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Joe Calzaghe comes to mind; when your entire career is defined by beating two fighters who were in their prime 10 years ago it speaks volumes about your quality of work.Comment
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1.) Joe Frazier - Entire legacy based off of one win over one past his prime fighter who lost to ring rust,and then two decisive losses to the very same man and two beat downs by the only puncher he ever faced and that's his legacy.Failed to fight the top heavyweights of his era,ducked virtually every puncher of his era and the two times that he did,he got put down eight times.Gets ranked in a position that he clearly isn't deserving of,
2.) Roberto Duran - Supposedly one of the most dominant champions of all time and yet failed to defend his title against the greatest contenders on a consistent basis,padded record consisting of no hopers and lost to bums like Kirkland Laing and Robbie Simms.There's an excuse for ever loss he ever suffered but the cold hard truth is that he just wasn't as good as his fanboys claimed.
3.) Aaron Pryor - Entire legacy is written by the newbs who watched HBO's legendary night series and bought into the ****** myths and lies such as Leonard and Hearns ducking this man.His resume is piss poor,with two wins over faded champions such as Cervantes and Arguello.He isn't p4p material and he isn't even the greatest in his own division,very overrated fighter.
4.) Gene Fullmer - Very similar situation with Frazier,entire legacy based off of two wins over Sugar Ray Robinson,who was a good five years past his prime the first time they fought.Two wins over a welterweight who was never an impressive middleweightt and he probably used his head more than he did his hands in those fights.Met Mr **** Tiger and boy did he get a wake up call.His style woudl fail miserably today,not so much because he was a one dimensional brawler,but because no legitimate official would tolerate his dirty tactics.
5.) James Toney - Very few fighters have as much of a padded record,benifited from so many gift decisions and recieved more chances than his fat slob,who at one time actually did have talent.His knockout victory over Michael Nunn is where his legacy started and where it ended.The greatest fighter he ever fought beat him on a landslide,it wasn't competitive,it wasn't close,Toney was brought in a glorified sparring partner and he got clowned.
Five will do for now.Comment
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I never fail to be surprised at the ability of NSB posters to separate words from meaning.
Calzaghe and Haye are OVERRATED? Since when? For years the former was known as "Stay at home Joe" and when he finally arrived in the States his victories were written off as meaningless because his opponents were old men.
As for David Haye, even his biggest fans didn't have him as favourite going in to either Klitschko bout.Comment
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6.) Salvador Sanchez - Harsh but true,his career and life ended unfortunately at the young age of 23,but his accomplishments and victories have been overblown to great porportions since his death,he wasn't that much of an accomplished fighter,certainly no great as he never had the chance to prove as such.His two greatest wins are over Wilfredo Gomez,a super bantamweight who was untested as a featherweight and a very young,very green Azumah Nelson,and at the time it wasn't a great win as Nelson had proven nothing at the time.Nelson despite his loss,will go down as the greater,more accomplished fighter in history
7.) Joe Louis - Devoid of a serious threat to his prime for the most part,most of the top challengers consisted of one dimensional slobs who were just made for Joe Louis.He met a faded counter puncher,near enough his prime and got taken to school and beaten down and out into submission,Louis would gain revenge but one can learn alot more from eleven rounds than they can one round.Twenty five successful title defenses and two black men.
8.) Marco Antonio Barrera - A very smart,calculated man and that played through into his boxing career,his greatest win was against Naseem Hamed,whom he waited three years before finally signing the contract,at this point Hamed was a shell of his former self.Dispathced in a mismatch against Pacquiao and fought to survive in the rematch.Barrera was knocked out by unhearalded Junio Jones who's chin had been found out by two journeymen in John Jackson and Darrly Pickney,so his chin was most certainly suspect and quitting against Amir Khan,you have to question his heart.
9.) Terry Norris - What do Ray Leonard,Meldrick Taylor,Donald Curry and John Mugabi have in common? Why they all happened to be washed up and they all happen to be Terry Norris's greatest wins.Never has a fighter ever benefited from a legacy of washed up victims as Terry Norris has.He attempted to add Simon Brown to his list of old timers but Terry Norris was exposed as having a glass jaw and suffered a humiliating defeat.Norris would fight just one top fighter in his prime and he would get knocked out in just the second round.
10.) Manny Pacquiao - Supposedly boxing's current p4p best and unfortunately many of the mainstream media agree with this.Many have spoken of Pacquiao's develoment as a fighter,how he has been able to develop his right hand to be as effective as his left hand,how he has matured into a smarter fighter who doesn't throw caution to the wind,tho they have neglected to mention Pacquiao's greatest development,and that is his match making ability.Pacquiao was exposed badly against a washed up Erik Morales,who still possesed enough left to expose Pacquiao as badly as he did,Pacquiao would beat a shot Erik Morales twice later on but not before Zahir Raheem was able to do so.Pacquiao was exposed in both fights with Juan Manuel Marquez,Marquez was knocked down three times in just one round but was able to come back and score a draw and was blatantly robbed in the rematch.Wins over a shot,washed up,weight drained Oscar De La Hoya and a overrated,faded Ricky Hatton do not confirm this mans greatness,rather expose how carefully matched he wasComment
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I don't allow personal feelings to interupt my train of thought.. The facts are, that Lewis had 2 defeats & 1 draw that were efficiently avenged..
Dempsey was unable to avenge Tunney, Frazier was unable to avenge Foreman, Liston was unable to avenge Ali, Foreman never avenged Young & so on... Lewis is no5 for me whether you like it or not...Comment
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I think this is reliant upon who is doing the rating, under or over. Oscar De La Hoya, for example, is simultaniously overrated and underrated. The so-called casual boxing fan usually vastly, cosmically overrates him. At the same time, it's been my perception that the so-called hardcore boxing fans tend to underrate him. I was booted off an unnamed boxing message board for daring to state to the meathead haters that DLH fought a lot of good fighters and beat most of them. He's far, far from SRR, but he qualifies as a great, I think.
A similar but opposite phenominon is Mike McCallum. Utterly ignored by the casuals, but overrated by the hardcores, I think. I rate by accomplishment more than skill set. Who ducks who has to be tossed as well. How can we really know? That said, his opposition at 154 was mainly mediocre with a sprinkling of Julian Jackson and the lost Donald Curry (A fight that I think he was losing at the time of the KO, if memory serves). I don't consider Ayub Kalule to be a great win for SRL (who does?), so it's not special for McCallum either. He moved up, and lost to every elite level fighter he fought. How anyone can rate him as the greatest 154er of all time over Terry Norris is beyond me. And speaking of Norris, can we start talking about Paul Vaden and Vincent Pettway, just to name a couple, instead of SRL and Meldrick Taylor? He beat good fighters in their prime, actually, not just washed up former greats.Comment
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tyson,marciano,calzagheComment
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