margaret thatcher wrote: ↑20 Jun 2021, 03:16
man, so many of the greats, would be rolling in their graves at the mindsets today. just bash up cherry picked dudes and dont strive for the big time
You seem to think that "so many of the greats" jumped from Liam Smith-caliber opponents to Gennady Golovkin-caliber opponents without fighting people in between. However, that is ignorance on your part. We're talking about a more than 10-fold jump in boxrec rating from Liam Smith to Golovkin. A more than 10-fold jump from a 2-digit rated best opponent to a 500+ rated opponent. Oscar De La Hoya never did that. RJJ never did that. Julio Cesar Chavez never did that. Roberto Duran never did that. Mike Tyson never did that. Sugar Ray Leonard never did that. Tommy Hearns never did that. Marvin Hagler never did that. Gerald McClellan never did that.
Some of the most incredible recent step-ups that paid off were Teofimo Lopez vs Lomachenko and Oscar Valdez vs Berchelt; and neither of those match-ups were 10-fold step-ups in rating. Neither were even 4-fold increases over their previous best.
Now that I think about it, I can think of a lot of fighters who moved-up as dramatically as what you're describing. But they aren't remembers as "the greats." Let's see, there's Kamil Szeremeta when he fought Golovkin and got KO'ed. There's Erickson Lubin when he fought Jermall Charlo and got KO'ed. Anthony Yarde when he fought Sergey Kovalev and got KO'ed. Oba Carr when he fought Felix Trinidad and got KO'ed. Callum Johnson when he fought Artur Beterbiev and got KO'ed. Tyrell Biggs when he fought Mike Tyson and got KO'ed. These badly flattened challengers are the "greats" you're referring to who make a 10-fold jump in caliber, against powerful punchers no less.
Sorry that you don't know anything about matchmaking in boxing, but only a dumbf*ck would move their prospect up 10-fold in caliber without bridging that move with intermediate caliber opponents. You don't manage legitimate champions-in-the-making that recklessly; you only do that to cash out cannon fodder fighters with padded records.
If you want to see an undefeated younger dude take on Golovkin, there's a little someone called Jermall Charlo who's got quite a lot more preparation building up to that fight, including a win over specifically Derevyanchenko, who Munguia still hasn't fought.
