Soft touch

Danny Garcia comes to mind He does for sure, the funny thing is that Herrera and Peterson were suppose to be semi-soft touches but those ended up being hard battles that he arguably lost. They look good on paper now, but at the time people were complaining about him fighting those guys. Even then, he fought Salka and Paulie right after those supposed showcase matches, even softer touches cause Danny couldn't handle the contenders. Now he's rumored to fighting shot Guerrero....

It wouldn't really be an issue if guys were going on a tear, fighting high level competition or at least top 10 divisional contenders, then they'd get a soft touch/showcase fight. Say like a guy fought 3-4 legit fights consecutively then had a gimmie bout. However, it's not the case right now as a lot of guys aren't even active on a yearly basis and it seems that every other fight is a soft touch. Danny Garcia comes to mind

It wouldn't really be an issue if guys were going on a tear, fighting high level competition or at least top 10 divisional contenders, then they'd get a soft touch/showcase fight. Say like a guy fought 3-4 legit fights consecutively then had a gimmie bout. However, it's not the case right now as a lot of guys aren't even active on a yearly basis and it seems that every other fight is a soft touch.

Yeah, but as long as you are also fighting top level guys.. Chavez sr stayed active and fought a lot of soft touches but it was inbetween big fights, which chavez always had at least one or 2 every year.. And sometimes when your a champ, you will get some #1 contenders that may have earned the fight but aren't that good.

It's ok for an elite fighter to fight a soft touch if that fighter is active, has a high level of competition otherwise, and will clearly go on after said soft touch to make a good fight. So Floyd fighting Berto is bad and Ward fighting a blown up Paul Smith is bad, etc.

With Ward, I'd be happy with a top 10ish guy at LHW in is next fight. If he fights a complete no hoper at another catch weight, I'll be on here shitting on the pick along with the next guy. But let's be clear here. You can point at just about any ATG's resume, and find a "soft touch" here and there. Hell, you got guys that are being slobbed over on this site whose entire careers are one soft touch. But... https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Brqc-DCCIAAzQGW.jpg

I can understand the point about a long layoff. But what if they're considered elite? Do elite fighters need or deserve that? Lets take Ward for example. If Ward fought often then it would be ok. But that is hardly the case, so no.

I can understand the point about a long layoff. But what if they're considered elite? Do elite fighters need or deserve that? Lets take Ward for example.

Coming off an injury or loss or a tune up for a bigger fight after retirement/long layoff, sure. Some fights will end up looking like a soft touch fight even though that's not the intention (Manny-Algieri) but if it's the Mayweather-Berto non-sense we saw, that's just terrible.