BoxRec

Faruq Saleem, 33 years of age, 36 - 0 with 32 KO's

Joe Mesi, 33 years of age, 35 - 0 with 28 KO's

Both undefeated, both with high KO ratios and both getting on in years without even coming close to challenging for a world title.

I could pick out a half a dozen more examples in the heavyweight division with similar records but these 2 puzzle me the most.

At their age is it not time to gamble the 0 and take their shot?

No wonder the heavyweights are dead. Fighters just seem content to build up a CV of stiffs and retire without taking a shot at the top. The heavyweights seem more guilty of this than any other division. You can count the heavyweight superfights over the last 20 years on one hand pretty much.

None of these guys even seem to drag themselves to the negotiating tables for big fights.

Cannibal wrote:Faruq Saleem, 33 years of age, 36 - 0 with 32 KO's

Joe Mesi, 33 years of age, 35 - 0 with 28 KO's

Both undefeated, both with high KO ratios and both getting on in years without even coming close to challenging for a world title.

I could pick out a half a dozen more examples in the heavyweight division with similar records but these 2 puzzle me the most.

At their age is it not time to gamble the 0 and take their shot?

No wonder the heavyweights are dead. Fighters just seem content to build up a CV of stiffs and retire without taking a shot at the top. The heavyweights seem more guilty of this than any other division. You can count the heavyweight superfights over the last 20 years on one hand pretty much.

None of these guys even seem to drag themselves to the negotiating tables for big fights.

Saleem is a joke but Mesi has justification. He was building a good head of steam towards a title shot and was ranked #1 by the WBC when he had his licence pulled. Now he can't fight in the respectable states and, as a result, struggles to get meaningful matches.

I think Mesi will struggle to get any sort of a title fight because of his medical problems. As for Saleem well he seems a hype job.

Most of these guy's don't get a title shot, because they are s**t even by today's standards.

With a guy like Saleem it's about the pay off isn't it?

Like the reverse of getting a racehorse that you nuture but get it to lose in its early races so it's odds get longer and longer all leading up to the big hit when you tell the jockey to actually push it and put lots of money on it and clean up.

With these manufactured Heavies it's about the one-time pay off too. Build them up against stiffs, get them a respected record and then when Klitschko is lacking an opponent for an HBO date he steps in, gets obliterated for $3m.

Peter McNeely was like that, all building up to the Tyson fight, the big pay off.

It really is an epidemic in the heavyweights though, I only picked those two because they were in the "They should really do something" age bracket.

See also: Roman Greenberg, Malik Scott, Jean Francois Bergeron and many more defenders of the 0.

I think if I had a genuine prospect, I would throw all these guys some money and have my guy take them all out. Would make my guys record look impressive and clean out the trash at the same time.

yeah mesi was doing ok until he had a small bleed on the brain after the jirov fight.

now he can't get licensed in the major boxing states and he's boxing in the american backwaters on 2 bit promotions.