It's very hard to take a thread like this seriously when you start with a guy who was best of his time for 10 years, was undisputed champion and fought 16 world champions (50% of all opponents he faced) beating a former world champion in just his 4th pro fight!
On that logic of Tszyu losing to Phillips you might as well include Carlos Monzon who lost to a guy called Felipe Cambeiro 43-16-4 in 1964 knocking Monzon down 3 times along the way. I guess Monzon is over rated
Or Alexis Arguello who inexplicably lost to Vilomar Fernadez 30-16-2 in 1977 after stringing togther 26 consecutive wins since his previous defeat!
My point is fighters lose fights, it's how they come back from defeat that makes them real champions. Tszyu was remarkable after losing to Phillips, he dominated a division that at one time was lauded as the best in the world, it is only years later that people say it wasn't that strong? He destroys former lightweight Champion Miguel Angel Gonzalez (who defended that title 10 times) and was fresh from fights with DLH and a draw with JCC, he KO's Judah who was in his prime and a prohibitive favourite, he stops Mitchell (twice) who had not lost for 7 years prior and all this means he is overrated?
What a shame fighters such as Hamed and Hatton decided to take their bat and ball and go home after tasting defeat.
Bookmarks