I don't think that i've ever heard anyone criticizing Marvin Hagler for sticking at MW for his whole career, have you? He never went down to 155 to fight the best WW's. He made Hearns, SRR and Duran come on up to him if they wanted him. And before the WW's came on up to him, his resume was less than what GGG's looks like right now.ikorolev wrote:Bullsh!t. Quite a few of ATGs never moved up or did so at the very end of their careers.Badhusker wrote:If only GGG had as much confidence in himself as you do. If he did, he would have fought Ward at 168. He may have missed his chance at an atg. Atg's like Manny and Floyd, for example moved up to seek out competition, and ended up fighting near their walking around weight. That is a risk. Atg's historically took risks. GGG has a ways to go.
Plus, Middleweight is the toughest weight class to move up or down from IMO. If a MW moves up to SM, his opposition is going to be close to 190 pounds come fight night. SM's walk around at 200 pounds a lot of them and that's a huge difference. Then if a MW wants to go down to 154 for the first time after fighting over 160 his whole career, they are going to be sucked out and losing any advantage they had with their stamina.
I think moving up or down has absolutely no place in the discussion with measuring how great a boxer is or was.