
Originally Posted by
Taeth
Thats close to it, I respect your opinion of it, I guess its hard to say, Personally I still think Dawson is a little bit of a prospect, I think a guy with a certain amount of ability needs to have that defining fight, I mean Hopkins, we didn't really know how to cage his skills until he fought Trinidad at 36, so it gets tricky, but I consider a prospect a guy who we still have questions about what he can become, as opposed to guys who we feel we have a pretty good indication of what skill level they have, how good they can possibly get, so to contradict what I've said before I think a prospect is a guy who hasnt' peaked yet. I think a guy like JML should be in the top 10 p4p eventually, and when that happens he will have stopped being a prospect. I still think Cotto was a prospect/belt holder until he fought Judah, because despite the Quintana fight, we saw his weaknesses as well, and thats when I knew for sure that he was going to be able to hang with the big boys. For Mayweather it was Corrales, Pavlik it was Taylor, Taylor it was Hopkins, Kessler it was the way IMO that he beat Mundine in the second half of that fight. Vazquez it was beating Marquez in the rematch. Pacquiao it was beating Barrera.
Some guys don't have the potential so I feel they reach their mark faster, but some guys have all the potential in the world, and I think that they need the right opponent to bring it out of them, or the right opponent to show, "look I can compete or beat anyone in the world."
See this is where we are going to disagree (respectfully of course). In my estimation anyone that gets to level of challenging for an alphabet title or gets an eliminator bout should be considered a contender, the guys that make up the upper level of any weight class. JuanMa beat DPDL, a guy who has held a strap for a while and held a level of repsect in a division that is has been for sometime loaded with talent. Here's how I would break down my categories.
1. Champ - The Ring Champ
2. Strap Holder - Holder of any of the big four titles
3. Contender - Anyone that is within a fight or two of a title shot or eliminator shot
4. Fringe Contender/Journeyman - Someone that acts as a gatekeeper to contender status, their reward for beating a prospect is to move back into the contender position
5. Prospect - Someone who has not challenged any contenders, but shows promise
6. The Pack - any of the thousands of others that don't have connections to major promoters, or the talent to make a move.
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