What they could have done differently...

This thread could go on forever but in particular I was thinking about the 90's. It seems that this was a time when we didn't see very many Champions fight other Champions. Many fighter who had a World Title did what they had to do to keep it instead of fighting the best fighters in or around their respective divisions.

We never saw-

Virgil Hill vs. Charles Williams, Ricardo Lopez vs. Michael Carbajal, Roy Jones Jr. vs. Dariusz Michalczewski, and so many other fights for whatever reason.

Also, I want to know if it would have mattered if a fighter like Holyfield would have squeezed a couple of more fights in a year vs. decent... but not the "best of the best" fighters like-

Tommy Morrison, Oliver McCall, Bruce Seldon, Tim Witherspoon, etc....

...instead of being 28-0 (22) overall and 10-0 (7) in World Title Fights going into the Bowe fight at age 30... he'd be like 35-0 (28KO) overall and 15-0 in World Title fights... Would it mean anything?

 

What about a guy like JCC who had a million defenses vs. Tijuana taxi drivers mixed in with a few notable fighters... in the end what is more important? quality or quanity?

 

Yes, Haugen did pay... but in all honesty Haugen was little more than one of those taxi drivers even on his best day.

No disrespect to JCC... he was great but he definately fought some shltty fighters. Even the notable fighters weren't always the best of the best.

 

I was a fan of Kostya Tszyu but he really didn't beat guys on the level of prime versions of DeLaHoya, Mosley, Trinidad, etc.

The thing with with Tszyu was that he started fighting good fighters very early on and the level of opposition remained good... but it never reached the ultimate level.

He clearly outboxed Juan Laporte in just his 4th pro fight, W10. He stopped Sammy Fuentas (KO1) in just his 6th pro fight. He clearly outboxed Livingstone Bramble in his 10th fight (W10) and even dropped him once. He beat Hector Lopez in his 11th fight, W10. He beat Angel Hernandez (KO7) in his 12th fight.

He won the IBF JWW Title in his 14th fight, KO6 Jake Rodriguez. He defended vs. Roger Mayweather W12, Hugo Pineda KO11, and 3 others before losing to Vince Phillips (LKOby10). At this point absolutely no DeLaHoya, Mosley, or Trinidad types on the resume.

He came back with KO wins over Calvin Grove, Rafael Ruelas, Diosbelys Hurtado, Miguel Angel Gonzalez (who was very good but usually lost to the elite fighters he faced), Julio Cesar Chavez (after DeLaHoya stopped him twice and he had been outboxed by Willy Wise), Sharmba Mitchell (good win), and Zab Judah (very good win).

He decisioned Ben Tackie then stopped Jesse James Leija and Sharmba Mitchell again before losing his last pro bout to Ricky Hatton, LKOby11.

I don't see any evidence suggesting that he could have beat Oscar, Shane, or Felix.

Put the three fighters I mentioned above in vs. the same opposition and I'm sure they would also win... they'd beat Phillips and Hatton as well.

 

I agree with this... also, I wasn't trying to bash on Tszyu earlier... I think he'd be hell for almost any fighter at 140Lbs. I would have loved to see him in vs. DeLahoya and some others.

 

OK, how about this? You're top 5 or better in a division but you're clearly a level below the top guy... or maybe even the #2 guy. What do you do?

Let's look at the last 20 years or so.

In the current HW division this is pretty much the case. There are some decent fighters that could be in some interesting fights as long as they fought each other and not guys named Klitschko or guys who really suck. I mean seriously... who wouldn't want to watch Haye vs. Adamek, Chris Arreola vs. Tony Thompson, or even Odlainer Solis vs. Bermane Stiverne?

I know I shouldn't be mentioning the WWF on here (yes WWF, not WWE) but remember back in the day when Hulk Hogan was the champ (the first time) and you had very good but not as good as Hogan type guys like Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat, Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect, etc. as the InterContinental Champ? Well, these were the more active and more entertaining wrestlers IMO. My suggestion is to beat everybody else you can in important matches... don't beat a bunch of Joe Glass type guys in between getting your azs beat by a Klitschko. Be all you can be damnit!

 

Take a guy like Simon Brown back in the day. He lost by SD to an elite type fighter in Marlon Starling early in his career. He continued on and beat notable fighters (but not as good as Starling) like Kevin Howard, Tyrone Trice x2, Jorge Vaca and best friend Maurice Blocker. Brown was the IBF WW Champ and Blocker was the WBC WW Champ when they fought in 1991.

During most of this Meldrick Taylor was probably considered the best fighter at WW. My point? There is a lot you can do even if your not the #1 guy in the division. Taylor vs. Simon Brown would have been a good fight but not enough people talked about it.

Taylor did beat Glenwood Brown by decision but was dropped twice in the fight, 1992. Simon beat him in 1996.

Simon lost to McGirt by decision and it was considered an upset at the time. Brown rebounbed and went on to beat Norris, KO4. Norris won the rematch by decision. I will never forget his shoot out with Pettway, LKOby6.

 

Taylor never looked very impressive at WW IMO... but until he lost to Terry Norris (which was for Norris' JMW title)... he was considered the man at WW.

He had beat Aaron Davis, who had beat Mark Breland...

Norris stopped him in 4, Taylor kept his WW title, then he was stopped in 9 by Crisanto Espana KO8... almost 2 years later he was stopped in 8 rounds in a rematch with Chavez.