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First, let me say that boxing is my fourth favorite sport (behind Basketball, Football, and Soccer). I have been blessed to see some of the greatest fighters, and I will be blessed to see many more to come. Last month was a great month for boxing with Crawford beating Spence and Inoue beating Fulton. Both are tremendous fighters and deserve all the credit that they are receiving for their victories. But I am getting sick and tired of the fanboyism and fans not putting certain victories into context with ranking fighters. I'm also getting tired of the bias against certain fighters when it comes to criticizing resumes. To be frank, all modern fighters who are considered P4P should be criticized for their resumes.
Tyson Fury
An anomaly when it comes to the HW division (extremely skilled and athletic for his size) but his best wins were against Klitschko and Wilder. Now, I don’t think it’s far-fetched to say that Wlad is an ATG HW and Wilder may be the hardest puncher in HW history (debatable). But can we honestly say that Fury beat the best version of Wlad? No. Wald was clearly past his prime when he fought Fury, and I believe Fury ducked the rematch due to how close the first fight was. Wilder was always considered a non-skilled HW with a big punch and outside of Ortiz( who was probably a 50-year-old man at the time) he never defeated a “great” HW to deserve the hype he was receiving. So based on the circumstances surrounding Wilder and Wlad, I can’t say Fury is as special as some of the members of this board state. Hell, I have heard some posters, here, say that Fury would beat Foreman, Ali, Tyson, Lennox, and Mercer. Those guys would be the best HW in this modern era IMO.
Inoue
What can I say, the guy is pretty talented, extremely skilled, one of the hardest punchers P4P, and could hang with some of the greatest flyweights and bantamweight. But with that said, his best wins are against an out-of-prime Donaire and an inexperienced Fulton whose best win is Figueroa. Yeah, this doesn’t scream “out of the world” resume either. But…... he is still young and has a chance to prove it against top competition at 126 and at 130. Let's not forget that Rigo dominated a fresher version of Donaire and didn't receive a quarter of the hype that Inoue has received.
GGG
Was a monster in his prime and should be considered a top-25 Middleweight (based on skill alone). Unfortunately, he never had a chance to prove how great he was due to the level of competition. His official best win (yes I do agree that he beat Canelo in the first two fights) is either Danny Jacobs or Dervychencko. I do believe that GGG could’ve achieved a lot more, but he was avoided like the plague in his prime. A lot of this is not GGGs fault but I think he should’ve taken the Ward fight at 168 when he had a chance (50/50 fight).
Crawford
Now this is a very interesting one. Crawford is without a doubt a tremendous fighter and has accomplished a lot. But when you dig below the surface and use context, you will see a lot of smoke and mirrors.
Spence
Another talented WW who had a chance to be an ATG but blew it due to unhealthy habits outside the ring. He refused to go up to 154 when he had the chance and experienced a car wreck that may have damaged him for good. He has some decent wins at 147 but those wins are nothing special when you peel back the layers. Porter had been defeated twice by Kell Brook and Keith Thurman. Lamont Peterson was clearly done. Mikey Garcia was a blown-up WW. Ugas is extremely underrated but would lose against any prime WW. He is only 33 but we will see what he does from this point forward. But after experiencing that beating from Crawford and the car wreck, I think he is pretty much so done.
Shakur
A terrific fighter who has a chance to be one of the greatest defensive fighters in history. P4P he is the most skilled when you include defense and offense but he hasn’t put himself in a position to fight the cream-of-the-crop at 135 and 140. In divisions where you have Cruz, Keyshawn, Loma, Haney, Davis, Azum, Regis, Subriel, Ryan, and Gary Russell there is no excuse for having such a weak resume. People would kill at the opportunity to have those names on their resume, but Shakur was a fool to not accept Haney’s 25% offer. I have a feeling it’s going to be a while before we see Shakur in there with a top 5 LW or JrWW.
Davis
Tremendous power but has yet to fight a real challenge (Ryan has not peaked yet so that fight does not count imo). Same with Shakur, with all the talent from 130 to 140, there is no excuse for Davis to not have at least 2 of those names on his resume. He has been another star who has been “carefully” matched. He did, indeed, duck Loma in his prime.
Loma
Based on skills, I can’t name 5 fighters who were more skilled than prime Loma. His athleticism, mixed with pressure, defense, and work rate made him an absolute tear in his prime. But…. He lost every big fight (even though he got robbed against Haney and Salido). He should’ve become pro earlier in his career instead of staying in the amateurs for so long.
