first off, let me state that i am a big advocate of old time fighters. i think that they are great. im not someone who thinks that new age training has made all of the current fights able to beat old fighters. i am also realistic and realize that all of the old ATG's wouldnt just sweep through every division these days. just like everybody, people have weaknesses and will have tough fights here or there. it doesnt matter who you are. (i use the term old pretty much relating anybody from the 80's or before).

with that said, i always feel that there are double standards. maybe its because we didnt live through certain fighters careers or if we did, we forgot about the problems they had and see them with our rose colored glasses. i know that current fighters get blamed for ducking, cheating, being too much of a drama queen, etc. so im trying to make a list of great fighters who did things that would infuriate fans now if they saw or heard about them.

sugar ray robinson- did you know that many times on fight night, he would demand more pay than was agreed to and would refuse to fight if those new demands werent met? can you imagine if floyd did that? i couldnt even imagine the backlash he would get from doing the same thing that the p4p king did.

sandy saddler- he was known as an extremely dirty fighter. that doesnt stop us from calling him an ATG though. he used his head, elbows, and back hands to win the fight. people complain about ward but saddler was on another level of dirty. if he fought today, people would be calling for a DQ in every fight.

roberto duran- this is mainly the no mas fight. he gained a ton of weight after the first fight with leonard then had to lose it all and quit during their second fight. yes i know that he "redeemed" himself by still having a good career after that, but that would be something that would always be brought up if we were talking about someone like bhop being a great fighter. there would be talks of "bhop is good but remember the time he quit?" nobody would ever let that go.

mainly what im getting at is that once a fighter is retired and years have passed, i think that we can start looking past what was wrong with their career and start focusing on their greatness instead. any other examples?