Can you name a Cherry Picker?

[Bomp]

Floyd Mayweather after moving to 140 biggest cherry picker going.

Sven Ottke

Now i have seen Jermaine Taylor and Ricky Hatton as cherry pickers?? are you for fucking real

Taylor has fought Hopkins twice Winky Wright and Kelly Pavlik twice and the second time after getting ktfo!!!

Hatton?? Yes his early carrer was a bit patchy but blame good old Franky boy. Since he became champ by "cherry picking" p4p number 3 Kosta and taking a big pay cut he has fought only the best, Mayweather p4p the best and probably best of the past 20 years in the usa. Mallinaggi and Castillo both number 1 contenders to his 140 crown and now the p4p number 1, yes sure looks like Hatton has decided to stay home and fight bums for the rest of his career.

It depends how you define cherry picker. Guys like Ottke/Erdei and Joe pre Lacy could have had better names on their resumes, and would fit the criteria of your last sentence, however they didn't get any credit for doing that and rightly so.

Cherry picking is when a fighter has influence on who they fight due to their high standing with fans/writers/broadcasters yet choose a path of lesser resistance. PBF after going to 140 fits that bill, and perhaps ODLH of the last 5 years. However ODLH in his prime is also a good example of someon who isn't a cherry picker, it's taking the tough fights (against somewhat unknown quantities to the mainstream) such as quartey when you really didn't have to.

IMO Hatton can be accused of some cherry picking, Castillo was never no.1 for the undisputed 140 crown, and Paulie's claim to fame is taking a beating from a weight drained Cotto. Yet these are the two fights that 'earned' him shots at the so called p4p champs. Cherry picking is avoiding the high risk/low reward fights, Ricky didn't have much to lose against Floyd and everything to gain (which also applies to Pac now) since it can be claimed he only lost to the very best.

[holmcall]

Floyd Mayweather after moving to 140 biggest cherry picker going.

Sven Ottke

Now i have seen Jermaine Taylor and Ricky Hatton as cherry pickers?? are you for fucking real

Taylor has fought Hopkins twice Winky Wright and Kelly Pavlik twice and the second time after getting ktfo!!!

Hatton?? Yes his early carrer was a bit patchy but blame good old Franky boy. Since he became champ by "cherry picking" p4p number 3 Kosta and taking a big pay cut he has fought only the best, Mayweather p4p the best and probably best of the past 20 years in the usa. Mallinaggi and Castillo both number 1 contenders to his 140 crown and now the p4p number 1, yes sure looks like Hatton has decided to stay home and fight bums for the rest of his career.

It depends how you define cherry picker. Guys like Ottke/Erdei and Joe pre Lacy could have had better names on their resumes, and would fit the criteria of your last sentence, however they didn't get any credit for doing that and rightly so.

Cherry picking is when a fighter has influence on who they fight due to their high standing with fans/writers/broadcasters yet choose a path of lesser resistance. PBF after going to 140 fits that bill, and perhaps ODLH of the last 5 years. However ODLH in his prime is also a good example of someon who isn't a cherry picker, it's taking the tough fights (against somewhat unknown quantities to the mainstream) such as quartey when you really didn't have to.

IMO Hatton can be accused of some cherry picking, Castillo was never no.1 for the undisputed 140 crown, and Paulie's claim to fame is taking a beating from a weight drained Cotto. Yet these are the two fights that 'earned' him shots at the so called p4p champs. Cherry picking is avoiding the high risk/low reward fights, Ricky didn't have much to lose against Floyd and everything to gain (which also applies to Pac now) since it can be claimed he only lost to the very best.

That's a very acceptable definition to me. Good stuff.

[ono]

Floyd Mayweather after moving to 140 biggest cherry picker going.

Sven Ottke

Now i have seen Jermaine Taylor and Ricky Hatton as cherry pickers?? are you for fucking real

Taylor has fought Hopkins twice Winky Wright and Kelly Pavlik twice and the second time after getting ktfo!!!

Hatton?? Yes his early carrer was a bit patchy but blame good old Franky boy. Since he became champ by "cherry picking" p4p number 3 Kosta and taking a big pay cut he has fought only the best, Mayweather p4p the best and probably best of the past 20 years in the usa. Mallinaggi and Castillo both number 1 contenders to his 140 crown and now the p4p number 1, yes sure looks like Hatton has decided to stay home and fight bums for the rest of his career.

