BoxRec

Just an opinion of mine.

It seems that whenever a fighter is a "media darling" and a superstar he often is of course overrated by the general public but seems to get underrated by hardcore boxing fans.

Give your opinions on the following and feel free to name any others.

EX: Oscar De La Hoya beloved by so many of the "casual fans" that hardcore fans tend to hate him or undermine his achievements. I believe De La Hoya was a phenomenal fighter just not quite on the level of Ray Robinson or a Henry Armstrong but never the less great.

JC Chavez

Sugar Ray Leonard

Mike Tyson

Chavez is overrated because it's not cut & dry that he's the greatest Mexican fighter ever, there are enough arguments available to put others ahead of him. He is one of the best, but his unequivocal hype goes a bit far in overstating his status.

De La Hoya is overrated by the general public largely because as his career progressed, the publicizing and access to Boxing by the common American declined, giving his fights more hype than they deserved compared to other fighters. He had one of the toughest selections of opponents of any fighter in history (fought 5 guys who were P4P #1 at one time) he simply lost too many of the match ups to rank with his spiritual predecessor Leonard.

Tyson is overrated for many of the same reasons as Oscar with regard to Boxing's general decline as his career went on, coupled with the proverbial "broken promises" of his career that he showed as a youthful terror turned unstable head-hunter post-prison.

Leonard doesn't seem as overrated as the others I think because a bit more time has passed where people have a bit more sense regarding the context of his achievements and abilities. Sure, he gets disproportionate fame compared to some of his peers but it's not as dramatic as more recent fighters because at least people were a bit more familiar with Duran, Hearns, and Hagler before and after Leonard fought them.