Quick, what do the following fights have in common?
Floyd-Canelo
Canelo-Khan
GGG-Brook
Loma-Rigo
They are all hyped up fights for which the ending was a foregone conclusion. Floyd-Canelo? Light-years difference in boxing skill. Canelo only got the shot because his huge fan base clamored for it, and thought they were in the same boxing stratosphere. What happened? Canelo never touched Floyd. Boring foregone conclusion. Canelo-Khan and GGG-Brook were ridiculous size differences. Both Khan and Brook foolishly decided to jump not one, but TWO weight divisions right off the bat.... no tuneups..... and take on dangerous middleweights. Foregone conclusion. Loma-Rigo? Billed super-fight by most, but ignoring the same ridiculous size difference between Loma and Rigo, who had fought his entire career at super bantam and jumped up two divisions.
A precursor to the hyped fight that probably should've never happened was Holmes-Cooney. People were hungry for the black vs. white heavyweight championship, and propped Cooney up as a worthy challenger to Holmes. Holmes took care of that without breaking a sweat. Is Cooney considered one of Holmes greatest victories? Not in every boxing circle. Yeah, it's subjective. But to many boxing pundits, Cooney had little chance and little business up in that ring with Holmes.
To the list above I could probably add Hatton-Pacquiao, Hatton-Floyd, and Floyd-Marquez. Another one was Hopkins-DLH. Oscar climbed into the ring with Hopkins, and immediately showed he didn't belong anywhere near 160.
On the other hand..... there have been some super-hyped fights that have disappointed, but not because one of the fighters didn't belong.
Floyd-Pacquiao
Tyson-Holyfield II (ear-gate)
Leonard-Duran II ("no mas")
But the pre-fight hype was totally warranted in each case.
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