It depends how you define cherry picker. Guys like Ottke/Erdei and Joe pre Lacy could have had better names on their resumes, and would fit the criteria of your last sentence, however they didn't get any credit for doing that and rightly so.

Cherry picking is when a fighter has influence on who they fight due to their high standing with fans/writers/broadcasters yet choose a path of lesser resistance. PBF after going to 140 fits that bill, and perhaps ODLH of the last 5 years. However ODLH in his prime is also a good example of someon who isn't a cherry picker, it's taking the tough fights (against somewhat unknown quantities to the mainstream) such as quartey when you really didn't have to.

IMO Hatton can be accused of some cherry picking, Castillo was never no.1 for the undisputed 140 crown, and Paulie's claim to fame is taking a beating from a weight drained Cotto. Yet these are the two fights that 'earned' him shots at the so called p4p champs. Cherry picking is avoiding the high risk/low reward fights, Ricky didn't have much to lose against Floyd and everything to gain (which also applies to Pac now) since it can be claimed he only lost to the very best.

So a fighter can have Tszyu, Mayweather and Pac on his resume and still be accused of cherry picking? Just because he didn't have much to lose? The exact opposite of that would be to fight fighters who are well beneath your level (giving you everything to lose) - so would this exact opposite make you the opposite of a cherry picker? It makes no sense.

Since he beat Tszyu which high risk low reward fight would you have liked to have seen him be in? Junior Witter? That's the only one i can think of.

There isn't anybody out there much different to Malignaggi, Urango, Castillo, Maussa, Lazcano. You can throw other names at me like Torres, Bradley, etc.. but we all know they are all of a very similar standard.

So what would you're reaction be if he fought them guys and kept away from Mayweather and Pac? He's ducking the best?

Collazo's also a strange fight to take if you are cherry picking...especially at 147.

I'm struggling to see who he could have fought without been accused of ducking or cherry picking. Those guys i've metioned are the very best at 140 - sad but true. Most would agree that he would wipe the floor with the ones he hasn't already fought. So that only leaves Pac really....which by your calculation makes him a cherry picker because he has nothing to lose by fighting the p4p number 1. I'm astonished.

[CGM]

Hatton - Collazo: yeah I'd call that a path of low resistance in the Welterweight division. And if Mayweather is such a huge cherry picker at welterweight, then fighting Mayweather doesn't exactly make you a superstar of courage now does it?

[ono]

Hatton - Collazo: yeah I'd call that a path of low resistance in the Welterweight division. And if Mayweather is such a huge cherry picker at welterweight, then fighting Mayweather doesn't exactly make you a superstar of courage now does it?

Why would he want a path of low resistance in the welterweight division when he doesn't have long term ambition of fighting there? He had nobody to fight so rather than cancel the date he chose to fight a very good fighter in his back yard at his weight. Not textbook cherry-picking is it? I didn't call Mayweather a cherry picker so i don't know about all this superstar of courage talk - altho i would claim that any fighter shows a great deal nof courage just climbing through the ropes.

[CGM]

Hatton - Collazo: yeah I'd call that a path of low resistance in the Welterweight division. And if Mayweather is such a huge cherry picker at welterweight, then fighting Mayweather doesn't exactly make you a superstar of courage now does it?

Why would he want a path of low resistance in the welterweight division when he doesn't have long term ambition of fighting there? He had nobody to fight so rather than cancel the date he chose to fight a very good fighter in his back yard at his weight. Not textbook cherry-picking is it? I didn't call Mayweather a cherry picker so i don't know about all this superstar of courage talk - altho i would claim that any fighter shows a great deal nof courage just climbing through the ropes.

Ok fine, forget the Mayweather stuff, it wasn't so much directed at you. You do have a point about Collazo. But if Hatton has no intention of sticking around at welterweight (because why? not his best division? he's not that competitive there?) then I would question why he thinks he has any business stepping in to the ring against Mayweather. I don't have knowledge of what Hatton was thinking of, but he beats Mayweather, the best welterweight out there, I really can't see him moving back down to JWW, can you?


edit: May take is that Hatton needed a belt to make his fight against Mayweather a bigger fight. No mayweather, Hatton nevr moves up to welterweigt in the first place. Who else was champ at welterweight? Cotto and Margarito? You tell me if Collazo was a path of high resistance to get to Mayweather. Collazo was far from the toughest ranked welterweight at the time.

