Boxing is a different animal from what it was 2 generations and more ago. Sports for that matter has changed completely. In off seasons elite athletes had to take 9 to 5s to make ends meet, boxing was purely something they did because they loved it and it helped pay the bills. Now it can provide for a family several times over. The incentive to fight the best has been supplanted by the desire to fight the best at the most money possible. Oscar De La Hoya wouldn't have been able to handpick opponents back in the 60s like he did. Because De-La-Hoyan type paydays didn't exist for opponents. But this is a natural progression for boxing. The money is filtering through to the actual people doing the work rather than just the guys who get 2 names slapped on a contract. If your profession is to get punched in the face, why not do it for the most money possible? Why would you deprive yourself of that new ivory back scratcher? If I paid you a million dollars a year to sit in a cubicle and press a button once every 3 seconds, would you turn it down? If not, then why begrudge a fighter for fighting for the most possible money? It's not as if fans aren't getting anything like what they want. And actually, when you judge by PPV buys and TV ratings, it's only the minority who aren't. Cleaning out divisions is nice, but not necessary. I'd say Floyd Mayweather proved a lot more by beating Oscar De La Hoya than Kostya Tzsyu. What could Manny Pacquiao have done more significant at 135 and below than the Cotto fight?