So I watched the fight with a bunch of casuals on Saturday.

[al-Xander]

Winning fights or getting competitive is ninety percent mental. In this case, both guys were afraid to get hit. Peterson, for example, just decided to lay it all out on the line and trade with Garcia in the second half of their fight. He was taking Swift's vaunted power all of a sudden and inflicted welts and bruises on Garcia's face at the same time. It wasn't that vaunted after all.

[Sweet Jones]

Floyd had a great resume up until Oscar

From then on "money" may was there

He carefully selected his opponents
Fought once a year
And has undoubtably influenced a lot of upcoming boxers to try and replicate

The only problem is now fighters won't even fight anyone half decent

Floyd was a massive influence
Good on him for earning what he earnt
And people obviously paid for his fights

But to me , the sport suffered big time

Now fighters are paranoid to lose there 0 , out of fear of losing there "loyal" fans
Which is why they all carefully chose who they fight, and when they fight

Floyds post-ODLH resume includes: Hatton, Marquez, Mosley, Cotto, Canelo, Pacquiao.

Yeah, surely he's the problem. My goodness.

[Prince Madison]

whats with all these threads. the fight was better than kovalev v ward which you all seemed to love. That was a great 'chess match' i.e **** all happened, yet thurman v garcia was some bore fest? is there some agenda on this forum that im missing?

[soul_survivor]

I agree and this is basically what I'm saying..The will is not there and that's on Garcia not Thurman..Garcia needed o dare to be great and take the risk of getting hit with a big shot cause he was behind and needed to change the tone of the fight..

This is really the point,Khan fought Maidana from the outside and if Maidana let him would have done it the entire night..Not quenstioning Khans Heart,just why make something harder then it need be??Same for when Khan fought Peterson,if Peterson did not show heart and go into the jaws of the loin then Khan would have coast to an easy win without ever making the fight interesting..Same goes for Bradley many times..

I guess my point has been it takes two to tango,again you bring up Mayweather..Go watch Mayweather on the come up,his fights with Chavez JLC Augustus they brought the fight to May and he let the dog out..Even his fight with Manny Pac brought the dog out for a sec and when May responded Pac back down for whatever reason..May is not to blame for this,any fighter would do it,if you can win a fight without taking the risk you'll do it..It's on the opponent as well to make a great fight..Again it takes two to tango..

Garcia came forward a lot, especially from round 8 onwards and Thurman literally jogged around the ring. Garcia comfortably won 3 of the 4 rounds at the end and itst he only reason he got 5 rounds on my card. Thurman should have had it in him to end it and at the very least, press a lot more often post round 6. He didn't.

I wont argue about May/Pac, the great Phillipino was a joke that night.

But I often hear all this about May having to dog it out...yeah he had it tough, so tough that I think he lost to Castillo first time round but at no poin twas he overly great in the ring in the same way as ALi, Leonard and co. He coasted too much, even on his way to being a top p4p fighter. It was one of the reasons that no matter how much HBO pushed him and Arum compared him to Ali, it never came to fruition.

He became a star in spite of his style and mentality, not because of it. He became a star because of his antics.

These guys today lack even that. Like I said, they will all realise, a little too late, what it takes to be a star.

[HAMMER77777]

I did my best explaining how big a fight this was -- a unification fight (had to explain unification to them), two top five (in the world), arguably top 3 welters in the ring together, both of whom came in undefeated and in their primes.

So yeah I probably set the expectations a bit high for these casuals, but whatever, it really was a big fight. They asked me if I would've paid a full price PPV price tag for it and I said I would have (which is true).

So after the fight, no check that, even during the fight...around the 8 round mark, they were already groaning and talking **** about how lame the fight was.

One guy asked me, "is this how every single boxing fight is?"

I told him "no, not at all", but you could tell that in his mind, THAT (Thurman vs Garcia) was every boxing fight ever in the history of boxing. Another was like, "the last five fights I've seen were just as boring as this one".

I've always tried my best to defend the sport, but f**k it, I'm done, I mean either you like it or you don't.

Would I have liked to see Thurman not hop on his bike for the last few rounds? Obviously. I don't wanna call the dude a b*tch, because the guy would obviously lay me the f**k out in the first tenth of the first second of the first round, but come on, man. There was a chance for Keith to really make a statement and emphatically whoop Danny's ass, but instead he opted for what was basically boxing's version of football's prevent defense. I'm not saying you gotta be stupid and reckless just for the sake of entertainment, but there's a medium somewhere, isn't there? The dude may as well have been on a ten speed bicycle for f**k's sake.