[holmcall]

I think Cherry Picking also might involve the period of time between fights. Even if you fight top notch guys, if you do it every 18 months or so, that's a form of cherry picking because you are calling the shots as to how rested and ready you are for those fights. De La Hoya did that until his lack of skills ran out and it really didn't matter anymore.

[Bomp]

Floyd Mayweather after moving to 140 biggest cherry picker going.

Sven Ottke

Now i have seen Jermaine Taylor and Ricky Hatton as cherry pickers?? are you for fucking real

Taylor has fought Hopkins twice Winky Wright and Kelly Pavlik twice and the second time after getting ktfo!!!

Hatton?? Yes his early carrer was a bit patchy but blame good old Franky boy. Since he became champ by "cherry picking" p4p number 3 Kosta and taking a big pay cut he has fought only the best, Mayweather p4p the best and probably best of the past 20 years in the usa. Mallinaggi and Castillo both number 1 contenders to his 140 crown and now the p4p number 1, yes sure looks like Hatton has decided to stay home and fight bums for the rest of his career.

It depends how you define cherry picker. Guys like Ottke/Erdei and Joe pre Lacy could have had better names on their resumes, and would fit the criteria of your last sentence, however they didn't get any credit for doing that and rightly so.

Cherry picking is when a fighter has influence on who they fight due to their high standing with fans/writers/broadcasters yet choose a path of lesser resistance. PBF after going to 140 fits that bill, and perhaps ODLH of the last 5 years. However ODLH in his prime is also a good example of someon who isn't a cherry picker, it's taking the tough fights (against somewhat unknown quantities to the mainstream) such as quartey when you really didn't have to.

IMO Hatton can be accused of some cherry picking, Castillo was never no.1 for the undisputed 140 crown, and Paulie's claim to fame is taking a beating from a weight drained Cotto. Yet these are the two fights that 'earned' him shots at the so called p4p champs. Cherry picking is avoiding the high risk/low reward fights, Ricky didn't have much to lose against Floyd and everything to gain (which also applies to Pac now) since it can be claimed he only lost to the very best.

So a fighter can have Tszyu, Mayweather and Pac on his resume and still be accused of cherry picking? Just because he didn't have much to lose? The exact opposite of that would be to fight fighters who are well beneath your level (giving you everything to lose) - so would this exact opposite make you the opposite of a cherry picker? It makes no sense.

Since he beat Tszyu which high risk low reward fight would you have liked to have seen him be in? Junior Witter? That's the only one i can think of.

There isn't anybody out there much different to Malignaggi, Urango, Castillo, Maussa, Lazcano. You can throw other names at me like Torres, Bradley, etc.. but we all know they are all of a very similar standard.

So what would you're reaction be if he fought them guys and kept away from Mayweather and Pac? He's ducking the best?

Collazo's also a strange fight to take if you are cherry picking...especially at 147.

I'm struggling to see who he could have fought without been accused of ducking or cherry picking. Those guys i've metioned are the very best at 140 - sad but true. Most would agree that he would wipe the floor with the ones he hasn't already fought. So that only leaves Pac really....which by your calculation makes him a cherry picker because he has nothing to lose by fighting the p4p number 1. I'm astonished.

You make fair arguments, Hatton is by no means the worst cherry picker, I was using him to illustrate what I thought the term 'cherry picker' meant in contrast to the ambitionless stay at home guys. The term cherry picking is picking the very best juicy high reward fights (which the likes of Erdei/Ottke never reach) while taking the path of least resistence to do it.

It's how he earned the Floyd fight which makes me believe that Ricky can be accused of cherry picking to some degree. He challenged for the Welter crown after defeating a Lightweight at Light Welter, rather than consolidating his win against another welter - I would say that qualifies as taking the path of least resistence, lesser than at least half a dozen options that were at welter at the time.

[Fenster]

It depends how you define cherry picker. Guys like Ottke/Erdei and Joe pre Lacy could have had better names on their resumes, and would fit the criteria of your last sentence, however they didn't get any credit for doing that and rightly so.

Cherry picking is when a fighter has influence on who they fight due to their high standing with fans/writers/broadcasters yet choose a path of lesser resistance. PBF after going to 140 fits that bill, and perhaps ODLH of the last 5 years. However ODLH in his prime is also a good example of someon who isn't a cherry picker, it's taking the tough fights (against somewhat unknown quantities to the mainstream) such as quartey when you really didn't have to.

