Comments Thread For: How Much Criticism Does Ryad Merhy Deserve After His Poor Showing Against Jared Anderson?

[eco1]

Ryad Merhy, fought a defensive fight, with virtually no offense to his strategic plan.
He made a conscious decision to go the 10 round distance without endangering himself.
It lead to one of the most boring fights of the year, and that was basically all his fault.
So he does deserve all of the criticism that he's receiving, for consciously not fighting to win, but to survive.

And then the only minute of the fight when he let his hands go JA looked like a piņata.

[N/A]

The right question is "How much criticism does Jared Anderson deserve after his poor showing against Ryad Merhy?"

[Eff Pandas]

Guys who put in non-efforts are punished by not getting future paydays.

Jared was bound to be criticized too, but when a guy doesn't show up to win there is only so much you can do to end the fight early or make it entertaining when the opp is giving you nothing to work with.

And when a guy doesn't completely suck you can sometimes be putting yourself at more risk to attempt to reward fans with a more entertaining fight when the path of least resistance is just to take the W the opp is gifting you.

[ShoulderRoll]

It seems like more, and more fighters are concerned with their self preservation to the point that they aren't entertaining.
Back in the day they left it all in the ring, I'm not saying that you have to give your life for the sport, or the fans.
That said there is a certain amount of effort that they have to put into the fight in order to win, and have the public coming back for more.
You have to earn your money, if you want to be successful, and revered in this sport.
If you don't have it within your self to be a tried, and true professional then you should find another occupation in which to make your livelihood.

I think if they made 18’ x 18’ boxing rings the standard size you would get more action fights, and the truly elite defensive fighters would still be able to shine while being forced to have more offense at the same time.

[PBR Streetgang]

Sure Merhy gets some blame for his incredibly passive, risk-averse style. The Belgian knew this was a big opportunity and decided it would benefit him most to go the distance and lose. Six months from now, people will forget how he accomplished that feat and only see the result.

Anderson gets some for not figuring out a way to force the action and get him out of there.

Top Rank gets the lions share in my book for booking a euro-level cruiserweight (who dabbles in heavyweight) as the opponent for their HW prospect.

I'm sure TR expected Merhy to fall before the might of Big Baby...Tessitore and Bradley were all ready to overreact to a stoppage win for Anderson. Don't worry, they will get it right next time. Jared will be matched up with someone who will provide him a spectacular knockout next time he climbs in the ring.