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You’re supposed to move up in weight and fight the best each weight class has to offer until you lose.
You’re supposed to fight absolutely everyone who’s there to fight.
This is how you push yourself to be the best. This is how you make history and gain respect.
That’s what I understood until the turn of the century.
Roy Jones was the first to realize he could get away with not doing this because he had media and fans on his side.
Jones fought Ruiz and got a belt at heavyweight so he could compare himself to Bob Fitzsimmons.
Then he ran away from the division because he knew he’d get knocked out if it stayed.
He also avoided Darius Michalczewski and Michael Nunn at 175, which means he really avoided his greatest challenges at 175 and above.
But if you realize how history remembers Roy Jones, no one questions why he didn’t fight Lennox Lewis or those two light heavyweights.
Everyone just says he’s one of the best to ever do it and one of three men to go 160 to heavyweight. (Also worth noting Toney gets the same treatment and no one cares about the PEDs with Toney.)
Floyd Mayweather also perfected this art.
Mayweather waited to move up and didn’t fight the superstars of the world until much later, when it benefitted him. He fought De La Hoya a year before the end of his career. He could have fought Mosley in 1999. They fought in 2010. Pacquiao could have happened in 2008 but it happened in 2016. Etc. Etc. Etc.
If he fought a young superstar, a la Canelo Alvarez, it was when he was too green.
Mayweather also stopped moving up in weight for some reason, even with a modern peer who many times wins the “who’s greater?” debate because he kept going up in weight.
Why didn’t Mayweather challenge at 160? Every great before him would have pushed to do that.
Why didn’t Mayweather ever fight a slick boxer that was taller and longer than him?
Everyone else would have met that challenge at some point in their career. Not Mayweather.
He made a conscious decision to avoid those situations. He wanted to argue he was the best ever instead of proving it.
Canelo is doing the same thing, after he took a huge risk fighting Mayweather early in his career.
He’s aging people out, fighting at catchweight, avoiding Black Americans, entering and exiting divisions to win titles when it’s convenient for him, stopping short of certain weight divisions and avoiding the biggest fights out there.
I yearn for how boxing used to be. But at least I get to see everyone go undefeated now! Hooray!
You’re supposed to fight absolutely everyone who’s there to fight.
This is how you push yourself to be the best. This is how you make history and gain respect.
That’s what I understood until the turn of the century.
Roy Jones was the first to realize he could get away with not doing this because he had media and fans on his side.
Jones fought Ruiz and got a belt at heavyweight so he could compare himself to Bob Fitzsimmons.
Then he ran away from the division because he knew he’d get knocked out if it stayed.
He also avoided Darius Michalczewski and Michael Nunn at 175, which means he really avoided his greatest challenges at 175 and above.
But if you realize how history remembers Roy Jones, no one questions why he didn’t fight Lennox Lewis or those two light heavyweights.
Everyone just says he’s one of the best to ever do it and one of three men to go 160 to heavyweight. (Also worth noting Toney gets the same treatment and no one cares about the PEDs with Toney.)
Floyd Mayweather also perfected this art.
Mayweather waited to move up and didn’t fight the superstars of the world until much later, when it benefitted him. He fought De La Hoya a year before the end of his career. He could have fought Mosley in 1999. They fought in 2010. Pacquiao could have happened in 2008 but it happened in 2016. Etc. Etc. Etc.
If he fought a young superstar, a la Canelo Alvarez, it was when he was too green.
Mayweather also stopped moving up in weight for some reason, even with a modern peer who many times wins the “who’s greater?” debate because he kept going up in weight.
Why didn’t Mayweather challenge at 160? Every great before him would have pushed to do that.
Why didn’t Mayweather ever fight a slick boxer that was taller and longer than him?
Everyone else would have met that challenge at some point in their career. Not Mayweather.
He made a conscious decision to avoid those situations. He wanted to argue he was the best ever instead of proving it.
Canelo is doing the same thing, after he took a huge risk fighting Mayweather early in his career.
He’s aging people out, fighting at catchweight, avoiding Black Americans, entering and exiting divisions to win titles when it’s convenient for him, stopping short of certain weight divisions and avoiding the biggest fights out there.
I yearn for how boxing used to be. But at least I get to see everyone go undefeated now! Hooray!
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