Quote Originally Posted by powerpuncher View Post
Back in the old days, many fighters would get thrown to the wolves very early in their careers. Because of that, they ended up with tons of losses. Some of the best to have ever boxed have tons of early losses. They were resilient and came back from adversity to become great.

The issue is that with how we view and promote boxing, is this just not beneficial anymore? They promote the “0” so much that it almost seems like it becomes more mentally damaging than it used to. I know that even in MMA where they don’t promote the “0” much it still takes a huge mental toll on many fighters. Is this just cultural? Like these kids come up with the expectation to not lose? Whereas back in the day most fighters would assume they would lose coming up the ranks.

I hear fans so often saying that fight A isn’t ready for fighter B. While it might be true, couldn’t it be a good experience that would make them better in the future? Or have we lost that mindset? It’s just unfortunate because I would love it if some of these young guns like Haney, R. Garcia, Stevenson, etc could just make fights with some of the big dawgs here and there to see where they are at. I think it would make for some exciting match ups with potential upsets.

I think one of the biggest issues of it though is that fact that fighters don’t fight near enough anymore. It’s difficult to make these types of fights when there are other ones to be made. I just wish that somehow we could allow fighters to feel alright with losing early in their careers without the fear of losing potential financial benefits.

That's a good question, and I'll do my best to answer it. You'll have to excuse any bias that may seem apparent. First, it all depends on which fighters you're referring to from "back in the old days." Depending on who you were, and where you were from, sometimes the fighters would certainly NOT get thrown to the wolves early in their career. In fact, one of the greatest Mexican fighters ever, Julio Cesar Chavez, fought exclusively in Mexico for the first 45 or so fights in his pro career, mostly against forgettable opposition. He was never in danger of losing, given the subsequent greatness of his career. He was mostly definitely NOT thrown to the wolves. He finally did start working his way up the opponent quality ladder, but by that time had amassed such a formidable record that the W-L ledger became something to protect, and that "0" took on a life of its own. At the time of his first loss ever, to Frankie Randall, JCC was 89-0-1, and believe me..... Julio was understandably a totally sore loser in total denial after the fight.

This is not to take anything away from Julio Cesar. He earned his way to the IBHOF with a long, formidable career. But facts are facts nonetheless.

By contrast, a contemporary boxer by the name of Azumah Nelson fought none other than Salvador Sanchez in his 14th pro fight, and later he met Wilfredo Gomez in his 21st.

Speaking of Gomez, he faced and beat Dong Kyun Yum for the WBC super bantam world title in his 17th pro fight, and faced and beat 52-0 Carlos Zarate in his 23rd.

Fernando Vargas was a great example, as he had faced Yori Boy Campas, Raul Marquez, Winky Wright, Ike Quartey, and Felix Trinidad all by his 21st fight. A man on a mission.

Miguel Cotto's early opponents don't get much credit, but he was facing some credible, even avoided opposition early on.

Roberto Duran was brought along a bit slowly in Panama at first, but quickly made up for it by after fighting Hiroshi Kobayashi and Ken Buchanan in his 26th and 29th fights respectively. During his long career he certainly fought a Who's Who of elite fighters, much like JCC.

De La Hoya had fought some good names by his 20th pro fight.


There's lots more examples on both sides of the equation, but the fear of losing the "0" is very real today, and has been discussed ad nauseaum. Whatever the reason might be, and that is the source of much speculation and different points of view, it hurts boxing by denying fans of matchups when they should be made. Fights are made to wait, sometimes beyond their expiration date. It's not like we have a shortage of good young fighters coming up. But if we start protecting everybody's "0"s like the gold in Fort Knox, we're going to end up with a bunch of young fighters with undefeated records, never having fought anybody of note, and on a holding pattern while fans are left to rot waiting for the big fights.

Guys like JMM and BHop lost in their pro debuts and went on to become boxing greats. Must be nice to have that pressure off and concentrate on just being the best fighter you can be, seeking out the best competition.