Quote Originally Posted by ICB View Post
This Kostya Tszyu fan boy can give all the stats he wants, but the fact is Kostya Tszyu isn't an ATG. Most of his best wins were against faded fighters like Livingstone Bramble, JCC, Roger Mayweather, Juan La Porte, Jesse James Leija.

Thats why it makes me laugh when people say Ricky Hatton beat a faded Kostya Tszyu, because most of Kostya Tszyu's best wins were against faded fighters yet i never hear them admit it.

He had some good wins over Disobelys Hurtado, Zab Judah, Sharmba Mitchell, Rafael Ruelas. But does that make you an ATG ? and he also got beat badly in his prime by a hot and cold fighter like Vince Phillips. Which hurts his legacy.

I do like Kostya Tszyu but IMO he was a bit lucky to meet some of the names i mentioned above. When they had clearly seen better days, Kostya Tszyu was a very good champion but never a great one.
I have to disagree with you here, as i said earlier how can a 10 year division champion and a 4 year undisputed champion at 140lb not be considered an ATG? If defies logic to argue against it? As for the Phillips loss? who cares? tell that to Alexis Arguello who lost to Vilomar Fernandez in 1978 right in the middle of Arguello prime, or Roberto Duran who managed to lose to Kirkland Laing when he needed to resurrect his career after 'No Mas', Lennox Lewis gets KO'ed by Oliver McCall a journeyman at best, there are many more. Losing to fighters with less ability does not damage your legacy if it happens just the once. Thomas Hearns lost to Iran Barkley TWICE yet i am willing to bet that no one on this forum would rank Iran Barkley as an ATG yet Thomas Hearns would be. What makes Tszyu an ATG great is he came back from that defeat and unified a championship title belt and beat the best out there at the time to do it. As for fighting fading champions, DLH didn't do to badly in that department either, Whitaker was in decline and Chavez twice and Camacho were well past it when he fought them. The only thing missing from the Tszyu resume was a fight with Mosley or DLH and unfortunately it didn't happen.