You can't just vacate a lineal championship, can you?

[E. O. Wilson]

Cotto was never MW champ, he beat an old injured man at a pointless catchweight and has never and will never fight at MW

Cotto's career for the past several years consists of fighting injured and mediocre opponents like Yuri Foreman until he paper-titles himself into a big payday, then getting dominated, then repeating

He makes Floyd look like an honest brave warrior

Cotto = Poop

[jas]

and the wbc belt is not the lineal title - the 2 have no correlation

[MDPopescu]

and the wbc belt is not the lineal title - the 2 have no correlation

be more specific: WBC awards the WBC champ belt, while The Ring Magazine awards the "lineal champion" belt... If WBC strips Cotto, he may still keep his lineal belt... And so on.

[jas]

be more specific: WBC awards the WBC champ belt, while The Ring Magazine awards the "lineal champion" belt... If WBC strips Cotto, he may still keep his lineal belt... And so on.

there you go, MD cleared it up , he knows his boxing.........except when it comes to bhop...

[MDPopescu]

there you go, MD cleared it up , he knows his boxing.........except when it comes to bhop...

Well... I don't vote against B-Hop in any poll here. It's common sense to show a special respect to living legend of the sport. I rate Hopkins above Ward -- which is also common sense.
... But I don't see the point in B-Hop's choice to fight the actual killer in the division. Ok, he's got some "business reasons", but I still think that this step is far too risky for his age...

[jas]

Well... I don't vote against B-Hop in any poll here. It's common sense to show a special respect to living legend of the sport. I rate Hopkins above Ward -- which is also common sense.
... But I don't see the point in B-Hop's choice to fight the actual killer in the division. Ok, he's got some "business reasons", but I still think that this step is far too risky for his age...

.................................................. ................

B-Hop doesn't need to be defended -- he's a great legend of the sport...
As about the Kovalev fight: this will never happen... You know this, all fans know this.

Hopkins calling out Kovalev isn't something to be taken ad litteram...
Calling out people doesn't necessarily materialize into an actual fight...
I put a bet here that B-Hop will never fight Kovalev -- the bet still stands.
(I can't see a serious reason for what an old legend like B-Hop has to fight the Russian killer).

http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14722146#post14722146

[MDPopescu]

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http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/sh...6#post14722146

I said it here: B-Hop had no reasons to fight Kovalev -- other than paving the GBP-HBO reconciliation and (in a certain extent) being stripped of his belt...
I never expected that Hopkins will act chiefly as a "ruthless promoter" while putting his own neck at stake...

[jas]

I said it here: B-Hop had no reasons to fight Kovalev -- other than paving the GBP-HBO reconciliation and (in a certain extent) being stripped of his belt...
I never expected that Hopkins will act chiefly as a "ruthless promoter" while putting his own neck at stake...

He has two belts.

[bojangles1987]

Who cares? If Cotto won't defend against the best MW but still fights at MW, his lineal title can be as fake as any alphabet belt.

If he moves back down, he relinquishes the lineal title and this is a non-issue.

[Assteroid Field]

Cotto was never MW champ, he beat an old injured man at a pointless catchweight and has never and will never fight at MW

Cotto's career for the past several years consists of fighting injured and mediocre opponents like Yuri Foreman until he paper-titles himself into a big payday, then getting dominated, then repeating

He makes Floyd look like an honest brave warrior

Cotto = Poop

Who cares? If Cotto won't defend against the best MW but still fights at MW, his lineal title can be as fake as any alphabet belt.

If he moves back down, he relinquishes the lineal title and this is a non-issue.

I don't see what the issue is. Martinez fought JMW Dzinzruk after Pavlik, then Barker and Macklin (ok contenders) and clearly showed no intention of going after other champions. (although I recall him being forced into Dzin fight by HBO or something)

Even Hopkins himself fought whats-his-name Hakkar and a blown up DLH for a payday.

Makes me wonder if it had been anyone else who beat Martinez on june, would they have been given credit.

Also, someone posted the rules earlier, its not just about moving down, its about not fighting at MW for 18 months, then its vacant.

To be honest, I don't think Cotto will face any legit middleweight threats. All I'm saying is, until he makes his next move, let's cut the guy some slack. He just won the title in a huge upset and hasn't even scheduled his next fight. Let's at least wait until we know what he does next before people start running their mouths.