I love the lighter weights and wish they were promoted more. I have stated this plenty of times through the years. I grew up watching Little Hands of Stone Michael Carbajal. He was on tv a ton. I love the skill, speed and the fact that these lighter guys are always in shape. They have to be just to make weight. Eric Morales is my favourite fighter. I know my boxing history and all the names going back to before Tom Cribb. I know how great someone like Bill Richmond was despite his size compared to the guys he fought. I was given a great book once that had all the fighters worth a mention since the bare knuckle days.
The tallest Flyweight to ever win a title was Pone Kingpetch at 5’6” so that is some perspective though. Rafael Espinoza is exciting for sure but his height is more of outlier than close to common. I loved watching Chocolatito. I still stand by my statement that at the lowest weights there’s less variety in nationality. Lots of the lightest multi weight champs move up to fight the champ in the next division without having to grind through that division to get a shot. I’m fine with that. The truth is the jumps get harder as you go up, the money gets bigger, brings in top athletes. Do you remember all the champs Manny beat at the lower weights? Or the guys they beat to have value? From minimum weight to featherweight is 21lbs but that’s also spanning seven divisions each with multiple titles. How often to those belts get unified as people move up fast? The lightest weights need more exposure and are underrated as far as in ring excitement that is for sure. You just aren’t going to sell many people on the heroism of moving up when the jumps are 3,4,3,3,4lbs.
Teo also took on decent fights to stay busy in between his big fights without complaints. Would you imagine Haney taking on Jamaine Ortiz, for instance? Sandor Martin, Commey, Nakatani, Claggett, Campa?
Seriously?
Boots, man, what are you doing?
Came from Hearn a few days ago, so take it with a shaker full of salt, but he claims he's only interested in unifications. Norman called out both him and Teo, so we'll see. I suspect we'll more likely see Norman v Teo and Ennis v Paddy Donovan or Lewis Crocker.
Where was this reported? I don't see any articles on boxingscene with it and BoxRec doesn't show they're set to face each other yet...
It's wasn't. Ennis already turned the fight down. Crawford isn't looking like he's going to fight again unless it's a cash out vs Canelo.
I always prefer when fighters do it the right way - the way Ward moved to LHW and Usyk moved to HW. That way you actually see what the guys are made out of.
One loss should not be a huge deal in this sport. Losing is part of any sport. Teo thinks he can beat the "top" guy. Let him. He should get props for it.
Definitely a tough challenge against a top fighter. But it's a head scratcher. Going up and fighting one of the absolute top dogs in a higher weight is challenging, and generally is unsuccessful. The most successful contenders take a fight or two to grow into the division, which gives them a much better chance of success.
If Teo loses by KO or a wide UD as expected, it will just go down as a boneheaded move by him and his team that didn't accomplish anything. Not a media stunt, but not far away from it.
I always prefer when fighters do it the right way - the way Ward moved to LHW and Usyk moved to HW. That way you actually see what the guys are made out of.
Huge Inoue fan. Still moving up from those lower/lowest weight classes and beating the best guy will never be worth as much as the bigger jumps. The jumps are only 3lbs or 4lbs. One division could be a 4lb jump then the next up is only 3lbs. You are never going to see some crazy tall guy down there like you might see in the higher weight classes. There isn’t as much international participation at those lower weights. To be fair it’s not like there is a bunch of Mexican heavyweights either which would be great. Nobody at the lower weights is going to towered over or weigh significantly less than their opponent. A litre of water weighs 2.2lbs so if you cut to make weight then drank 2.3L of water you have already jumped two divisions. I know each weight class gets to do that, so I get that. Still nobody is going to say “he looks two divisions bigger than his opponent”. Nobody seems to care that light heavy to cruiser is three times the jump from middle to light heavy? Nobody gets mad if a heavy is six inches taller and 50lbs heavier than their opponent.
I think Inoue is a piece of twisted steel and in the top 3 p4p. Truth is he will get the most credit once it actually looks like it affects him.
There's a lot more to it than weight though, which is why people can get knocked out or dominated 11-1 at light heavy, and go straight from the loss at 175 to a title eliminator or title shot at 200. And the skill level is just lower, although the power level is higher.
Another point is that, precisely BECAUSE of those smaller weight gaps, it's historically and statistically harder to become a multi division champ at lighter weight classes because it's harder to maintain dominance across multiple weight classes.
That weight gap at heavy is probably the biggest reason that Usyk gets rated ahead of Inoue or Crawford though, and Bud gets his plumes for being in welterweight, even though it's a dead division now. Spence was considered P4P on the strength of being a single division champion with 6 defenses, but there's guys like Knockout CP Freshmart, who sent undefeated and held his title for nearly 10 years and 18 title defenses who never even get considered for P4P.
And there are absolutely guys who are much bigger than their opponents on fight night, and look divisions bigger. That's common, TBH, and makes me think you probably don't really watch fights at lower weight divisions. Rafael Espinoza, for instance, is 6'1' at featherweight. There were guys who started at flyweight who were 5'11".
For reference, Inoue has fought the best available guy in his divisional debut 3 times now, and very few people seem to care about that. They still act like the lighter weight divisions are irrelevant. People are very inconsistent. If you can't appreciate a guy who has scored more 10-8 rounds than his opponents have scored 10-9 rounds against him, you probably also can't appreciate crazy Teo, with his loss to Kambosos and his gift decisions vs Sandor Martin and Jamaine Ortiz.
Huge Inoue fan. Still moving up from those lower/lowest weight classes and beating the best guy will never be worth as much as the bigger jumps. The jumps are only 3lbs or 4lbs. One division could be a 4lb jump then the next up is only 3lbs. You are never going to see some crazy tall guy down there like you might see in the higher weight classes. There isn’t as much international participation at those lower weights. To be fair it’s not like there is a bunch of Mexican heavyweights either which would be great. Nobody at the lower weights is going to towered over or weigh significantly less than their opponent. A litre of water weighs 2.2lbs so if you cut to make weight then drank 2.3L of water you have already jumped two divisions. I know each weight class gets to do that, so I get that. Still nobody is going to say “he looks two divisions bigger than his opponent”. Nobody seems to care that light heavy to cruiser is three times the jump from middle to light heavy? Nobody gets mad if a heavy is six inches taller and 50lbs heavier than their opponent.
I think Inoue is a piece of twisted steel and in the top 3 p4p. Truth is he will get the most credit once it actually looks like it affects him.
Jaron Boots Ennis got tons of accolades for just dismantling Custio Clayton. Got offered a lucrative fight with Vergil Ortiz who is not big, as Tim Bradley stated, but Boots said, "Nah, I'm good."
That's literally why Teo was ranked as highly on P4P lists as he was, even though Taylor in retrospect was shot by then. He got lots of credit for Loma as well, even though Loma was injured and went into surgery the next day. If Crawford would actually deign to fight him, and he could somehow win, he'd be right back on the P4P lists.
For reference, Inoue has fought the best available guy in his divisional debut 3 times now, and very few people seem to care about that. They still act like the lighter weight divisions are irrelevant. People are very inconsistent. If you can't appreciate a guy who has scored more 10-8 rounds than his opponents have scored 10-9 rounds against him, you probably also can't appreciate crazy Teo, with his loss to Kambosos and his gift decisions vs Sandor Martin and Jamaine Ortiz.