IMO Hatton can be accused of some cherry picking, Castillo was never no.1 for the undisputed 140 crown, and Paulie's claim to fame is taking a beating from a weight drained Cotto. Yet these are the two fights that 'earned' him shots at the so called p4p champs. Cherry picking is avoiding the high risk/low reward fights, Ricky didn't have much to lose against Floyd and everything to gain (which also applies to Pac now) since it can be claimed he only lost to the very best.

So a fighter can have Tszyu, Mayweather and Pac on his resume and still be accused of cherry picking? Just because he didn't have much to lose? The exact opposite of that would be to fight fighters who are well beneath your level (giving you everything to lose) - so would this exact opposite make you the opposite of a cherry picker? It makes no sense.

Since he beat Tszyu which high risk low reward fight would you have liked to have seen him be in? Junior Witter? That's the only one i can think of.

There isn't anybody out there much different to Malignaggi, Urango, Castillo, Maussa, Lazcano. You can throw other names at me like Torres, Bradley, etc.. but we all know they are all of a very similar standard.

So what would you're reaction be if he fought them guys and kept away from Mayweather and Pac? He's ducking the best?

Collazo's also a strange fight to take if you are cherry picking...especially at 147.

I'm struggling to see who he could have fought without been accused of ducking or cherry picking. Those guys i've metioned are the very best at 140 - sad but true. Most would agree that he would wipe the floor with the ones he hasn't already fought. So that only leaves Pac really....which by your calculation makes him a cherry picker because he has nothing to lose by fighting the p4p number 1. I'm astonished.

You make fair arguments, Hatton is by no means the worst cherry picker, I was using him to illustrate what I thought the term 'cherry picker' meant in contrast to the ambitionless stay at home guys. The term cherry picking is picking the very best juicy high reward fights (which the likes of Erdei/Ottke never reach) while taking the path of least resistence to do it.

It's how he earned the Floyd fight which makes me believe that Ricky can be accused of cherry picking to some degree. He challenged for the Welter crown after defeating a Lightweight at Light Welter, rather than consolidating his win against another welter - I would say that qualifies as taking the path of least resistence, lesser than at least half a dozen options that were at welter at the time.

But if he fought a few more welters before Floyd he would have a) risked ever getting a shot at the top man and b) risked missing out on a £20m payday

Surely you have to capitilise on your chances when they come?

[ono]

So a fighter can have Tszyu, Mayweather and Pac on his resume and still be accused of cherry picking? Just because he didn't have much to lose? The exact opposite of that would be to fight fighters who are well beneath your level (giving you everything to lose) - so would this exact opposite make you the opposite of a cherry picker? It makes no sense.

Since he beat Tszyu which high risk low reward fight would you have liked to have seen him be in? Junior Witter? That's the only one i can think of.

There isn't anybody out there much different to Malignaggi, Urango, Castillo, Maussa, Lazcano. You can throw other names at me like Torres, Bradley, etc.. but we all know they are all of a very similar standard.

So what would you're reaction be if he fought them guys and kept away from Mayweather and Pac? He's ducking the best?

Collazo's also a strange fight to take if you are cherry picking...especially at 147.

I'm struggling to see who he could have fought without been accused of ducking or cherry picking. Those guys i've metioned are the very best at 140 - sad but true. Most would agree that he would wipe the floor with the ones he hasn't already fought. So that only leaves Pac really....which by your calculation makes him a cherry picker because he has nothing to lose by fighting the p4p number 1. I'm astonished.

You make fair arguments, Hatton is by no means the worst cherry picker, I was using him to illustrate what I thought the term 'cherry picker' meant in contrast to the ambitionless stay at home guys. The term cherry picking is picking the very best juicy high reward fights (which the likes of Erdei/Ottke never reach) while taking the path of least resistence to do it.

It's how he earned the Floyd fight which makes me believe that Ricky can be accused of cherry picking to some degree. He challenged for the Welter crown after defeating a Lightweight at Light Welter, rather than consolidating his win against another welter - I would say that qualifies as taking the path of least resistence, lesser than at least half a dozen options that were at welter at the time.

But if he fought a few more welters before Floyd he would have a) risked ever getting a shot at the top man and b) risked missing out on a £20m payday

Surely you have to capitilise on your chances when they come?

He would have missed out on Mayweather given that he retired after the fight. Well he would never have got to him in the first place if he'd have fought Cotto, Margarito etc...far too big for him.

