Kalan wrote: ↑25 Mar 2018, 16:35
jas80s wrote: ↑25 Mar 2018, 15:52
Syntax Error wrote: ↑25 Mar 2018, 15:19
Spot on.
Too many of the best don't fight each other nowadays & fight too infrequently.
Top line fighters fight about three times a year if you're lucky & the top PPV cash cows will fight no more than 2 fights a year: If your name is Keith Thurman, that goes down to once a year.
It is very unlikely that a modern fighter will have enough years on the planet to have all the fights necessary to ever be number 1 ATG.
But, we will undoubtedly start to see more guys retiring with glossier records as fighters are no longer required to fight so often to make money. Some people will be swayed by that and rate those guys quite highly under the heading that they were so dominant and were never knocked out or beaten by "subpar" fighters. It will be interesting to see what the legacy becomes in this new era in boxing.
Personally, I think you just can't make comparisons. But, many will..and some will rate this newer generation more highly since they don't choose to consider the nuance of the situation. There are guys around who would have been great boxers in any era, though...let's be fair.
Right... Let's be fair, but guys like Syntax and Jezza don't want to be fair...
Gennady Golovkin is going into his 2nd fight with Canelo Alvarez, who is widely considered the 2nd best Middleweight on the planet... GGG has already beaten a super outstanding Middleweight Champion in Daniel Jacobs... Sugar Ray Robinson never faced a single Challenger or Champion with the size, height, reach, punching power, and boxing skills of Jacobs in his entire career... GGG's last 3 opponents prior to the 49-1-2 Canelo were a combined 86-1 when he faced them.
Golovkin is undefeated in 18 Middleweight Title Defenses with 16 KO wins... Robinson was 3-3 in Middleweight Title Defenses with 2 KO's... One of his losses was to a small Welterweight who had 12 previous losses... The other Middleweight Challengers Robinson faced were poorly skilled and nothing to write home about... Fullmer? .... Olsen? .... Turpin? .... Graziano? wow.
Graziano for instance, had been knocked out twice by Tony Zale and was about as easy to hit as you can imagine... He caught Robinson with a loaded swing that shouldn't hit a good boxer in the ass -- and decked him.
Kalan, I think you have misconstrued what I have said.
I never said modern fighters aren't worthy of the mythical accolade; I said I think it is unlikely that a modern fighter will ever be granted that accolade because there are just too many politics in boxing, meaning the defining fights rarely if ever happen.
They don't fight each & they don't fight often enough.
You've cited Golovkin & he's a good pick, but part from Canelo, he hasn't a truly defining fight.
Take Errol Spence Jr for example, one of the best fighters to put on a pair of boxing gloves, but he is yet to have a defining fight in a division that his stacked with talent & he's 28 years old.
Imagine Spence Jr could fight & beat all the other main protagonists at 147 in great fashion; he'd be a lock for ATG #1 status at WW, but you & I know, it probably won't happen, because he'll be about 68 by the time that happens.
At least with the old-timers, they fought each other, often on a good few occasions.
They took they knocks, they endured some tribulations, but they came back & proved themselves.
Guys like Robinson absolutely deserve their accolades, even if they records are not perfect & fluffy.
