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Excerpts from a recent Ring Magazine article...
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Merchant, who has followed the sport since the 1940s, says there is little doubt that unbeaten records mean more to fans now than in decades past.
“In the old days, if a fighter was unbeaten the response from fans was ‘Who has he fought?’ and ‘Is he being protected?’” Merchant said. “Fighters were not judged by their records. They were judged on who they fought and how they fought them.
“In the modern era, records are used as marketing tool or as a means of attracting the attention of casual fans who may not follow the sport very closely. There’s a young fighter from Mexico, Saul Alvarez, on the undercard of Saturday’s fight. He’s 19 years old and 31-0. The record makes you curious. Fans see that record and wonder how good he really is. That’s a natural thing.”
If Alvarez continues his winning ways don’t be surprised if fan curiosity gives way to blind adulation and the young welterweight starts drawing comparisons to Mexican greats of the past.
Undefeated fighters gaining premature greatness has almost become a tradition in recent decades.
Mike Tyson, the sport’s biggest star when he was its undisputed, undefeated heavyweight champ, was put in the company of Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali before Buster Douglas shocked him and the rest of the world.
Boxing’s next star, Oscar De La Hoya, was compared to Sugar Ray Leonard until he lost his “O” to Felix Trinidad.
Between his decapitation of William Joppy and his humiliation at the hands of Bernard Hopkins, many fans wondered how Trinidad, 40-0 at the time, would have fared against the likes of Robinson and Carlos Monzon.
Marco Antonio Barrera was compared to Julio Cesar Chavez as he rolled to a magnificent 43-0 record. Then he rolled into the right hands of Junior Jones.
Many called Naseem Hamed, 35-0 with 31 knockouts going into his showdown with Barrera, the hardest punching featherweight in history before he was undressed by the Mexican boxer.
There are a dozen other examples but the story is the same. Undefeated fighters seem unbeatable and on par with the great ones of the sport, then they lose a fight and suddenly the all-time great comparisons cease.
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Merchant, who has followed the sport since the 1940s, says there is little doubt that unbeaten records mean more to fans now than in decades past.
“In the old days, if a fighter was unbeaten the response from fans was ‘Who has he fought?’ and ‘Is he being protected?’” Merchant said. “Fighters were not judged by their records. They were judged on who they fought and how they fought them.
“In the modern era, records are used as marketing tool or as a means of attracting the attention of casual fans who may not follow the sport very closely. There’s a young fighter from Mexico, Saul Alvarez, on the undercard of Saturday’s fight. He’s 19 years old and 31-0. The record makes you curious. Fans see that record and wonder how good he really is. That’s a natural thing.”
If Alvarez continues his winning ways don’t be surprised if fan curiosity gives way to blind adulation and the young welterweight starts drawing comparisons to Mexican greats of the past.
Undefeated fighters gaining premature greatness has almost become a tradition in recent decades.
Mike Tyson, the sport’s biggest star when he was its undisputed, undefeated heavyweight champ, was put in the company of Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali before Buster Douglas shocked him and the rest of the world.
Boxing’s next star, Oscar De La Hoya, was compared to Sugar Ray Leonard until he lost his “O” to Felix Trinidad.
Between his decapitation of William Joppy and his humiliation at the hands of Bernard Hopkins, many fans wondered how Trinidad, 40-0 at the time, would have fared against the likes of Robinson and Carlos Monzon.
Marco Antonio Barrera was compared to Julio Cesar Chavez as he rolled to a magnificent 43-0 record. Then he rolled into the right hands of Junior Jones.
Many called Naseem Hamed, 35-0 with 31 knockouts going into his showdown with Barrera, the hardest punching featherweight in history before he was undressed by the Mexican boxer.
There are a dozen other examples but the story is the same. Undefeated fighters seem unbeatable and on par with the great ones of the sport, then they lose a fight and suddenly the all-time great comparisons cease.
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