L. Merchant: "Today's breed of boxing fans put more emphasis on UNDEFEATED records"

[Equinox]

I can vouch for that, now a days its like people say ohhh look he has 6 losses he is a bum, but the reason why they are saying that is because back in the day the fought more often and they fought better fighters more often.

[johncods]

All of them?

compare floyd's resume who has the best undefeated resume today to Oscar's?? tell me what you see.

[V.WEBB]

compare floyd's resume who has the best undefeated resume today to Oscar's?? tell me what you see.

So you were ONLY referring to Floyd when you made your last comment?

Soo true.. You look at all Undefeateds today and look at their resume and compare them to De la hoya's, or Mosley's. and there's a giant gap in competition.

[Heru]

2 reasons

1) Casual fans (Roger Mayweather's voice) "don't know **** about boxing."

2) Mayweather is spouting about his undefeated record in almost every interview. When you have the best fighter putting importance on something, people will follow. It's like 50 Cent touting first week record sales when he was #1.

[Mr. Philadel]

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.

http://www.ringtv.com/blog/1870/mayw...feated_record/

good stuff .....Larry is on point!!

[BigStereotype]

So you were ONLY referring to Floyd when you made your last comment?

What undefeated has a better resume than Floyd today? He was using Floyd as the best example of the undefeated and he's right. Oscar and Shane both have better resumes. They also both have 5+ losses.

[johncods]

So you were ONLY referring to Floyd when you made your last comment?

Nope I said all. You know any undefeated who today that has a decent resume?? Now you asked if all?? we'll floyd's the best example I can find because he has the BEST undefeated resume.

[johncods]

What undefeated has a better resume than Floyd today? He was using Floyd as the best example of the undefeated and he's right. Oscar and Shane both have better resumes. They also both have 5+ losses.

Thank You. SMFH at some of these dudes.

[EDOMITESLAYER]

Thank You. SMFH at some of these dudes.

Yes but hasnt floyd already claimed one of these greats OSCAR??

Listen Floyd is smart, all this fight everyone is pure nonsense its not like that anymore, people would fight every other week back in the day, that aint happening! More knockouts back then with damaged guys,and a guy could have gotten his ass kicked last week, and now hes back in the ring in less than a week,IMAGINE GATTI HAVING TO FIGHT 2 WEEKS AFTER FLOYD PUT IT ON HIM??!!!People of Jack Johnsons era would say the same thing to the other youngsters coming up. You have promotions etc now, people make big bucks. ADVERTISING ETC. ITS A MORE LUCRATIVE BUSINESS NOW. that "0" is PRIZED regardless. The body cant take that. Thats why the older the person is the more they will tell you their era was better. I mean I don't consider cotto delahoyas era, that would be tito etc. But floyd just got to the welterweight stage a few years ago. And hes still fighting, that other one with the great resume, well lets just say MAYWEATHER plans to end that SATURDAY AND ADD mosley to his resume as well.The further you go back the less strategic as well. There was no film, or it was too expensive for most fighters. The fighters of back then are great for their time, fought harder, longer rounds, longer matches, smaller gloves.....

once again THE RING P4P TITLE IS MORE OVERRATED, AND HBO DOES A HELLUVA JOB OF SETTING UP THIS HYPE, How many times did JIM LAMPLEY SAY POUND FOR POUND CHAMPION IN PACNUTS LAST FIGHT? Did Bruce Buffer say it as well? of course he did.


The resumes get weaker and weaker because the fights take longer as well. Look at delahoyas and then look at haglers, look at durans, look at leonards, my oldest brother says the same ****, but you cant keep the young fighter down because the fight game is more about money now.

WHO DOESNT LIKE A WINNER?

WAS anyones FAVORITE ****IN FIGHTER FROM THE VIDEO GAME MIKE TYSONS PUNCH OUT GLASS JOE? OR WAS MIKE TYSON GLORIFIED? Marciano couldnt **** wit ali or frazier or foreman, but hes brought up as undefeated. Hes given his props.

Larry merchant ass always there to throw dirt and hes mad as hell, they about to make his old ass step down anyway.

JUST A RANT NOT AT YOU JOHN, I SEE YOUR POINT, but ****s just different.

[EDOMITESLAYER]

What undefeated has a better resume than Floyd today? He was using Floyd as the best example of the undefeated and he's right. Oscar and Shane both have better resumes. They also both have 5+ losses.

I dont understand what good is a reume if your 5 toughest fights are all losses.

Imagine sitting down for an interview and talking to the employer and saying I have a wealth of experience, he says yes you do, you worked for google, microsoft, apple, cysco, and at&t along with other semi meaningful jobs......


My analogy makes sense if you look at being "FIRED" by 5 great companies and the best on your resume, just as delahoya and shane were beat by the 5 best pieces of opposition they had on their resume, sure they had other semi good jobs (semi notable wins)

but what really mattered is they lost.
what would it matter if you were FIRED from all x5 of those GOOD jobs and never left any of the good ones on good terms??

Thats how I see DELAHOYA AND SHANE. JUST like I see the washington redskins looks good on paper buys tons of talent but never wins the big game.

So the only thing one can say is that they fought people and werent afraid, but when does that equate to success? Shane fought winky twice and lost, fought forresst twice and lost, and lost to COTTO. Those are his losses and his toughest competition.

we put too much emphasis on they were not scared, I dont think when yo get to the level floyd, pacnuts, shane, delahoya, tito, leonard etc that you become afraid. I think the opposite happens you believe you are the best.

Props to him for MARGARITO THOUGH.