MMA is to young of a sport to see the damages that boxing sees. Look up garey goodridge, a prominent old school mma fighter who suffers similiar traits of a punch drunk boxer.
I hope this isnt the end but he need to finish his career before he further erodes his brain. Absolute legend. The King.
I feel the same way. Don't want to see him take anymore damage.
The majority of fighters never fight at the weigh-in limit (i.e, 140, 147, 154, etc.). They dehydrated themselves of a water weight in order to get a size advantage. Think about it: The heavier you are, the more likely you are: stronger, more durable, and in general just more physically imposing than your opponent.
For example: Dan Austin weighs 148 pounds and deadlifts 697 lbs. Dmitriy Nostov weighs 165 pounds and deadlifts 760 lbs (where Dmitry clearly outweights Austin by 17 pounds). That's a noticeable strength gap. Obviously, the bigger you are the more powerful you should be compared to your opponent (typically).
In Khan vs Canelo's case, the weight difference if Khan doesn't bulk up would be around 20~ pounds. That's a LOT of weight, and makes a huge difference, especially considering they're about the same height (definitely meaning Canelo has more muscle mass). That's a lot of potential strength/power Canelo should posses over Khan due to how much heavier he is.
In regards to GGG vs Canelo:
GGG is older (just recently turned 34 years old)
Canelo is younger (25 years old)
It's a lot harder on the body when you dehydrate yourself/lose weight the older you get. Think of it like this: when you are younger, you can gain muscle mass much easier with a good diet and nutrition. When you're older, that rate of growth of muscle diminishes and diminishes. You can be a hard worker, but you can't outwork father time.
Another reason is that GGG is not use to those massive water weight cuts/probably doesn't feel comfortable doing it. If he drains water weight to about 155, that's around 8-9% of a water weight cut. For anyone in combat sports, 10% is the maximum amount recommended, as it gets REALLY BAD any more than that. Cutting too much water weight is a dangerous idea. I'd say, about 5% is a good amount to stride for on average
Canelo rehydrates back to 175 from the 155 weigh-in limit. Golovkin rehydrates to 170 from the 160 weigh-in limit. Theoretically, Canelo could weigh even more than 175 if he wasn't stressed to make that 155 limit.
People generally don't realize how dangerous weight cutting is when you pass the %10 mark. I've heard stories of dudes having their kidneys shut down due to extreme weight cutting.
I would go with Brook/Bradley then Thurman/Porter. I do not think Danny/Vargas is in the mix.
I would go Brook/Bradley because its the highest aggregate (both top 3 with Thurman). I also think its the best fight out of all discussed. Porter is like #4 for me. he and Thurman is going to be good but Brook (IMO) beat him clearly.
Danny and Vargas just haven't done enough-although much of Danny's early career (as bojangles and dreamerusa point out) was at ww.
My thoughts exactly.