Obviously the guy has pop. Big, strong guy with a decent KO percentage on his record. But every time he stepped up to the big stage, he had a propensity to lose via spectacular early round KTFO. It's the HW's, so anything can happen..... a lucky punch, and the fight turns. But the guy's record speaks for itself.
Beyond that, however, it's Eric's stone clad assertion on the matter. The same Eric who calls Frank Bruno the best fighter (not HW..... fighter) over six rounds in the history of boxing, p4p. He also unabashedly calls the still rising AJ "the most exciting heavyweight since Iron Mike Tyson." Do you detect a pattern here?
So when you say... "we are more than capable of being able to assess when fighters are incapable of stepping up, and when the gulf is too big"..... you're casting your net over a whole bunch of people. This is one of those things where you have to individualize. Maybe substituting "I am" for "we are" would go over a bit better.
Bookmarks