before having a year out and then coming back to issue challenges out to overmatched guys from a division below. Yet that's what Hopkins did.
Like you say, they were largely unknown. The world's best fighter wasn't going to pursue a relatively unknown WBO champ from a different division.
Or possibly third or fourth 'best'. Behind Rocch, Nunn and Michalblabla. Only better than who you beat.
Roy has admitted the only fighter near his class was Chris Eubank. But Eubank was running boxing and controlling the sport - he didn't need a young upstart with the best ability you've never seen.
They didn't have better LHW resumes than Roy, and Roy was the consensus no.1 P4P fighter in the world. Either way, the world's best fighter doesn't pursue relatively unknown fighters from different weight classes. So of course he never showed a willingness to fight a young version of Joe. Joe was fighting guys like, Ottke, Veit and Pudwill, after looking awful against Thornberry and Starie and struggling with Reid.
His daddy had the foresight to let all these guys (Nunn, Benn, Watson, McCallum, Eubanks, McClellan, Julian, Reggie, Sumbu, Herol, Stevie Collins, Toney, Barkley) fight eachother first and shorten their careers while the boy feasted on nobodies, before coming along when they were all done having fought eachother when Roy was hidden away. Masterpiece by Sr.
You're better than who you beat. Everything else is subjective and not real. That's the only way to end arguments.
Tarver was a big underdog when he fought Roy and Ruiz was awful, Calzaghe would have been a far harder fight for Roy than Ruiz.
