Quote Originally Posted by ICB View Post
Oh please Reid and Woodhall did have 1 fight after there bad losses, but they were gimme fights against journeyman fighters. They were still coming off bad losses unless you count Reid's win over 8-6 fighter or Woodhalls win over 29-9 fighter

And i did see Woodhall vs Beyer and yes it was reasonably close, but the fact that Woodhall was dropped 3 times by a non puncher like Beyer spoke volumes that Woodhall was past his best and his punch resistance wasn't there anymore, and plus he didn't looked good at all, even Woodhall himself said he performed terrible.

And if you actually watched Reid vs Malinga you would know Reid looked terrible and it was embarrassing how he was easily outboxed by a 42 year old wasn't it ??

And yes i can say with a straight face that Tito at that time was a much bigger threat than Reid coming off losing to a grandad, or Woodhall coming off being dropped multiple times by a non puncher, or Eubank coming in as a late replacement, or Mitchell going life and death with Manny Siaca twice. Tito was a top 10 P4P fighter and if you actually look back without hindsight i think your find Tito was the big favorite, remind me was any of the Calzaghe opposition you mentioned favorites ??

One last thing i don't need boxrec because i have Calzaghe's career set, and i've seen pretty much all of his fights.
That's the point I'm Making, they weren't BAD CAREER ENDING LOSSES, Woodhall said he performed badly yet still pushed a future long reigning champion all the way. Calzaghe was taking these fights against Reid, Woodhall, Mitchell who were coming off close decision losses or robberies at world title level, they were all high risk fights considering how little he was payed compared to the much lower risk de la Hoya fight for Hopkins.

Tito was favourite due to fan ignorance, just as Lacy was. The warning signs were there, Trinidad dropped by welterweights and Lacy 1 dimensional, yet the majority (me included) sub concsiously ignored this due to their exciting fights. Anyway the 'favourite' discussion is irrelevant, it all depends on perception of the fans at the time of the fights, while Trinidad may have seemed risky to the fans, Hopkins and his camp didn't see it that way.

Anyway, I'm leaving this discussion now, I'm a big fan of both fighters and I see no point in disparaging their resumes, you can pick holes in every single resume in history if you choose to.