Shifting of opinions: Knowledgeable? or Fickle fans?

I remember not that long ago when maybe 80% of our fellow saddoers were not exactly Cotto fans. They found every fault in the book in him, and were reluctant to rate him anywhere near the top 10 p4p. Lousy chin, lousy defense, slow, robotic, etc, etc, etc. A few months and some impressive victories later, Cotto's one of the favorite fighters in the forum.

Same goes for Margarito. Only a few diehard fans expressed their "fandom" of Margarito back then. All of a sudden, it seems... everyone is singing Margarito's praises. Obviously, his total destruction of the dangerous Kermit Cintron was a huge factor.

So does that make us knowledgeable? Or fickle? I think the former. That's the beauty of boxing. As fighters mature and get huge fights under their belts, we tend to change our opinions and our preferences.

I just hope that whoever loses on July 26th all of a sudden doesn't become a bum.

;) ;)

For the record I have always been a Margarito fan. There are alot of Cotto fans now that he is really hot. But let me ask you this: If someone is not doing very well it isn't that exciting to be cheering for them....when they are fighting bums or having sub-par outings.
I mean I am a Sergie Lyakhovich fan, but it doesn't do much good to start threads about him.

I've always liked Cotto but I won't lie around the time of the Corley and Torres fights I had some questions about him. I don't see how anyone could not have had some questions about him at that point. But I think he's really improved some things, become less reckless, and I think the move up has helped him.

As far as not having him in the P4P till recently well that's simple, he just didn't have the accomplishments to get on that list until recently.

As far as Margarito I've never been a huge fan but I've never disliked him. I actually spent a fair amount of time defending him against the sillier Mayweather fans a year or so ago. I've never rated him as a great fighter but he's better than a lot of people have given him credit for.

But as far as boxing fans in general, we are for the most part a what have you done for me lately group, we probably overreact to a loss, or a great performance, things like that.

Neither for me. As long as he hit's hard and a nice guy:)
David Tua is imperfect but I still am a big fan.
We as TRUE fans acknowledge the imperfections and faults of our hero's and continue to support them.

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Originally Posted by TitoFan

I remember not that long ago when maybe 80% of our fellow saddoers were not exactly Cotto fans. They found every fault in the book in him, and were reluctant to rate him anywhere near the top 10 p4p. Lousy chin, lousy defense, slow, robotic, etc, etc, etc. A few months and some impressive victories later, Cotto's one of the favorite fighters in the forum.

Same goes for Margarito. Only a few diehard fans expressed their "fandom" of Margarito back then. All of a sudden, it seems... everyone is singing Margarito's praises. Obviously, his total destruction of the dangerous Kermit Cintron was a huge factor.

So does that make us knowledgeable? Or fickle? I think the former. That's the beauty of boxing. As fighters mature and get huge fights under their belts, we tend to change our opinions and our preferences.

I just hope that whoever loses on July 26th all of a sudden doesn't become a bum.

;) ;)

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80% is being nice...
More like 95% were NOT Cotto fans... We were far and few.

I've said this before but I was 1st a Margarito fan then a Cotto fan but I started following Cotto since fight #1 up until today so Cotto to me is what Hearns, Duran and SRL were to people who were in their late teens to early twenties in the 80's.
I take it all in and enjoy the fact that I saw with my very own eyes one of the best current fighters of our times and if his career stands the tests and goes through a possible HoFamer and one of the greats but Cotto still has road to cover before we start talking HoF & Great.

(Can you tell I got really excited towards the end there ;D )

Well things changed. I was never all that high on Cotto at 140, thought he was fairly limited and not all that rounded out. He definitely didn't have the jab then he has now or at least he didn't use it enough. Walked opponents down to much, only worked really on the inside, didn't cut down the ring as well as he could (Torres fight) but when he fought Quintana I came around because of how improved he was. And he was, he stepped it up that night imo. And he's improved every fight since. He went from being limited to being one of the better, if not the best, all around fighter in the sport.

So it was a shift. Some fights are just incredibly difficult to pick. I found the Miranda-Pavlik RBR and remembered how much difficulty I was having predicting that one. If I remember correctly my prediction was pretty much right on in the RBR thread but I picked Miranda in the prediction contest because, if we saw beforehand those flush right hands Pavlik took, nobody would have picked him.

Some fights are just real toss ups. Some think of Cotto-Margarito like that. I don't but I get how some do. I don't think shifting opinions makes you fickle as long as you have good reason. I've shifted on plenty of fights from the time they were signed to the time they fought, felt completely different about them.

As for Margarito, I haven't really shifted on him. I still think any boxer with good movement is going to give him really big problems. Look at the Paul Williams fight it is case in point. Cotto isn't going to do that though so his chances are better at Cotto then they are say, I don't know let's throw out a name that isn't talked about much in regards to Margarito, Mayweather. But it's my belief that the talent gap is still pretty sizeable there and that's why I'm picking Cotto.