[Bomp]

So a fighter can have Tszyu, Mayweather and Pac on his resume and still be accused of cherry picking? Just because he didn't have much to lose? The exact opposite of that would be to fight fighters who are well beneath your level (giving you everything to lose) - so would this exact opposite make you the opposite of a cherry picker? It makes no sense.

Since he beat Tszyu which high risk low reward fight would you have liked to have seen him be in? Junior Witter? That's the only one i can think of.

There isn't anybody out there much different to Malignaggi, Urango, Castillo, Maussa, Lazcano. You can throw other names at me like Torres, Bradley, etc.. but we all know they are all of a very similar standard.

So what would you're reaction be if he fought them guys and kept away from Mayweather and Pac? He's ducking the best?

Collazo's also a strange fight to take if you are cherry picking...especially at 147.

I'm struggling to see who he could have fought without been accused of ducking or cherry picking. Those guys i've metioned are the very best at 140 - sad but true. Most would agree that he would wipe the floor with the ones he hasn't already fought. So that only leaves Pac really....which by your calculation makes him a cherry picker because he has nothing to lose by fighting the p4p number 1. I'm astonished.

You make fair arguments, Hatton is by no means the worst cherry picker, I was using him to illustrate what I thought the term 'cherry picker' meant in contrast to the ambitionless stay at home guys. The term cherry picking is picking the very best juicy high reward fights (which the likes of Erdei/Ottke never reach) while taking the path of least resistence to do it.

It's how he earned the Floyd fight which makes me believe that Ricky can be accused of cherry picking to some degree. He challenged for the Welter crown after defeating a Lightweight at Light Welter, rather than consolidating his win against another welter - I would say that qualifies as taking the path of least resistence, lesser than at least half a dozen options that were at welter at the time.

But if he fought a few more welters before Floyd he would have a) risked ever getting a shot at the top man and b) risked missing out on a £20m payday

Surely you have to capitilise on your chances when they come?

In your own words he took the road of least risk. Im not saying he didn't do a wise thing, and probably the majority of fighters would do the same in his position depending if money or securing genuine legacy is your main motivation. For example I wouldn't call Cotto's list of opponents at Welter cherry picking.

Hatton repeatedly claims that his main goal is to become the best p4p fighter in the world, yet he wants to do it against the fighters over whom he has a natural physical advantage over, rather than facin others on the list just one division north.

[Fenster]

You make fair arguments, Hatton is by no means the worst cherry picker, I was using him to illustrate what I thought the term 'cherry picker' meant in contrast to the ambitionless stay at home guys. The term cherry picking is picking the very best juicy high reward fights (which the likes of Erdei/Ottke never reach) while taking the path of least resistence to do it.

It's how he earned the Floyd fight which makes me believe that Ricky can be accused of cherry picking to some degree. He challenged for the Welter crown after defeating a Lightweight at Light Welter, rather than consolidating his win against another welter - I would say that qualifies as taking the path of least resistence, lesser than at least half a dozen options that were at welter at the time.

But if he fought a few more welters before Floyd he would have a) risked ever getting a shot at the top man and b) risked missing out on a £20m payday

Surely you have to capitilise on your chances when they come?

In your own words he took the road of least risk. Im not saying he didn't do a wise thing, and probably the majority of fighters would do the same in his position depending if money or securing genuine legacy is your main motivation. For example I wouldn't call Cotto's list of opponents at Welter cherry picking.

Hatton repeatedly claims that his main goal is to become the best p4p fighter in the world, yet he wants to do it against the fighters over whom he has a natural physical advantage over, rather than facin others on the list just one division north.

Hmm.. don't know about this Bomp.

Money is every fighters no.1 motivation, no?. And that comes with making the biggest fights avialable to you.

Going by what you're saying Pac is a cherry picker too. He dodged everyone at 135, 140 and 147 to get to Oscar.

Maywether must be a cherry picker as well. He dodged Tsyzu, Hatton and Cotto at 140 to fight Baldomir and Judah at 147.

Hatton doesn't understand how P4P works. He was the underdog against Tszyu (P4P3), Floyd (P4P1) and now Pac (P4P1)... so he can probably be forgiven for thinking he deserves the top spot.

[Bomp]

But if he fought a few more welters before Floyd he would have a) risked ever getting a shot at the top man and b) risked missing out on a £20m payday

Surely you have to capitilise on your chances when they come?

