In order to be the greatest of all time, do fighters have to face adversity?

[KickAzz]

So the main point/concern at hand is should we advise this new generation not to win to convincingly, but in turn try to have at least 2-3 "wars" with a top ranked opponent and look like they're struggling so their legacy can go down in history as one of the greats?

Feel free to discuss.

no.

Adversity and wars will happen when you take on the best in and around your division. this new generation is advised to win convincingly against top ranked opponents... don't ever look like your struggling. Just don't duck tough opponents

[Larry the boss]

No they dont,they just have to fight and beat the best fighters in their generation

[Walt Liquor]

Look at all great fighters with undefeated records. All of them have resumes that are pretty easily shi tted on.

Simple answer. Because there's always someone with a style that will compete with yours as was shown for decades and decades when the best used to fight each other prime for prime.

You dont get a pass for boxing politics and

[junior gong]

I would like to see a great fighter go through some sort of adversity and fight through it. Leave no questions unanswered is what I always say.

This.....

with that said, if a fighter gets through his career, fights the best without being challenged and still retires on top then good for him.

and this.

[IronDanHamza]

Every great fighter will face adversity at some point.

Even it's if it's just a small bit of adversity like Roy Jones with Montel Griffin.

If you fight top fighters on a consistent basis, enough to be considered a great fighter. You will face adversity.

[FightScorer]

Depends on the division.

At HW it's a lot harder to dominate and be undefeated than it is at lower weights. The only undefeated HW Rocky Marciano was more or less a semi fraud.

It is just impossible to be an undefeated HW ATG without big big question marks.

[TOBYLEE1]

It seems in order to be considered the greatest of all time or one of the greats, you have to either have wars, go life and death with various opponents or at least lose a few times throughout your career.

Without getting too specific and naming names, rarely do you see someone dominate several divisions over an extended period of time and get credit for it. Normally, (insert fighter) list of opponents somehow get discredited along the way.

So the main point/concern at hand is should we advise this new generation not to win to convincingly, but in turn try to have at least 2-3 "wars" with a top ranked opponent and look like they're struggling so their legacy can go down in history as one of the greats?

Feel free to discuss.

To become great you have to win the fights that all odds are against you. Of course they have to face adversity to see how much they have

[Cuauhtémoc1520]

Boxing is like college football, you can't be considered the best if you have a weak strength of schedule.

Boxers can go 30-0 but if they haven't fought anyone, what does that matter? Ray Robinson lost 19 times but he's still considered the best because he had over 200 fights.

My thing with Mayweather is that he rarely fought the great fighters in their prime. DLH and Cotto were past it IMO, DLH more so. He fought a prime Castillo and lost the first time and then destroyed a prime Corrales.

[ElMeroChingon]

How can fighters face adversity when they pick who they want to fight? Let alone once or twice a year. Thats why all the ATG of old will always be considered greater than todays circus. They might've not had the money fighters do now, but they sure had the passion to be great.

[Dr Rumack]

The thing about 'greatness' is that it's not an easily defined or especially objective concept. It's pretty subjective in fact.

There are fights, and even moments within fights, where I personally feel a particular fighter's greatness revealed itself, but I could not nor would not ever expect everyone else to see those fights or moments in the same way.

The thing about adversity, is that it creates those moments that are universally recognised as episodes where the fighter was looking into the abyss and staring defeat in the face. Everyone can see it.

In any area of life you look at throughout history, be it sport, politics, war whatever, the moments that truly define people were moments where great danger or risk were faced. Because those are the moments you can always point to as proof of what those people were, and no one can dispute that they were moments of great struggle.

A fighter doesn't need those moments where it looked like they were going to lose it all, but without them, there's a big element missing from the story of their career.