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Originally posted by petegrif
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The buildup to a fight like this is fascinating.
The promoters have 2 main strategies to build the fight:
a) build acrimony, talk **** about how you're going to kill the other guy. Hopefully, enough people will then hate you enough to hope you get beat - this was MW's strategy and it worked brilliantly, although the guy is so smart that he didn't even blink to build up McGregor as a threat when it looked like it might be uneven.
b) build up the other guy as a dangerous opponent so it looks even
Basically, promoters have an interest in making it look like it's a real fight.
The interesting thing is the way in which people get caught up in this spin and start repeating it so in no time it becomes the dominant narrative.
Let's look at an example in the GGG Canelo fight. Everyone knows GGG is a lethal puncher. So what we really need as a promoter is for Canelo to be a lethat puncher too. So now all the talk is about how Canelo has heavy hands and could put GGG to sleep. Now - let's agree that anything can happen in boxing, it's a fact - but if we look at this story rationally, review the fights of these guys to date, how much sense does this story really make?
GGG has never even been down, let alone stopped. We have see him take big shots from legit punchers (Lemieux, Stevens, Jacobs) but he barely hesitates before he's back to work. That's just a fact. And we know he hits like a truck, that's a fact. What about Canelo? Looks like he's got a good chin. He's never been down and has barely been wobbled. But of course he is typically significantly bigger than his opponents because he's made a career of shrinking down then blowing up into a giant. So how's his chin against a true MW, rather than a starved Chavez Jr - we don't know. What about Canelo's power? He's got some great KOs where the power looks real (e.g. Kirkland) but there have been several cases where he couldn't put people away (Chavez jr, Cotto even after hitting them with what sure looked like his best shot). So we have to at least question his power. And that's against lighter fighters most of the time. How's the power going to work against a proven MW chin?
Like I said - anything can happen. Maybe C will KO GGG. But on the evidence we have it looks extremely unlikely. But even though the simplest analysis above makes this pretty obvious, we still have this narrative that Canelo has real power and serious people are talking about GGG being put to sleep by Canelo.
THis doesn't make much sense other than in the context of the mounting hysteria as we approach the fight. If serious people can get so confused that they lose track of the facts and start repeating the promoter's narrative then all I can say is that the promoters have done a damn good job.
peace
The promoters have 2 main strategies to build the fight:
a) build acrimony, talk **** about how you're going to kill the other guy. Hopefully, enough people will then hate you enough to hope you get beat - this was MW's strategy and it worked brilliantly, although the guy is so smart that he didn't even blink to build up McGregor as a threat when it looked like it might be uneven.
b) build up the other guy as a dangerous opponent so it looks even
Basically, promoters have an interest in making it look like it's a real fight.
The interesting thing is the way in which people get caught up in this spin and start repeating it so in no time it becomes the dominant narrative.
Let's look at an example in the GGG Canelo fight. Everyone knows GGG is a lethal puncher. So what we really need as a promoter is for Canelo to be a lethat puncher too. So now all the talk is about how Canelo has heavy hands and could put GGG to sleep. Now - let's agree that anything can happen in boxing, it's a fact - but if we look at this story rationally, review the fights of these guys to date, how much sense does this story really make?
GGG has never even been down, let alone stopped. We have see him take big shots from legit punchers (Lemieux, Stevens, Jacobs) but he barely hesitates before he's back to work. That's just a fact. And we know he hits like a truck, that's a fact. What about Canelo? Looks like he's got a good chin. He's never been down and has barely been wobbled. But of course he is typically significantly bigger than his opponents because he's made a career of shrinking down then blowing up into a giant. So how's his chin against a true MW, rather than a starved Chavez Jr - we don't know. What about Canelo's power? He's got some great KOs where the power looks real (e.g. Kirkland) but there have been several cases where he couldn't put people away (Chavez jr, Cotto even after hitting them with what sure looked like his best shot). So we have to at least question his power. And that's against lighter fighters most of the time. How's the power going to work against a proven MW chin?
Like I said - anything can happen. Maybe C will KO GGG. But on the evidence we have it looks extremely unlikely. But even though the simplest analysis above makes this pretty obvious, we still have this narrative that Canelo has real power and serious people are talking about GGG being put to sleep by Canelo.
THis doesn't make much sense other than in the context of the mounting hysteria as we approach the fight. If serious people can get so confused that they lose track of the facts and start repeating the promoter's narrative then all I can say is that the promoters have done a damn good job.
peace
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