Fighters that Prop Up their Opponents' achievements and abilities pre-fight

[Bald Shavers]

Are fighters that try to make their opponents look better than they really are through public praises just confident that they will beat them?

In other words, they praise their opponents before the fight in order to make their upcoming victory over them more impressive than it really is. Is this a sign of self confidence?

But let's say that the same fighter (that used to praise his opponents pre-fight) has a new fight coming up but instead of praising his next opponent, he instead discredits him. Does this mean that he may not be confident in a victory this time around? Could it be that he may be belittling his next opponent's achievements in order to boost his own self confidence, which this time is very low due to his knowledge that his opponent is stronger, has faster hands, and faster footwork?

Important note: This is a general boxing thread. It is not a thread about a particular fighter or a specific fight. This is a post about boxing psychology in general.

Just interested in what you people think about pre-fight behavior and psychology in general. Thank you.

[Scipio2009]

It's the Ric Flair approach to doing business; highlight the skill and ability and talent of your opponent so that, when you win, your triumph looks that much more spectacular. If you end up taking an L, you've lost to a guy that you've hyped with compliments, so the loss isn't as devastating.

[Motofan]

Vitali was great at this towards the end. Basically joking that he hoped his opponents would go easy on him because he was old. I would rather hear a guy talk his opponent up than run him down for months like a lot of trainers seem to do. Why am I watching this fight if you think its such a waste of everyones time?

[-Kev-]

I think it really depends on the respect a fighter has for another.

For example, i'm going to use my favorite fighter, Mayweather called Gatti a club fighter, c class, etc, and beat him up. He was clearly confident about beating him pre fight and was genuine in his thoughts of Gatti being a low class fighter (Even though now he calls him a warrior after his death, out of respect to the deceased probably).

Then, when he faced Marquez and Cotto, he respects those two, so he spoke respectfully about them. But remember he had no respect for Mosley or Ortiz, because Mosley talked too much trash and so did Ortiz.

There's no fixed storyline, I think it depends on the respect one fighter has for the other.