Why is boxing such an unforgiving sport unlike say..NFL?

Hmmm....

Charles has 25 losses against some absolute nobodies and is a "great fighter".

Lennox had 2 against long-standing legit top-10 contenders (whether you like it or not, that's what they were and possibly still are) which were later avenged by stoppage, and he's "overrated"?



...did someone say "double standards"....?

 

Who said Lennox was overrated?He's a top 10 ATG heavyweight.However Charles had,as in the case of many fighters in his day,what,twice or three times as many fights as Lennox?The more fights you have,the more you are likely to lose.Look at Sugar Ray Robinson.How many fighters beat him that you and I know weren't better than he was.

 

:happy

 

BC had a good explanation for this in his post above.

Still, quite a few players in team sports of the past get criticized.

When I browse basketball forums, for example, Karl Malone is always called a "choker" (and other things much worse for what he did off the court). Other great players who never won a title often get called "losers" for not achieving the ultimate goal in a team sport. Quarterbacks get criticized for not winning the SB, even though he's just one of 22 players on the field at once.

 

my guess is you only have a limited time to prove yourself.... and theres always going to be a couple guys that you should have faced ... and you didnt..... and because of that you can always say fighter A woudl ahve lost to fighter B C D E

 

I'm not sure how you could hold this position after listening to a "Who's Better, Kobe, Mike, or Lebron?" conversation. Guaranteed the word "overrated" would pop up in there somewhere.

I hear guys argue all the time over better teams historically, top 5 QB's, etc.

Maybe because it doesn't matter as much to us, it seems less poisonous, but that doesn't mean it's more "forgiving".

I'd also add that the major sports, at least in America, benefit from massive media coverage and all kinds of positive, feel good stories that boxing never gets. Once a fighter is done in the ring beating on his fellow man, that's about all anyone, including most fans, will remember and talk about. But in the NFL, all of the things that make someone like Walter Payton or Bill Walsh a great man off the field, are much more a part of the public's memory.

I'd like to see the boxing press spend a little less time following contract negotiations, and a little more time covering fighters as people, not just gladiators all the time.