Old fighters' antics that wouldn't fly today

[mikeeod]

There for sure are double standards. Sugar Ray Robinson did everything Floyd Mayweather did and more, but he's a beloved figure.

I think the biggest thing that wouldn't fly today was the gross mismatches. People rant on ad naseum about how past fighters were REAL men because they fought over a hundred times, but when you look at the records you see that most of those fights were against guys that had no business in the ring with them. Guys with less than 10 fights, guys with losing records, fought when at a champion level.

I'm not saying guys deliberately chose shitty opposition, but it was a different game back then. There was no PPV, no endorsement deals, and the pay wasn't nearly as good so you had to fight often out of necessity, so you'd get in there with guys who had no chance for another pay day and I guess people were just happy to see their favourite fighter beat up on some guy.

Look at the shit Floyd got for choosing to fight Maidana, a 35-3 world title holder who has beaten and given hell to many world class opponents. Look at the shit Manny got for choosing to fight Algeri, an undefeated WW champion. Can you imagine if either guy's next fight was against a guy who was 1-6? Or against a club fighter who was 19-13, all against other club fighter opponents? It would never even be able to happen, no commission would allow it.

You hit a couple of points in your opening paragraph that kind of sum up my opinion. First, if you are fighting 6+ times a year then you really can't face murderous opposition every single time because there aren't that many elite opponents, you will get injured, you will burn out, and there won't be the build up or public demand for the really big fights. Second point, I'm ok with Manny taking on Algieri because Mannys last fight was a big win over an undefeated, P4P #3 in Bradley. I think it's robbery to put the Algeri fight on PPV, but people will buy it so I guess Arum knows what he is doing. My issue is when a guy fights sub par competition when there are enticing fights and bigger challenges out there for him.

[Silkeyjoe]

There for sure are double standards. Sugar Ray Robinson did everything Floyd Mayweather did and more, but he's a beloved figure.

I think the biggest thing that wouldn't fly today was the gross mismatches. People rant on ad naseum about how past fighters were REAL men because they fought over a hundred times, but when you look at the records you see that most of those fights were against guys that had no business in the ring with them. Guys with less than 10 fights, guys with losing records, fought when at a champion level.

I'm not saying guys deliberately chose shitty opposition, but it was a different game back then. There was no PPV, no endorsement deals, and the pay wasn't nearly as good so you had to fight often out of necessity, so you'd get in there with guys who had no chance for another pay day and I guess people were just happy to see their favourite fighter beat up on some guy.

Look at the shit Floyd got for choosing to fight Maidana, a 35-3 world title holder who has beaten and given hell to many world class opponents. Look at the shit Manny got for choosing to fight Algeri, an undefeated WW champion. Can you imagine if either guy's next fight was against a guy who was 1-6? Or against a club fighter who was 19-13, all against other club fighter opponents? It would never even be able to happen, no commission would allow it.

You hit a couple of points in your opening paragraph that kind of sum up my opinion. First, if you are fighting 6+ times a year then you really can't face murderous opposition every single time because there aren't that many elite opponents, you will get injured, you will burn out, and there won't be the build up or public demand for the really big fights. Second point, I'm ok with Manny taking on Algieri because Mannys last fight was a big win over an undefeated, P4P #3 in Bradley. I think it's robbery to put the Algeri fight on PPV, but people will buy it so I guess Arum knows what he is doing. My issue is when a guy fights sub par competition when there are enticing fights and bigger challenges out there for him.

Yea we wouldnt mind if Floyd and Manny were fighting bums a few times a tear for f all pay but the games changed. Getting 8 figure pay days should warrant tougher competition in my opinion but if they were to fight bums inbetween their 2 fights a year for 100k I wouldnt complain. Id welcome getting to see them fight more often and be good to give the "bum" an opportunity.