The people that hate great fighters my theory.

[Deanrw]

Power punchers draw all kinds of fans which is great, genrally. but it also draws the most insane and worst armchair haters too.

Now it gets me when great champions who posses great skill and show great heart are dogged. There is always an influx of hate when a new marketable power puncher comes along, it seems fasionable for some fans to start picking on every fighter that is close to his weight. Its usually the nearest great champion in terms of weight that feels the brunt of this hate. Mayweather got it, Hopkins got it Calzaghe got it, everytime a fresh guy comes along that can bomb the great champ within two weight divisions is besmirched.

It usually ends with the guy who is bombing fighters losing to the great champ then the hate doesnt stop the usual "he was over-rated" crap starts.

Fans of power punchers always have and always will be the most vocal, passionate and deluded fans on earth.

I don't think people hate great fighters. People love great fighters as well. Mayweather got heat cause of his antics, attitude, and his choice of not fighting any real welterweights. Not because they hated on his skills. To be honest with you, besides his lack of punching LATELY, Hopkins doesn't really get hated on at all. Calzaghe is basically a love or hate type of guy (I posted my thoughts on him on another thread).

I do agree that fans fall in love with power punchers, but I do not agree that they are "deluded."

I didnt say all just the bandwagoners as i call them, once the big guys get beat you cant find them for love nor money.

Lacy, Miranda, Cintron to name a few they had the most crazed fans but all disappeard once they got beat.

Miranda still has a shitload of fans including me. Lacy has fans that are quietly waiting in the wings to see if he can rise to the occasion again. Cintron never had a lot of fans.

Hopkins is disliked mainly because people just had enough of him and he has reduced himself to the role of a spoiler. People dislike Calzaghe because many on the east side of the pond overhype him as a great fighter. Many fans disliked Floyd because of the disrespect he showed the sport by refusing to live up to his potential, when in fact they knew he was a great fighter.

[Kenneth B]

I hate that fickleness. Lacy is a great example. People were pretty split on who was gonna win, but after the fight everyone praised Calzaghe and berated Lacy because he was a useless bum. That makes no sense to me. It has to be one or the other. If Lacy is a bum, you shouldn´t be praising Calzaghe, because you don´t praise someone for beating a bum. On the other hand, if Lacy is a good fighter, who was beaten by a better fighter (which is what I believe) you shouldn´t come down on Lacy, because good fighters are supposed to lose to better fighters. I hope I´m making sense. These days Lacy belongs to the "Can´t do anything right" club...meaning no matter what he does, it´s critizized. That´s the club you get thrown in if you let people´s expectations down...same club Audley Harrison belongs to and Chavez belonged to from the Whitaker fight and until the end of his career. On the other hand you have the "Can´t do anything WRONG club" of which Pacquiao is now president. In this club you can fight bums and you can do absolutely anything without people coming down on you. Shane Mosley circa 2001 is a good example...coming off the De la hoya win and the great lightweight reign, he fought people like Adrian Stone and the australian guy...I forget his name...and people still thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Whereas people belonging to the opposite club get crucified for the same thing. There are lots of other examples of this going on. I think a lot of the love people have for their boxing idols is very superficial.

[boozeboxer]

On the forum it is certain fighters fans that turn you off of them, almost as much as the fighter themselves. (that is being honest on how I feel).