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Originally Posted by CutMeMick

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Originally Posted by TitoFan

I remember not that long ago when maybe 80% of our fellow saddoers were not exactly Cotto fans. They found every fault in the book in him, and were reluctant to rate him anywhere near the top 10 p4p. Lousy chin, lousy defense, slow, robotic, etc, etc, etc. A few months and some impressive victories later, Cotto's one of the favorite fighters in the forum.

Same goes for Margarito. Only a few diehard fans expressed their "fandom" of Margarito back then. All of a sudden, it seems... everyone is singing Margarito's praises. Obviously, his total destruction of the dangerous Kermit Cintron was a huge factor.

So does that make us knowledgeable? Or fickle? I think the former. That's the beauty of boxing. As fighters mature and get huge fights under their belts, we tend to change our opinions and our preferences.

I just hope that whoever loses on July 26th all of a sudden doesn't become a bum.

;) ;)

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80% is being nice...
More like 95% were NOT Cotto fans... We were far and few.

I've said this before but I was 1st a Margarito fan then a Cotto fan but I started following Cotto since fight #1 up until today so Cotto to me is what Hearns, Duran and SRL were to people who were in their late teens to early twenties in the 80's.
I take it all in and enjoy the fact that I saw with my very own eyes one of the best current fighters of our times and if his career stands the tests and goes through a possible HoFamer and one of the greats but Cotto still has road to cover before we start talking HoF & Great.

(Can you tell I got really excited towards the end there ;D )

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LOL... yeah, I understated the percent. It WAS more like 95%. I was in the other 5%, mostly because of the hometown factor, but I saw some early promise in the guy. Of course, I also went through the doubts that came with the Corley and Torres fights, but like you, I also enjoy the fact that I've seen him develop before our very eyes into the superstar he is today. Yes, there's more road up ahead... and Margarito is certainly one huge obstacle in that road. That's why people are more pumped up about this fight than most fights in recent history. One thing about both of them is that neither is capable of having a boring fight.

But again, I hope the loser doesn't all of a sudden become "a bum."

Cotto has grown on me since I started watching him around the Maussa fight when I was thinking about a fight between him and Hatton. It's been good watching him improve and do different things, he's one of my top 5 fighters at the moment.

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Originally Posted by boozeboxer

For the record I have always been a Margarito fan. There are alot of Cotto fans now that he is really hot. But let me ask you this: If someone is not doing very well it isn't that exciting to be cheering for them....when they are fighting bums or having sub-par outings.
I mean I am a Sergie Lyakhovich fan, but it doesn't do much good to start threads about him.

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Yep I know this all to well with being a Morrison fan. :mad:

Well , in my case i fallowed Cottos career since he began and when i could see that he been undisciplined in his training , in that moment i started to loosing his credibility , but then when moved up and fought with Quintana , i began again to fallow him at the way that came to fight , he looks like wanted to takes his job seriously again and now we can see that by his improvement and how he looks in his training camps...

My opinion hasnt changed on margarito at all he has done ok at welterweight but he is still very limited his punches are wide his defense is sloppy amongst other things but he has a solid chin and unreal workrate to make up for his other weaknesses and as for cotto he is a quality fighter he has a solid jab good boxing skills and decent footwork but he has got overrated somewhat imo

Im not sure many people watching Cotto in his 140 days realised he would turn out to be a monster.

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Originally Posted by Markusdarkus

Im not sure many people watching Cotto in his 140 days realised he would turn out to be a monster.

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Well being from Aus and an original member of the Tszyu forum as well as here. I can remember always backing Kostya with my heart; but thinking Kostya wont last in with Cotto if he fights his own fight. I thought he could just out do Hatton if he changed his fight plan and fought smart but ha met him head on instead. Same outcome at 140 for Cotto/tszyu and Cotto/Hatton so I always thought Cotto was the new up comming king there as did many of us.

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Originally Posted by Andre

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Originally Posted by Markusdarkus

Im not sure many people watching Cotto in his 140 days realised he would turn out to be a monster.

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Well being from Aus and an original member of the Tszyu forum as well as here. I can remember always backing Kostya with my heart; but thinking Kostya wont last in with Cotto if he fights his own fight. I thought he could just out do Hatton if he changed his fight plan and fought smart but ha met him head on instead. Same outcome at 140 for Cotto/tszyu and Cotto/Hatton so I always thought Cotto was the new up comming king there as did many of us.

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I thought both Hatton and Tszyu looked better at 140lbs than Cotto did.

Tszyu looked stronger against some fighters early on. Hatton looked more hungry to me.But not as skilled.
Tszyu got older very fast after meeting the German fighter that nearly won..what was his name Urkal. He had slowed too ,didnt fight for ages fought his friend Jesse james out here and looked slow.(we thought he was giving him a chance and wanted a few rounds under his belt ,but in hindsight maybe not). Hatton young and hungry and on an amazing training routine...

But there was always Cotto like a rock slowly moving forwards taking whatever came with a tight as approach and yet explosive and powerful when he stepped out from behind all of it,very controlled and picked his timing presicley and sat on punches and generated power exactly when it counted. I dont think he's ever looked questionable.