I gotta be honest, I was outraged by Chavez coming into the ring 21lbs over the middleweight limit the other night. He's a decent fighter but I've never been overly impressed by him. It's just my opinion but I think he's been coddled by his father's great name and genuinely lucky for the current state of boxing and it's day before weigh in policy. If he had to weigh in the same day I highly doubt he would even have a paper title at 168 or 175, which is the more likely weight he'd be forced to fight at.
Anyway, it got me thinking of Billy Conn since neither had an amateur background and how Conn would fare in todays game with day before weight ins and multiple weight classes.
The more I thought about it the more I came to realize Conn would at the very least be a titlist at 154, 160, 168, 175 and cruiserweight and probably the universally recognized champion in at least a few of them considering the array of great fighters he either beat or was highly competitive with at 160, 175 and heavyweight. Zivic, Dundee, Yarosz, Krieger, Corbett III, Apostoli, Pastor, Lesnivich, Savold, Barlund, Zale, and of course the great Joe Louis.
Both Conn and Chavez took the road less traveled by turning pro with no amateur experience. The difference is Chavez's road has been paved with gold and he has GPS guiding his every turn. Conn's road wasn't paved at all and was filled with pitfalls and dangerous corners to navigate.
Conn was great because he was willing to fight other great fighters and more times than not he beat them. Were he fighting today he'd be being touted as a top 10 all time great for covering so many weight classes.
My question is how great do you think he'd be if he fought today and under boxing's current circumstances?
Anyway, it got me thinking of Billy Conn since neither had an amateur background and how Conn would fare in todays game with day before weight ins and multiple weight classes.
The more I thought about it the more I came to realize Conn would at the very least be a titlist at 154, 160, 168, 175 and cruiserweight and probably the universally recognized champion in at least a few of them considering the array of great fighters he either beat or was highly competitive with at 160, 175 and heavyweight. Zivic, Dundee, Yarosz, Krieger, Corbett III, Apostoli, Pastor, Lesnivich, Savold, Barlund, Zale, and of course the great Joe Louis.
Both Conn and Chavez took the road less traveled by turning pro with no amateur experience. The difference is Chavez's road has been paved with gold and he has GPS guiding his every turn. Conn's road wasn't paved at all and was filled with pitfalls and dangerous corners to navigate.
Conn was great because he was willing to fight other great fighters and more times than not he beat them. Were he fighting today he'd be being touted as a top 10 all time great for covering so many weight classes.
My question is how great do you think he'd be if he fought today and under boxing's current circumstances?
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