The combined record of GGG, Kovalev, and Lomachenko in P4P fights is 0-6-1
GGG's record vs Canelo twice: 0-1-1
Kovalev's record vs Ward twice: 0-2
Kovalev's record vs Canelo: 0-1
Lomachenko vs Lopez: 0-1
(Note: title should say 0-5-1). Before these fights, their combined record was 81-1. Then they went from 81 wins, 1 loss, to 0 wins, 5 losses (plus a draw).
It almost seems like the size of your ethnic fanbase in the US, and the long, prohibitive distance it would take for fans from eastern europe to fly in to Vegas just for a fight, has a direct correlation with a boxer's ability to perform when facing boxers representing the two most popular, most lucrative demographics in American boxing, black American boxers, and Hispanic boxers.
Either that, or it's just strange voodoo that these guys look otherwordly on the way up, to the point where many say they would at least be competitive with the best in history in their divisions, only to, without fail, lose the first time they face a more financially marketable fighter from their own era, not even from other eras!
"People just said that because they overrated these guys," you could say. Ok, fine. I'm fine with devil's advocate. But 0-5-1 type of overrated? And not 0-5-1 vs Sugar Ray Robinson. Oh no. We're talking 0-5-1 vs a Teofimo Lopez who arguably lost to Nakatani just a year ago. We're talking 0-5-1 vs a Canelo who could barely touch Mayweather, a welterweight, who was hurt vs Liam Smith at 154, who was fading badly late vs Angulo at 154, who had trouble with an aging Miguel Cotto at 154, who could not knock out a drained Julio Cesar Chavez Jr at 164.5, who had already been knocked out HEALTHY by B-level Fonfara at 175, only for Kovalev, a much better and more powerful light heavyweight than Fonfara, to be knocked out by Canelo at 175.
He struggles vs B-level guys at 154. He can't knock out drained, B-level super middleweights like Chavez Jr at catchweights. But Sergey Kovalev at 175, no catchweight? Good night.
We're talking Andre Ward who was badly hurt by Darnell Boone at 168, who was hurt by Paul Smith at a catchweight, who felt Carl Froch's power at 168, but other than a flash knockdown where Kovalev halfway missed the punch and only connected with the padding (hmm), Kovalev couldn't put a hurt on him.
If the business of boxing really has nothing to do with it, and they went 0-5-1 in those fights for no other reason than they were not as good as the opponent in the ring that night, then they weren't just overrated, they were next level, unprecedented, overrated.