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There was probably always some degree of overrating fighters like that. But in general boxing was always a sport where the aggressor was rewarded, sometimes too much even, sometimes just for being the aggressor.
Overrating of defensive fighters today is probably the biggest pet peeve I have with the sport. It is a multi-step problem that encompasses 3 of the worst types of fans -
1) it isn't just the tribal fans - but that is part of it. 2) It also has to do with fans who are arrogant/have overall inferiority complexes, and want to act like they are seeing something with the defensive fighter that only a trained eye can see - that they are truly seeing 'the sweet science.' 3) And then also, some people seem to have sort of a fear/physical inferiority of the aggressive/big punching fighters. The way they combat this, is to overrate or overhype the defensive guys, either in mythical matchups or in their actual fight performances.
Rewarding the 'defensive' fighter with almost every round that is close/has little action, is just terrible for the sport. I don't think it comes down to race or even nationality with all of it either as the 3 biggest examples in my head are 1) Mayweather - a lot of his fights; 2) Ward - a lot of his fights, and then 3) Fury - his 1st fight with Wilder, and even some of his fight with Wlad (I snoozed through a lot of it and never really scored it.)
Also 4) most MMA guys, from all backgrounds, were picking Stipe to beat Ngannou - saying Stipe was just levels above him, when I feel like anyone who watched that first fight, could tell that some of those shots Stipe took, I wouldn't bet on him being able to take all of those again.
We need to get back to scoring each round for the guy who does the best work in that round, and leaving it at that. No extra points for dancing around, or because the defensive fighter didn't get beat up.
Overrating of defensive fighters today is probably the biggest pet peeve I have with the sport. It is a multi-step problem that encompasses 3 of the worst types of fans -
1) it isn't just the tribal fans - but that is part of it. 2) It also has to do with fans who are arrogant/have overall inferiority complexes, and want to act like they are seeing something with the defensive fighter that only a trained eye can see - that they are truly seeing 'the sweet science.' 3) And then also, some people seem to have sort of a fear/physical inferiority of the aggressive/big punching fighters. The way they combat this, is to overrate or overhype the defensive guys, either in mythical matchups or in their actual fight performances.
Rewarding the 'defensive' fighter with almost every round that is close/has little action, is just terrible for the sport. I don't think it comes down to race or even nationality with all of it either as the 3 biggest examples in my head are 1) Mayweather - a lot of his fights; 2) Ward - a lot of his fights, and then 3) Fury - his 1st fight with Wilder, and even some of his fight with Wlad (I snoozed through a lot of it and never really scored it.)
Also 4) most MMA guys, from all backgrounds, were picking Stipe to beat Ngannou - saying Stipe was just levels above him, when I feel like anyone who watched that first fight, could tell that some of those shots Stipe took, I wouldn't bet on him being able to take all of those again.
We need to get back to scoring each round for the guy who does the best work in that round, and leaving it at that. No extra points for dancing around, or because the defensive fighter didn't get beat up.
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