Canelo:
Hate him or love him, Canelo has the most stacked resume in boxing. He is one of the greatest Mexican fighters of all time and he has never run away from a challenge (except ducking GGG for so many years). The problem with Canelo is that he has too many questionable decisions (Trout, Cotto, GGG, and Lara).
Haney
I don't know what it is about Haney, but it seems as though he lacks the "IT" factor to be great. He is tremendously skilled and has the potential to be even better but the Loma fight exposed some flaws that other fighters can use to break him down. Outside of Loma, which was a controversial decision, he has yet to separate himself from the best at 135 and 140. We will see how his career plays out but I don't see him being the P4P king in the future.
As you can see, all these fighters who have been hyped up in the boxing community have “questionable” decisions and didn’t put themselves in the position to fight their opponents when they were at their best. When I hear people saying that Crawford and Spence would be competitive against historical WW, I laugh. And when I hear people say Shakur, Haney, and Davis would beat Duran, I shake my head. None of these guys have fought any ATGs to be ranked so high in this community.
Usyk
Won the Super Six and Cruiserweight which the deepest division at the time but has received too much credit for beating a washed-up AJ.
Bivol
Another talented fighter who does everything well but received too much credit for defeating an undersized Canelo who went up daring to be great. He needs to beat Beterbiev to earn my respect.
Jermell Charlo
He might be the most underrated of the crop but has benefitted immensely from competing in a very watered-down 154 division. Lubin was talented but way too green at the time. Harrison was a really good boxer but not necessarily great. Castano may be the best of the opponents Charlo had faced but would be a journeyman in any other era. A win over Canelo may change my view.
The reason people rank Pernell, Floyd, Pacquiao, Oscar, Tito, Duran, Hagler, Hearns, Mosley, and Leonard so high is that these guys defeated other fighters who accomplished greatness. All these guys have a long.... way to go and I'm not sure any of them will be able to accomplish such a feat.
Tyson Fury
An anomaly when it comes to the HW division (extremely skilled and athletic for his size) but his best wins were against Klitschko and Wilder. Now, I don’t think it’s far-fetched to say that Wlad is an ATG HW and Wilder may be the hardest puncher in HW history (debatable). But can we honestly say that Fury beat the best version of Wlad? No. Wald was clearly past his prime when he fought Fury, and I believe Fury ducked the rematch due to how close the first fight was. Wilder was always considered a non-skilled HW with a big punch and outside of Ortiz( who was probably a 50-year-old man at the time) he never defeated a “great” HW to deserve the hype he was receiving. So based on the circumstances surrounding Wilder and Wlad, I can’t say Fury is as special as some of the members of this board state. Hell, I have heard some posters, here, say that Fury would beat Foreman, Ali, Tyson, Lennox, and Mercer. Those guys would be the best HW in this modern era IMO.
Inoue
What can I say, the guy is pretty talented, extremely skilled, one of the hardest punchers P4P, and could hang with some of the greatest flyweights and bantamweight. But with that said, his best wins are against an out-of-prime Donaire and an inexperienced Fulton whose best win is Figueroa. Yeah, this doesn’t scream “out of the world” resume either. But…... he is still young and has a chance to prove it against top competition at 126 and at 130. Let's not forget that Rigo dominated a fresher version of Donaire and didn't receive a quarter of the hype that Inoue has received.
GGG
Was a monster in his prime and should be considered a top-25 Middleweight (based on skill alone). Unfortunately, he never had a chance to prove how great he was due to the level of competition. His official best win (yes I do agree that he beat Canelo in the first two fights) is either Danny Jacobs or Dervychencko. I do believe that GGG could’ve achieved a lot more, but he was avoided like the plague in his prime. A lot of this is not GGGs fault but I think he should’ve taken the Ward fight at 168 when he had a chance (50/50 fight).
Crawford
Now this is a very interesting one. Crawford is without a doubt a tremendous fighter and has accomplished a lot. But when you dig below the surface and use context, you will see a lot of smoke and mirrors.
- Khan was way past his prime and had already been knocked out by Canelo and Danny Garcia.
- Brook was past his best and took the fight on an 8-week notice, having to drop down to 147 from 154 (a weight class he had been in for a few years). It was so bad that his coach decided to not travel for the fight.
- Jose Benavidez was talented early in his career but was competitive on one-leg.
