Lampley's Anti-Gatti List

[The Big Dunn]

you can box without being negative.

ray leonard, ray robinson, tommy hearns, these were boxer - punchers.

Agreed, in their primes those men did just that. When they got to this age-granted they had taken much more punishment than Floyd primarily because their opponents kept coming and brought the fight to them rather than concede a fight-they weren't doing anything near what Floyd is doing.

[PlasterWraps]

Dude, you are not making any sense. No one 2 putts on purpose. Putts are never a guarantee. You expect every pro to make their putts, if they miss, it doesn't mean they didn't try to make it.

Ok, you want to see him in a good fight. You always do when the opponent continues to try and win even though he is down, just like Corrales. Hatton, Cotto, zab, maidana 1-fights where the guy trailing kept fighting and tried to win.

Manny, Ghost, Canelo, JMM-the guy trailing decides not to switch his style and not try and win even though he is trailing in the fight, hence the boring fight.

Your holding him to a higher standard isn't the problem-your not asking the opponents to continue to fight to win despite trailing in the fight is.

Maybe to you he wasn't 2-putting, but to a lot of people he was. It could have been because he got buzzed in the 4th and 6th, but it's boxing, you're bound to get hit at some point.

So the guy trailing has to get worse to make it an entertaining fight. It's not up to Floyd, at all, to entertain. Got you.
Before you come back with the technician excuse, Morales and Barrera were pretty solid technicians too, and they went out to fight. Lomachenko is solid, he goes out and attacks too. Don't act as if being a technician of boxing renders the offensive aspect of boxing obsolete. Especially not for someone of Mayweather's caliber.

[deanrw]

You are kind of missing the point.

The fighters you listed, except Gatti (rip) are all highly skilled fighters who won fights not just because of power. They boxed and got KO's through an accumulation of punches. They won fights and got rewarded with bigger purses and bigger fights.

They fought highly skilled opponents that forced the best out of them.

Nowadays guys with limited skill but who can take a mean punch get more airtime then quality fighters. There main skill/talent is they can absorb brutal beatings from big names over the course of 12 rounds but have no chance to win.

There is a big difference between hunting-the thing outdoorsman do and hunting-the thing rich people do on caged in animal reserves.

The only real point is: In any type of entertainment, providers want to supply a product that will reap rewards. In television land that is called Ratings. The networks know what will generate fan interest and will try to accommodate the hungry public.

Mismatches will happen. It happens on all the networks and not just HBO. What many view as injustice will also continue to happen. Rigondeaux basically gets ignored by all the networks. Why does he get ignored by the networks? It is because the fans ignore him.

[deanrw]

Agreed, in their primes those men did just that. When they got to this age-granted they had taken much more punishment than Floyd primarily because their opponents kept coming and brought the fight to them rather than concede a fight-they weren't doing anything near what Floyd is doing.

As fans, we pay for fights. We do not pay for a fighters longevity. That is not a fight fans concern.

[The Big Dunn]

The only real point is: In any type of entertainment, providers want to supply a product that will reap rewards. In television land that is called Ratings. The networks know what will generate fan interest and will try to accommodate the hungry public.

Mismatches will happen. It happens on all the networks and not just HBO. What many view as injustice will also continue to happen. Rigondeaux basically gets ignored by all the networks. Why does he get ignored by the networks? It is because the fans ignore him.

Yes, I understand that it generates ratings. I simply pointed out that it disincentivizes winning and devalues skills, which affects the product for fans who like boxing the sport/art form as much as they do seeing someone get brutally KTFO.

Respectfully, Rigo got pushed out after his most exciting performance. It wasn't lack of excitement, but that he beat someone who TR/HBO had highly invested in. The last fight he had in Japan was very crowd friendly and exciting.

It feels as if you link exciting to vulnerability. DOes a great boxer have to be vulnerable to be exciting?

[PlasterWraps]

Yes, I understand that it generates ratings. I simply pointed out that it disincentivizes winning and devalues skills, which affects the product for fans who like boxing the sport/art form as much as they do seeing someone get brutally KTFO.

Respectfully, Rigo got pushed out after his most exciting performance. It wasn't lack of excitement, but that he beat someone who TR/HBO had highly invested in. The last fight he had in Japan was very crowd friendly and exciting.

It feels as if you link exciting to vulnerability. DOes a great boxer have to be vulnerable to be exciting?

He got kicked out after the Agbeko fight, not Donaire.

[The Big Dunn]

As fans, we pay for fights. We do not pay for a fighters longevity. That is not a fight fans concern.

You may not, fine. I am not talking about longevity, I'm talking about the product put on TV. Any sport is better when there is a high degree of skill along with athleticism. I am seeing skill being devalued and I think it hurts the sport long term.

That's the exact problem with the HWT division, the fighters have so little talent that even a slugfest between 2 guys is no longer really enjoyable.

Do we want every division to look like the HWT division?

[deanrw]

Yes, I understand that it generates ratings. I simply pointed out that it disincentivizes winning and devalues skills, which affects the product for fans who like boxing the sport/art form as much as they do seeing someone get brutally KTFO.

Respectfully, Rigo got pushed out after his most exciting performance. It wasn't lack of excitement, but that he beat someone who TR/HBO had highly invested in. The last fight he had in Japan was very crowd friendly and exciting.

It feels as if you link exciting to vulnerability. DOes a great boxer have to be vulnerable to be exciting?

Nope! As an example, for a long time, Tyson did not look vulnerable, he seemed invincible, but we all watched. He promised pain. That is what the hungry public wanted. Rigo was pushed out of HBO yes, but it was not for beating Donaire, it was because he, by himself was a ratings nightmare. After getting ditched by HBO and Arum, you did not see Schaefer, Haymon, or Showtime swoop in.

[R_Walken]

You may not, fine. I am not talking about longevity, I'm talking about the product put on TV. Any sport is better when there is a high degree of skill along with athleticism. I am seeing skill being devalued and I think it hurts the sport long term.

That's the exact problem with the HWT division, the fighters have so little talent that even a slugfest between 2 guys is no longer really enjoyable.

Do we want every division to look like the HWT division?

Good post and agree on everything you've been saying about this topic.

HBOs M.O. seems to be putting their focus on exciting fights involving their marquee fighters if it happens to be a competitive match up then it's a bonus not a priority.

Personally I want the best to fight the best ( Think PBC for the most part is doing a great job at this ) but suprised because most of these fans seem that they could care less about the qaulity of the fighters as long as it's violent.

Entertainment has trumped winning which is BS because that's what sports and competition is about winning and proving your the best not just looking good while you compete against inferior opponets

[DoktorSleepless]

Lara in Lara-Angulo was more Gatti than most fighters can ever have claimed to be. Fighting with a gigantic hematoma against PWill without quitting was more Gatti than most fighters can have ever claimed to be.

Anyway, they put Vitali Klitchko in their regular gatti list, and refused to put Maidana in it because "he was going to lose to Mayweather". Its all non-sense.