Your Hottest Takes:

The embarrassing knockout loses belong to Norton and and Moorer in multiples. Sanders only got caught against Tubbs. He gassed out against Vitali and Rahman in wars. And Rahman was fortunate that he got a slightly out of shape Sanders, but I still think he’d get it done against Norton and Moorer.

 

I know this will be controversial, but I believe Sandy Saddler is the greatest featherweight of all time. I mean he beat the guy who is generally regarded as such 3 out of 4 and all within the distance.

In fact, I think Saddler’s three wins over Willie Pep — especially the first one, a clean KO 4 — are the three best wins by any featherweight in history and there’s an argument to be made that they’re the three best wins by any one fighter in boxing history.

 

Gators are harder to fight than kangaroos are.

 

I usually copout & rate them tied for #1. IMO, Pep's plane crash injuries can't be overlooked, but neither can the emphatic nature of Saddler's wins, so tying them is a sort of compromise in my eyes.

 

That's assuming Ortiz had normal blood pressure as, according to you, a black man (he's Cuban) who's used nandrolone (known to interfere with circulation). Hearn having the capability to "unfairly" influence the WBA does not help your case, it helps mine.

If I were in the Whyte camp, I too would advise in favor of Chisora and Parker over Ortiz. Those two represent significantly more money than Luis Ortiz in the UK, not to mention Whyte at that time was in near-constant negotiation with AJ for a rematch. I still haven't gotten your interpretation as to why Ortiz (lower rated non-champion), Fury (presumably unrated non-champion), Breazeale (lower-rated, "first mandatory" non-champion) were given their shot before Whyte, who was already silver champion. Why was he being given a chance to fight for "second mandatory" as number one contender? Why, if we're given to understand the silver belt holds value, was Whyte made to fight Rivas for a vacant interim title and Povetkin for a vacant diamond (introduced for the very first time at heavyweight) title? Maybe it has something to do with all those belts having fees tied to them somehow? Maybe instead of collecting from just a pool of Wilder, Ortiz, Breazeale, and Fury, the WBC thought it could string Whyte, Browne, Parker, Rivas, and Povetkin along too.

 

The powers that be knew of Holyfields HGH abuse, other P.E.D. usage and swept them, along with his numerous headbutts, under the rug or looked away because post prison Tyson was a PR nightmare and they hoped he'd go away after losing.

 

Sorry Pat, whilst I don't consider Saddler's first two wins over Pep are the best in boxing history, given you just said "an argument can be made", I'll concentrate solely on Saddler's third win and state that no credible argument can be made that it's one of the best 3 wins in boxing history, if the standard of the beaten opponent and/or the quality of the victor are the determining factors.

Pep was borderline shot by their 3rd fight. Tbf, so was Saddler. They're the two greatest FWs of all time, yet just 9 months later, Tommy Collins stopped Pep 3 rounds quicker than Saddler, whilst Saddler himself lost the fight before Pep 3, as well as his next 3 bouts.

Pep vs Saddler 4 was a bout between 2 borderline washed up ATGs. They're ATGs because of the levels they'd previously attained, not the level they were at by their third contest.

 

Show me a single boxer who used a beta blocker as a PED. And don't take my words out of context or we're done here.

Wilder fought Ortiz in sanctioned fights, not mandatories. Whyte didn't do what he needed to become a mandatory, so Wilder fought better opponents than Whyte and Whyte got laid out cold by an old as dirt Povetkin. It's that simple.

 

I think Beterbiev is up there imo, but he seems to prefer shorter sneaky punches to break down the opponent. It works for him because his well developed hands, wrists and forearms allow for great power transference. He's a great blend of training and technique in terms of power imo, but he doesn't have 'natural freak' power like a Hatchetman Sheppard etc.

 

Totally agree he is overrated his best win is Gvozdyk who had a grand total of 1 title defence and beat a shopworn 41 year old Stevenson.

Better yet to go one further I wouldn't even put Beterbiev in the top 10 regarding power I don't think he even hits as hard as Stevenson.

Michael Moorer
Archie Moore
Michael Spinks
Bob Foster
Adonis Stevenson
Matthew Saad Muhammad
Marvin Johnson
Roy Jones Jr
Bob Satterfield
Sam Langford
Antonio Tarver

That's just some random names I thought of off the top of my head.

I also thought Bivol beat the breaks of Beterbiev in their 2nd fight and won handily.

 

Yeah Holyfield was definitely pumped full of Peds during his rise up to heavyweight and during it. You can tell by how quickly an suddenly his hair falling out by the time of the foreman fight but still that Evan fields stuff was a set up used by a disgruntled seller or someone in his camp that he fallen out with to expose him . Just can’t see how he or those that brought for him would had used even fields an not expect everyone not to be to figure out it was him

 

Hot takes ?

Khaosai Galaxy is very overrated I've seen him rated as high as top 50 I wouldn't even put him in the 100.

Wilfred Benitez would beat Roberto Duran at any weight.

Aaron Pryor is not even close to an ATG and I don't think his win over Arguello was legit.

I don't find Roberto Duran that pleasing to watch overall. Don't get me wrong he has had some performances which I enjoyed vs Barkley, De Jesus 3. But I don't find his style overall appealing too much mauling for me I'd prefer to watch Chavez personally.

I thought Horn legitimately beat Pacquiao.

 

If Ortiz was found with beta blockers, and only beta blockers in his system, you would have more solid footing, wouldn't you? But you seem to have already conveniently forgotten about the banned DIURETIC he also popped dirty for and his history of anabolic STEROID use.

It is highly debatable whether Wilder indeed faced the better opponents. And for the word "opponents" to ring true, you'd have to count Ortiz twice.

Back on topic, any boxing body that allows their champion to make two mandatory defenses over something like five years is either inept or corrupt. Any boxing body that has Huni five or six places over Anthony Joshua is either inept or corrupt.