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Alright lets do a boxing experiment
In class one of my teachers suggested that public opinion is skewed by bias. And he had us each write down something in sports of politics or anything that they don't like or did like, and when he asked them why or why not.
But here was the catch, you couldn't name any personal vendetta. Why? Because Personal vendetta's do not take away from professional accomplishments. So he made us weigh all the professional accomplishments of an individual and made us judge them not by who they were outside of the division but who they were in it.
And most peoples choices, once that was taken away they had no reason to hate them and had to give them the credit. Or some of them still had a reason to hate them and gave a valid point.
And that got me to thinking...
Most boxing fans I see, or read, that have a personal dislike for a fighter is 95 percent taken...from personal vendetta's of who they are outside the ring, or what they THINK they are outside the ring or certain qualities they don't like, so that they do as fans as they take a loss, or they take a performance and pile on the discrediting of a fighter.
For example, these fans can take a Floyd Mayweather knockout and point out everything wrong in the matchup and try to take credit away. If Mayweather knocks him out they say "But Mayweather had trouble early, he will be exposed soon."
So I decided to do an experiment, each day or so I'll post a boxer's name and my opinion of them. And you fans or non-fans can write in here your opinion, but the catch is you have to weigh their accomplishments and WHEN the accomplishments were(as in a fighter they beat in 99, do not take credit away if they are bums in 2008, look at who the fighter was when they fought them and not who they are now, this making the achievement more relevant)
Alright now the first boxer we will talk about will be this boxer
Max Kellerman talked about this as the "featherweight era"
So the first boxer we'll talk about that started this whole featherweight era is the one boxer you all love to hate.
Naseem Hamed
Now I know just by reading that name you'll want to flame me, but lets get things straight here.
Despite him being cocky, arrogant disrespectful, or whatever you want to call it. Naseem Hamed held the featherweight division on his back for 5 years since winning that title and brought the lower weight divisions, the divisions that pacquiao barerra morales and marquez now have their classics in, it was this little man who brought that division center stage before all of them. Hamed was one of the highest grossing boxers of all time and one of the most viewed and well known boxers of the 20th century, back by many entertainers,, it could be argued that the only boxer more famous then Naseem Hamed from the mid 90s till 2000 was Oscar De La Hoya.
And he brought a new audience into boxing, if not an interest in "little people" fighting, that the hardcore boxing fans already knew about. While the 'casual' boxing fans only care about heavyweights and maybe a little below. Naseem Hamed made them watch, if at the very least demanded that they watch him, and yes half the people who watched him watched him because they wanted him get beat but regardless he resparked the interest in an otherwise dead featherweight division and put a spark in boxing which at that time seemed to be losing its edge somewhat, and he carried that entire featherweight division on his back for those 5 years.
That focus on that division and divisions lower brought us the classic's we know today and this is just my opinion, but it was Naseem Hamed that was the first to put them on center stage and you would be hard pressed to have found a better featherweight then him during his run. Its not his fault he was so overwhelmingly better then everyone, and in many ways thats why we watched him, to see him get beat or to see the spectacle. And not only was Hamed the entire game, he was its halftime entertainment. Whenever a boxer has a somewhat flashy entrance the name announcers usually always grab is Naseem Hamed's.
And you may not want to believe it but in my opinion boxing and its fans are looking for that kind of explosion of excitement again. And inside I think a lot of people miss what he brought to the table in terms of entertainment and of course knockouts and that is something that should be appreciated and he should be given credit for. In fact if you want the gospel truth(as i was watching the event) when Manny Pacquiao first burst onto the seen as a replacement winning by knockout on a ppv undercard, I remember the announcers with a bit of awe in their voices, saying they hadn't seen a little guy that explosive since Naseem Hamed. And soon Manny Pacquiao started appearing on more and more and more PPV cards.
Like I said, boxing, and its fans, have been looking for that kind of excitement, explosion from a single individual in boxing since Hamed's departure from the boxing scene.
Of course thats my opinion, and yes I know he lost to Barerra and you can call it exposure if you want and he didn't come back. But regardless of that, it doesn't take away the above. Max Kellerman wanted to talk about the "featherweight era" on Boxing after dark. Prince Naseem Hamed was the start of it. And he was the one who gave life, to an otherwise dead division.
Alright thats my imput on the boxer of choice, be sure to put in your imput as well, and I do hope this becomes a great threat that we can air our our thoughts about boxers without sounding like "Idiot biased blinded jerks" that most of the IBC(Internet Boxing Community) makes us out to be.
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Originally Posted by Shamrock
= REP!
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