Quote Originally Posted by ono
Now i have your attention, Barrera wins a very close fight over a 25-1 natural featherweight and gets superlatives thrown at him.....some posters claiming this fight completes his legacy. Majority of posters go on 2 congratulate him for being in such a great fight. Now this is all good but then.....

You come to Ricky hatton who last week won a very close but unanimous decision over a 26-1 fighter who also happened to be a world champion, as wel as bein a naturally heavier fighter.

Strange how hatton gets labelled 'over rated' whereas the worst Barrera gets is 'exciting'

Also seems strange how a lot of u guys congratulate juarez on being a great fighter and 'the future' of the super featherweight division.

How come there isn't such plaudits for collazo? I think i have only seen Wacko give collazo the deserved credit.

IMHO both fights were very exciting and rather than bag on any of the fighters, we should congratulate and thank all 4 fighters for providin very good entertainment and value for money. At the end of the day any one of these fighters has more courage then the whole of this forum combined. They are the guys layin it all on the line....we are jus the guys sittin comfortably behind our keyboards, picking reasons to fault them.
You make some compelling points. Yes, Collazo deserves the accolades, same as Juarez. Yes, they were both action-packed, exciting fights, where both Hatton and Barrera in their respective fights put it all on the line. Yes, people ragging on Hatton as overrated might be accused of being a little unfair.

But that's as far as it goes. IMO, Hatton does not yet have the resume of a Barrera. Barrera has 60+ victories over some very tough competition. And many of them outside the friendly confines of his own hometown. It can be argued that Hatton's first victory over a world-reknown fighter was against Tszyu. It can also be argued that Hatton enjoyed a clear-cut hometown advantage, with a referee the likes of which are rarely seen on this side of the world. I'm not saying he was bad, but he'd never get too many big fights here.

That victory over Tzsyu has, again... IMO, unjustifiably propelled Hatton into many people's p4p lists. How about scores of other fighters? Who have meticulously carved out records over much more impressive opponents?

Hey, I'm just as guilty of wanting Miguel Cotto to hurry up and fill the void left by the departure of Tito. And in doing so, I'm probably guilty of piling too much glory, too soon, on a fighter that still has to prove himself as one of the all-time greats. So I can understand. Boxing brings out the nationalistic pride in people like few other sporting events can.

In short, being objective in boxing is VERY difficult to do.