- Diaz was a nobody who received a lot of credit for being robbed against Peterson (another guy who was way past his best)/
- Postol was never anything special and ended up losing to other top fighters.
- Porter was one foot out of boxing. This fight should've happened three years ago.
- Errol Spence is the biggest win on Crawford's resume but this is where context needs to be applied. Based on the eye test, speculation, and rumors coming out of Spence's camp, Spence was not healthy. This is pretty evident when you compare his past performances to his performance against Crawford. Again, fighters who were lesser than Spence were more competitive against Crawford. I don't know if it was the weight, neurological damage, or a rib injury. One thing is for sure, that was not the Errol Spence we are accustomed to seeing.
Spence
Another talented WW who had a chance to be an ATG but blew it due to unhealthy habits outside the ring. He refused to go up to 154 when he had the chance and experienced a car wreck that may have damaged him for good. He has some decent wins at 147 but those wins are nothing special when you peel back the layers. Porter had been defeated twice by Kell Brook and Keith Thurman. Lamont Peterson was clearly done. Mikey Garcia was a blown-up WW. Ugas is extremely underrated but would lose against any prime WW. He is only 33 but we will see what he does from this point forward. But after experiencing that beating from Crawford and the car wreck, I think he is pretty much so done.
Shakur
A terrific fighter who has a chance to be one of the greatest defensive fighters in history. P4P he is the most skilled when you include defense and offense but he hasn’t put himself in a position to fight the cream-of-the-crop at 135 and 140. In divisions where you have Cruz, Keyshawn, Loma, Haney, Davis, Azum, Regis, Subriel, Ryan, and Gary Russell there is no excuse for having such a weak resume. People would kill at the opportunity to have those names on their resume, but Shakur was a fool to not accept Haney’s 25% offer. I have a feeling it’s going to be a while before we see Shakur in there with a top 5 LW or JrWW.
Davis
Tremendous power but has yet to fight a real challenge (Ryan has not peaked yet so that fight does not count imo). Same with Shakur, with all the talent from 130 to 140, there is no excuse for Davis to not have at least 2 of those names on his resume. He has been another star who has been “carefully” matched. He did, indeed, duck Loma in his prime.
Loma
Based on skills, I can’t name 5 fighters who were more skilled than prime Loma. His athleticism, mixed with pressure, defense, and work rate made him an absolute tear in his prime. But…. He lost every big fight (even though he got robbed against Haney and Salido). He should’ve become pro earlier in his career instead of staying in the amateurs for so long.
Canelo:
Hate him or love him, Canelo has the most stacked resume in boxing. He is one of the greatest Mexican fighters of all time and he has never run away from a challenge (except ducking GGG for so many years). The problem with Canelo is that he has too many questionable decisions (Trout, Cotto, GGG, and Lara).
Haney
I don't know what it is about Haney, but it seems as though he lacks the "IT" factor to be great. He is tremendously skilled and has the potential to be even better but the Loma fight exposed some flaws that other fighters can use to break him down. Outside of Loma, which was a controversial decision, he has yet to separate himself from the best at 135 and 140. We will see how his career plays out but I don't see him being the P4P king in the future.
As you can see, all these fighters who have been hyped up in the boxing community have “questionable” decisions and didn’t put themselves in the position to fight their opponents when they were at their best. When I hear people saying that Crawford and Spence would be competitive against historical WW, I laugh. And when I hear people say Shakur, Haney, and Davis would beat Duran, I shake my head. None of these guys have fought any ATGs to be ranked so high in this community.
Usyk
Won the Super Six and Cruiserweight which the deepest division at the time but has received too much credit for beating a washed-up AJ.
Bivol
Another talented fighter who does everything well but received too much credit for defeating an undersized Canelo who went up daring to be great. He needs to beat Beterbiev to earn my respect.
Jermell Charlo
He might be the most underrated of the crop but has benefitted immensely from competing in a very watered-down 154 division. Lubin was talented but way too green at the time. Harrison was a really good boxer but not necessarily great. Castano may be the best of the opponents Charlo had faced but would be a journeyman in any other era. A win over Canelo may change my view.
The reason people rank Pernell, Floyd, Pacquiao, Oscar, Tito, Duran, Hagler, Hearns, Mosley, and Leonard so high is that these guys defeated other fighters who accomplished greatness. All these guys have a long.... way to go and I'm not sure any of them will be able to accomplish such a feat.
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