In your own words he took the road of least risk. Im not saying he didn't do a wise thing, and probably the majority of fighters would do the same in his position depending if money or securing genuine legacy is your main motivation. For example I wouldn't call Cotto's list of opponents at Welter cherry picking.

Hatton repeatedly claims that his main goal is to become the best p4p fighter in the world, yet he wants to do it against the fighters over whom he has a natural physical advantage over, rather than facin others on the list just one division north.

Hmm.. don't know about this Bomp.

Money is every fighters no.1 motivation, no?. And that comes with making the biggest fights avialable to you.

Going by what you're saying Pac is a cherry picker too. He dodged everyone at 135, 140 and 147 to get to Oscar.

Maywether must be a cherry picker as well. He dodged Tsyzu, Hatton and Cotto at 140 to fight Baldomir and Judah at 147.

Hatton doesn't understand how P4P works. He was the underdog against Tszyu (P4P3), Floyd (P4P1) and now Pac (P4P1)... so he can probably be forgiven for thinking he deserves the top spot.

I agree, and I did mention it in my original post that Floyd above 140 is a cherry picker (by what I perceive the term to mean). I would say that Diaz for Pac was certainly a cherry pick. Depends how derogatory a term you make it to be, if a guy just does it the once for perhaps one gimme or to test the waters at a higher weight, or if a guy bases a career out of it.

The intention of my original post was to get some clarification of what people mean when they use the term. For me I see a difference between what guys like Erdei are doing (staying at home fighting nobodies), and what guys at the top of the sport are doing (i.e. guys in dominant negotiating positions). I'm NOT claiming that what the likes of Erdei/Ottke are/were doing are better, of course not, just discussing semantics, perhaps someone can sugget a different term for what Erdei is doing.

I picked on Hatton because I admit I don't like him. I've gone from being a big fan (pre Kostya up to about Collazo), to finding him irritating and repetitive, to now finding him a douche who lies and misleads his fans with his pa Ray 'del boy' Hatton (the going to Vegas because it's cheaper for the fans bollocks).

'Money is every fighters no.1 motivation, no?' - perhaps it is, along with satisfying some part of the ego by striving to be the best. Obviously being able to claim that he is p4p no.1 is a big motivation for Ricky, but while he's PICKING an opponent suitable for him specifically (i.e. a man who he has a significant phyical advantage over) to achieve a round about claim on that title, then yes I would call that a cherry pick. He's repeatedly claimed 'what kind of a fighter would I be if I wouldn't take on the biggest challenges' when referring to Pac, yet while Pac may have p4p no.1 next to his name I don't think many on here would claim that Pac is a bigger challenge for Ricky than say Cotto/Mosley, guys who are much closer to him in size.

[ono]

It depends how you define cherry picker. Guys like Ottke/Erdei and Joe pre Lacy could have had better names on their resumes, and would fit the criteria of your last sentence, however they didn't get any credit for doing that and rightly so.

Cherry picking is when a fighter has influence on who they fight due to their high standing with fans/writers/broadcasters yet choose a path of lesser resistance. PBF after going to 140 fits that bill, and perhaps ODLH of the last 5 years. However ODLH in his prime is also a good example of someon who isn't a cherry picker, it's taking the tough fights (against somewhat unknown quantities to the mainstream) such as quartey when you really didn't have to.

IMO Hatton can be accused of some cherry picking, Castillo was never no.1 for the undisputed 140 crown, and Paulie's claim to fame is taking a beating from a weight drained Cotto. Yet these are the two fights that 'earned' him shots at the so called p4p champs. Cherry picking is avoiding the high risk/low reward fights, Ricky didn't have much to lose against Floyd and everything to gain (which also applies to Pac now) since it can be claimed he only lost to the very best.

So a fighter can have Tszyu, Mayweather and Pac on his resume and still be accused of cherry picking? Just because he didn't have much to lose? The exact opposite of that would be to fight fighters who are well beneath your level (giving you everything to lose) - so would this exact opposite make you the opposite of a cherry picker? It makes no sense.

Since he beat Tszyu which high risk low reward fight would you have liked to have seen him be in? Junior Witter? That's the only one i can think of.

There isn't anybody out there much different to Malignaggi, Urango, Castillo, Maussa, Lazcano. You can throw other names at me like Torres, Bradley, etc.. but we all know they are all of a very similar standard.

So what would you're reaction be if he fought them guys and kept away from Mayweather and Pac? He's ducking the best?

