"Most Avoided Fighter" Myths

[savorduhflavor]

Apparently, the criteria for being the most avoided fighter in the world is....

Be a threat
Bring no money to the table

Paul Williams....very capable, brings little money= avoided
Margarito....dangerous, brought little money= avoided
Bradley....dangerous, brings little money= avoided.

Now I don't really have a problem with any of these 3 fighters...in fact I'm a huge Bradley fan. These 3 just happened to be good examples.

It's just asinine that they get these "avoided" fighters reputations. It's ****ing crystal clear why they didn't or aren't getting huge fights...they bring high risk and offer little reward.

I know that people that aren't totally blinded realize this, but everytime I hear someone refer to these people as "feared" it pisses me off so much.

These guys box for a living, at the elite level, no one is scared of anyone. They make sound business decisions.

[mangler jr]

I don't think its fear either. But calling it that makes internet discussions more robust.

The problem I have with this is that it makes boxing look like a total joke.

In any respectable sport where competition is fair and honest, the best fight the best.

Can you imagine if the Lakers said, "**** that, we won't play the Bobcats cuz' nobody knows who they are and they bring nothing to the table"...

They would be laughed out of the league. And rightly so.


This is my biggest problem with boxing as a "sport".

[Bram]

I agree with what you're saying, but I kind of think that everyone accepts this as being the case, they just may not talk about it.

You can go back to people like Winky Wright and Vernon Forrest and I don't think anyone was actually AFRAID to fight them, they just knew that it was going to be a helluva lot of work to win the fight and definitely not a helluva lot of money to go along with it before they fought Shane.

[mcdoodledoo]

I don't think its fear either. But calling it that makes internet discussions more robust.

The problem I have with this is that it makes boxing look like a total joke.

In any respectable sport where competition is fair and honest, the best fight the best.

Can you imagine if the Lakers said, "**** that, we won't play the Bobcats cuz' nobody knows who they are and they bring nothing to the table"...

They would be laughed out of the league. And rightly so.


This is my biggest problem with boxing as a "sport".

I was just about to post this. In reality, there should be no justification for turning down a fight just because they bring no or little money to the table. I know some people see boxing as a business, but it's still a sport and the point of a sport is to compete and challenge yourself, not just take on the weakest challenge so you can make lots of money.

Fighting the best challengers will always bring money no matter what.

[S.G.]

I don't think Bradley is avoided really. He's been facing top contender after top contender. He's only having a little trouble finding a fight right now as all the other main guys at JWW are tied up with other fights.

Ali Funeka... Now that guy's avoided.

[savorduhflavor]

I don't think its fear either. But calling it that makes internet discussions more robust.

The problem I have with this is that it makes boxing look like a total joke.

In any respectable sport where competition is fair and honest, the best fight the best.

Can you imagine if the Lakers said, "**** that, we won't play the Bobcats cuz' nobody knows who they are and they bring nothing to the table"...

They would be laughed out of the league. And rightly so.


This is my biggest problem with boxing as a "sport".

I know what you mean, and agree to an extent. But boxing is just sooo international that it's impossible to enforce that. So many promoters, sanctioning bodies, and networks it's tough to compare to other sports.

The NFL,NBA, and MLB....that would be like if Top Rank had all of the best fighters in the world, and any other promotion was a joke, ya know? If that was the case we wouldn't be having these issues but it's just impossible for that to happen.

[mcdoodledoo]

I know what you mean, and agree to an extent. But boxing is just sooo international that it's impossible to enforce that. So many promoters, sanctioning bodies, and networks it's tough to compare to other sports.

The NFL,NBA, and MLB....that would be like if Top Rank had all of the best fighters in the world, and any other promotion was a joke, ya know? If that was the case we wouldn't be having these issues but it's just impossible for that to happen.

It would be enforceable, not enforceable but applied, but it'd be up to the networks to do the enforcing. They should really only accept the top, most competitive matches available, giving them the money, then it would be up to the promoters to do proper match making, rather that some of the whack ass matches some of them come up with now.

[grownfolk.us]

When a fighter who has a title can't find a fight = avoided