But anyway, I digress. The casuals are bloodthirsty -- they wanna see brutal KO's and high drama in the ring. And if that don't happen then to them, the fight "sucks", and the whole entire sport "sucks". They don't grasp the concept that sometimes it's possible to have two highly skilled champions in the ring that doesn't produce guaranteed fireworks, and that yes, sometimes it's way more of a chess match than it is a bloodbath.

But I guarantee you this...fair or not, Saturday night didn't help the sport. It only reinforced why the vast majority of the public doesn't go out of their way to watch boxing.

I'm on your side. Its all about W's. Home runs are nice, but its no use to hit 4 home runs and still lose the game. I'd rather Win with single base hits, than lose with home runs. I'd rather Win with field goals than lose with touchdowns. In tennis, it looks really nice to hit 40 aces in a match, but that means nothing if u lose the freaking match to a defensive type player. Bottom line is Wins. Nobody remembers who hit how many home runs in the World Series. Everybody remembers who Won. Win any way u can. KT did the right thing by getting on his bike the last few rounds. I gave up trying to get my buddies to Watch. Many of them are Boxing fans and Watch anyway. The others, I dont bother with.

[Vadrigar.]

Floyds post-ODLH resume includes: Hatton, Marquez, Mosley, Cotto, Canelo, Pacquiao.

Yeah, surely he's the problem. My goodness.

Pacquaio was hand selected, 5 years past prime and impaled by Marquez.

Hatton was a bum.

Mosley was nearly 40 and without his PEDs hence the gassing.

Marquez was a blown up lightweight who obviously couldn't adjust to the weight. Also cheated on the scales by this scumbag.

Cotto was damaged goods after pac and margarito beatings.

Canelo was green and drained at the weight. Pale as a ghost.

Floyd is the biggest and craftiest cherry picker the sport has ever seen. He puts Canelo and Garcia to shame.

[HAMMER77777]

Pacquaio was hand selected, 5 years past prime and impaled by Marquez.

Hatton was a bum.

Mosley was nearly 40 and without his PEDs hence the gassing.

Marquez was a blown up lightweight who obviously couldn't adjust to the weight. Also cheated on the scales by this scumbag.

Cotto was damaged goods after pac and margarito beatings.

Canelo was green and drained at the weight. Pale as a ghost.

Floyd is the biggest and craftiest cherry picker the sport has ever seen. He puts Canelo and Garcia to shame.

No he never ducked anyone. He Fought the best, & beat the best.

[Lopez_Boxing]

Mayweather does the same thing for 12 rounds that Keith did for 3, yet gets a pass.

Whoaaaa there is a difference between fighting on the back foot, staying out or range and running. Does mayweather run. Yes, he has but to say kieths running is how mayweather fights is saying you don't even watch boxing

[The Gambler1981]

You can't blow up a fight to casual fans because their mind will immediately go to Rocky (or their favorite Rocky movie). Not many fights are resembling that, it can happen but you are going against the odds. You are putting boxing in a bad spot, because their notion of a good fight is totally based on fiction. You have to constantly lower the bar to casual fans then when the fight actually turns out good they may want to see more.

Another mistake is watching with a bunch of casual fans, one or two is ok because you can talk it through to them directly. Going up against a group is much more difficult and not even worth the effort on the subject. If I find myself among a bunch of casual fans I just stay quiet and pay attention intently then if someone asks why am I watching that closely what appears to be a boring fight I can try and explain it to one person.


.

[kingstip9]

Floyds post-ODLH resume includes: Hatton, Marquez, Mosley, Cotto, Canelo, Pacquiao.

Yeah, surely he's the problem. My goodness.

And alot of the fighters were selected at specific times, with specific requests

Did he fight Mosley, cotto, pacquiao in their prime? No

Did he not put a catch weight on canelo (who imo would never of won that fight, but it still taints floyds victory)

What about the glove situation with maidana ? That was ludicrous

Floyds great, I can respect that
His defence is magnificent and he is definitely an atg

But the man carefully managed the tail end of his career
Which is my point again

And that's when he was given the most exposure, so a lot of boxers try and replicate what he did, because that's what he's renowned for
Take minimal damage, minimal risk for high reward

Smart? Sure
Good for the fans? No, ***** no

he had a negative impact on boxing for the fans
Period

And now we have "fans" fighting over contracts and offers . And when the fight is "ready" and when it needs marinating
Not who should fight who

We're fans
Not promoters