Collazo's also a strange fight to take if you are cherry picking...especially at 147.

I'm struggling to see who he could have fought without been accused of ducking or cherry picking. Those guys i've metioned are the very best at 140 - sad but true. Most would agree that he would wipe the floor with the ones he hasn't already fought. So that only leaves Pac really....which by your calculation makes him a cherry picker because he has nothing to lose by fighting the p4p number 1. I'm astonished.

You make fair arguments, Hatton is by no means the worst cherry picker, I was using him to illustrate what I thought the term 'cherry picker' meant in contrast to the ambitionless stay at home guys. The term cherry picking is picking the very best juicy high reward fights (which the likes of Erdei/Ottke never reach) while taking the path of least resistence to do it.

It's how he earned the Floyd fight which makes me believe that Ricky can be accused of cherry picking to some degree. He challenged for the Welter crown after defeating a Lightweight at Light Welter, rather than consolidating his win against another welter - I would say that qualifies as taking the path of least resistence, lesser than at least half a dozen options that were at welter at the time.

I see what you are trying to say but...

I think he earned his shot at Floyd quite fairly. He was the undisputed number 1 at 140. Ok it might not matter at 147 but then you remember how Mayweather won the title at 147. The fight was at welter to convenience Mayweather and imo this fight should have happened maybe 18 months before - at 140.

It would have been career suicide for him to fight one of the bigger guys at welter, because Hatton is no where near big enough.

And if Castillo was really a lightweight, why couldn't he make weight anymore?

I'd say if he wanted to Cherry pick he could fight all the weak champions, back in England. He sold out Coms fighting Lazcano so he could still make mulit-millions fighting bums in the UK.

[CGM]

So a fighter can have Tszyu, Mayweather and Pac on his resume and still be accused of cherry picking? Just because he didn't have much to lose? The exact opposite of that would be to fight fighters who are well beneath your level (giving you everything to lose) - so would this exact opposite make you the opposite of a cherry picker? It makes no sense.

Since he beat Tszyu which high risk low reward fight would you have liked to have seen him be in? Junior Witter? That's the only one i can think of.

There isn't anybody out there much different to Malignaggi, Urango, Castillo, Maussa, Lazcano. You can throw other names at me like Torres, Bradley, etc.. but we all know they are all of a very similar standard.

So what would you're reaction be if he fought them guys and kept away from Mayweather and Pac? He's ducking the best?

Collazo's also a strange fight to take if you are cherry picking...especially at 147.

I'm struggling to see who he could have fought without been accused of ducking or cherry picking. Those guys i've metioned are the very best at 140 - sad but true. Most would agree that he would wipe the floor with the ones he hasn't already fought. So that only leaves Pac really....which by your calculation makes him a cherry picker because he has nothing to lose by fighting the p4p number 1. I'm astonished.

You make fair arguments, Hatton is by no means the worst cherry picker, I was using him to illustrate what I thought the term 'cherry picker' meant in contrast to the ambitionless stay at home guys. The term cherry picking is picking the very best juicy high reward fights (which the likes of Erdei/Ottke never reach) while taking the path of least resistence to do it.

It's how he earned the Floyd fight which makes me believe that Ricky can be accused of cherry picking to some degree. He challenged for the Welter crown after defeating a Lightweight at Light Welter, rather than consolidating his win against another welter - I would say that qualifies as taking the path of least resistence, lesser than at least half a dozen options that were at welter at the time.

I see what you are trying to say but...

I think he earned his shot at Floyd quite fairly. He was the undisputed number 1 at 140. Ok it might not matter at 147 but then you remember how Mayweather won the title at 147. The fight was at welter to convenience Mayweather and imo this fight should have happened maybe 18 months before - at 140.

It would have been career suicide for him to fight one of the bigger guys at welter, because Hatton is no where near big enough.

And if Castillo was really a lightweight, why couldn't he make weight anymore?

I'd say if he wanted to Cherry pick he could fight all the weak champions, back in England. He sold out Coms fighting Lazcano so he could still make mulit-millions fighting bums in the UK.

I can accept that maybe something like that motivated Hatton. But if it's career suicide to fight a guy like Cotto, then how is it that he thinks he has a chance against Floyd, who was the top dog in the division? And how is it that he has earned a shot against Floyd when he can't compete against the top guys? It don't make a lot of sense.

But hey, after all it's all about the dough that Ricky can bring to the table, right?