When these guys retire...

I don't know. Oscar, Mosley, Trinidad, RJJ, and Vargas, were all stars and seen as special early in their respective careers, even while other stars such as Hector Camacho, Julio Cesar Chavez, and Pernell Whitaker, were still fighting.

Most of todays fighters don't have that going for them. I mean you could say that Mosley passed the torch to Cotto when they fought, but then Cotto gets brutally KO by Margarito which is fine, but then the torch goes back to Mosley.

Same thing with Taylor, Hopkins, Pavlik.

I think current fighters are getting vastly overrated by new fans who know very little of past generation.

When you get threads like Duran is overrated, Pac would beat Leonard, Cotto is better that Trinidad, you know theres a lot of overrating going on.

I'm a fan of boxing, I just turned 30, and I followed boxing in the 90's and 2000's and I can say that boxing in the 90's was much better.

 

OK, let's take the ones you named:

Oscar, Mosley, Trinidad, RJJ, and Vargas

Let's leave Jones out as he was a once-in-a-generation special talent.

Would you really rule out completely at this early stage in their careers the chances of these guys over the years becoming as great as Oscar, Mosley and Tito? (I'm not even mentioning Vargas, he is nowhere near that level)

Paul Williams, Timothy Bradley, Edwin Valero

These are young, talented, determined guys who are looking for the best fights available. Williams is already well on his way to that status and could be close to it already if he dethrones Pavlik to become a three-weight champ, Valero may get his chance to knock off Marquez soon, and judging by Bradley's recent performances he could become a fighter of Mosley-esque brilliance in time.

Don't forget, around the start of the 90s Thomas Hearns took Virgil Hill's zero, Roberto Duran won a world middleweight title having lifted his first world title at light in 1972, Azumah Nelson wrecked some quality names including Jeff Fenech, and George Foreman won the hw title ffs!!

The real stars of yesteryear always burn brightly before they retire, but there is some stars just waiting to shine once Hopkins and Mosley and co have stopped hogging all the big ppv dates/venues.

 

I think you should die.

 

There is no hope, boxing will wither and die.......

 

Boxing will never die but like everything else in life it will have its ups & downs... by the time Chavez was on the way out, Morales & Barrera were already competing to be his successor & thats just Mexican boxers.... there are some countries that will always produce class every generation... Mexico,USA, Puerto Rico, we`ll probably get a wave of Filipino talent in the next decade trying to emulate Manny Pacquiao too, I wouldnt worry about boxing - except maybe 1 or 2 divisions, boxing will always be numero uno for elite sports entertainment.

 

Don't make the mistake of confusing 'overrating' with 'extreme ******ation'. I guarantee there were people in the 80s who thought Duran, Leonard, Hagler and Hearns were overrated. In fact I know so because I have read 'The Arc of Boxing' by Mike Silver (I think that's the right title). There are idiots in every era, and there is dewy-eyed nostalgia in every era too.

 

The correct answer to the thread-starter. End thread here.

 

to me jones, and hopkins are already retired. are they even relevent in this game? jones hasn't been a player since glen johnson, and hopkins refuses to fight dawson,cloud, and other young light heavyweights or top fighters in around smw-cruiserweight.

 

Totally different. The fighters you mentioned picked up straps late late in their careers, and that is a credit in itself, but they were not the men to beat like Mosley or Hopkins are right now.

Williams is a good fighter, and he's picked up a strap at 147, had one defense and lost it, picked it up again against the same guy he lost it too, and moved on to experiment else where, legacy wise that's all he's really done, beat an old past prime Winky is okay, but not career defining by any means. He's 28, do you know what fighters like Oscar, Trinidad, Mosley had done by the time they were 28 years old. A HEEEELLLL of a lot more.

See where I'm coming from? I love boxing, and I enjoy watching todays fighters, but I'm not going to pretend that this era of boxing is as good as any other, because quite frankly, it's pretty weak.