What Is It With This Obsession of Wanting Fighters to be Weight Division Hoppers?

[Ray Corso]

The current generation of fans has seen multiple boxers grow up in the sport and move from 118 to 135+ people like Pacman and Floyd who started young as pros natural grow out of and into weight classes so the casual fan thinks its the norm.
If you look at GGG he really would give away alot to move to lightheavy and even to super middle most of the contenders there are 6' to 6'1" he's barely
5'10". He also has a slighter frame and bone density.
Men like Leonard and Hearns couldn't make 147 once they matured so their progression was a natural increase.
If a man can make a weight limit without sacrificing a healthy training program
then he needs to maintain that division. If he suffers to make a weight and then must rehydrate 20+ inside a 35 hour segment he's causing alot of harm to himself.
At 26 to 27 years old 95% of boxers know which weight division they should be.
Ray

[Barcham]

I have no problem with GGG spending his entire career and eventually staking a claim as the greatest MW of all time. If he never goes up to face Ward I'd have no issue with it since THAT ISN'T HIS WEIGHTCLASS. What I DO have a problem with is users like you who make threads like this but then act like there is absolutely nothing wrong with GGG calling out Floyd and acting like it is a viable bout.

Golovkin HAS NEVER called out Mayweather. He simply responded to a question asked by a reporter.

****ing people have no idea what it means to 'call out' another fighter anymore.

[12TRIBEsRiSe]

Hagler stayed in one division, i used to bash him for it until i sat n thought for a minute

[boliodogs]

I agree with you. GGG should stay at 160 and if he fights Ward then they should meet in the middle at 164 pounds. If Ward can't make 164 then quit calling out a smaller man who apparently can make 154 with no problem. Bob Foster, Monzon, Zale, Hagler, Pep, Saddler, and others were only a champion in one weight class and nobody questioned their greatness or demanded they move up in weight,

[gamefrk]

I agree with the OP, too many people saying that Danny Garcia is gonna jump a weight class to face the #1 guy Mayweather at 147, Canelo should move up to 160 to face the #1 guy GGG. All that is crap/stupid.

Danny Garcia who just looked bad against a decent boxing performance by Peterson should move up to 147 to face the best 147 guy for his first fight at that weight? Canelo should move up to challenge the #1 monster guy GGG at 160 for his first fight at 160? Really? Even the other reputable names at 160 don't want none of GGG (Cotto rank#2, Quillin #3, Andy Lee #4, Daniel Jacobs, David Lemieux etc) & still people want Canelo to move up to 160 & face GGG for his first fight at that weight LOL.

It makes no sense, moving up in weight should be done gradually. Not everyone can move up in weight & win against the top guy in that division. There's too many idiots like Broner/Josesito Lopez who moved up in weight real quick & got their azzes beat by not even the top guys at that weight (Maidana/Canelo).

[Barcham]

I agree with the OP, too many people saying that Danny Garcia is gonna jump a weight class to face the #1 guy Mayweather at 147, Canelo should move up to 160 to face the #1 guy GGG. All that is crap/stupid.

Danny Garcia who just looked bad against a decent boxing performance by Peterson should move up to 147 to face the best 147 guy for his first fight at that weight? Canelo should move up to challenge the #1 monster guy GGG at 160 for his first fight at 160? Really? Even the other reputable names at 160 don't want none of GGG (Cotto rank#2, Quillin #3, Andy Lee #4, Daniel Jacobs, David Lemieux etc) & still people want Canelo to move up to 160 & face GGG for his first fight at that weight LOL.

It makes no sense, moving up in weight should be done gradually. Not everyone can move up in weight & win against the top guy in that division. There's too many idiots like Broner/Josesito Lopez who moved up in weight real quick & got their azzes beat by not even the top guys at that weight (Maidana/Canelo).

I have no problem with Canelo taking his time moving up, but I do have a problem with him fighting Cotto for the lineal MW title if that is the case. If you can fight for a MW title, you should be ready to take on the best MW in the world. If you are not, then you have no business in a title fight.

[Scipio2009]

I.E. GGG Golovkin. Why would you want him to move up and prevent him from gunning for Best-Middleweight-of-all-time considerations. Surely, he will never be the Greatest of all time or P4P all time best as far as titles in different weight classes. But with 14 title defenses and wanting to unify all the belts, certainly he should be staying at Middleweight.

Also, some say that he is too big for that weight class and that he needs to seek out better competition at 168. I reject this negative premise. Isn't Middleweight his prime weight class? Some said that Sugar Ray Robinson was at his best as a Welterweight but there isn't enough footage of him there. Isn't GGG's best at 160 where he has it all -- technical abilities and punching power (<--power that may or may not go over to 168). Isn't this where he should stay as long as he feels comfortable making weight? WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO RUIN THIS RUN AT MIDDLEWEIGHT? And he certainly isn't the biggest Middleweight or the tallest, just because he might be one of the more powerful ones, along with good technical skills which get underrated/overlooked because they're not in the form of Cuban style boxing or East Coast/Midwest style slick, black american boxing.

Now we could make this same case for Andre Ward too, just to be objective. If that's all he wants, to be the best Super-Middleweight of all times -- providing he doesn't fight anymore Light-Heavyweight Champions coming down to 168 (which was entirely Dawson fault as it takes two to agree to something like that).

Golovkin gets the heat that he gets, imo, because folks in his camp were foolish to rant about how he whoops any fighter 154-168. If you're going to throw around that talk, people now expect you to stand by the words.

If his camp had simply stuck with "Golovkin is looking to be the best middleweight boxer to ever put on gloves", he wouldn't be getting anywhere near the heat.

[NEETzsche]

Golovkin gets the heat that he gets, imo, because folks in his camp were foolish to rant about how he whoops any fighter 154-168. If you're going to throw around that talk, people now expect you to stand by the words.

If his camp had simply stuck with "Golovkin is looking to be the best middleweight boxer to ever put on gloves", he wouldn't be getting anywhere near the heat.

um i find the latter statement a little more implausible than the first. he may well whip every fighter from 154 lbs to 168 lbs in due time

[Luilun]

He'll never get close to being GOAT at 160 no matter what he does from here on out. 33 already, has no one at all good historically on his resume and there's very little on the horizon for him. So, he might as well move up and go for being a respectable champion rather than a forgetful champ who fought no one at 160 his whole career and instead fed on nobody after nobody.

If he sets a record title defense with say 30 straight Knockouts than he can claim TBE at Middle, Marvin, Sugar Hopkins nor Monson ever had such a feat but he will go for 20 straight Ko's which I think is already a record for most KO defenses I think

[Joe Beamish]

To answer the OP question, fans are obsessed with fighters hopping weight classes because the weight classes no longer have meaningful championships or belts.

If there were only one MW belt/title, then we'd see a very different world. True for any weight class. Cotto, Canelo, GGG -- these guys would HAVE to fight each other to see who is the best.

But now it's about customizing weight for money. It's about the "A" side fighter draining his "B" side opponent to gain an extra advantage. Cotto is proud of this fact and openly states that he is draining Geale -- the way Cotto says Pacquaio drained him -- to gain advantage in the ring.

Leaves a bad taste for the sport. At least MMA has real championships. As do most martial arts.