What's more important... who you beat or who you lost to?....

[BIG H]

...when assessing a fighters greatness.

E.g lewis lost to 2 average fighters (avenged them both) but he also beat better fighters than say Vitali has. What means most when you rank a fighter against others, the guys they beat or the guys they lost to?

[Slim the BoxingManiac]

It all depends, and it differs from fighter to fighter. Losses and wins, and the details contained in them, determine a career and tells a storyline of that said career.

When Tyson lost to Buster Douglas, it wasn't an indicator that Tyson was a bad fighter, it was a showing that Tyson wasn't in his prime anymore.

Muhammad Ali's win over George Foreman is greater than any win on his record because of how much the odds were against Ali in that fight. His loss to Frazier is always a telling fight, because it proved that Ali had heart, and he had chin.

There are fighters that always come to fight, and no matter whether they win or they lose they put on a great effort. George Chuvalo is best remembered for his efforts against Frazier, Ali, and Foreman, and rightfully so. Sometimes, the challenge that a contender yields in a fight is the biggest concern whether than if they won the fight or not.

So, really, it is subjective.

[BIG H]

It all depends, and it differs from fighter to fighter. Losses and wins, and the details contained in them, determine a career and tells a storyline of that said career.

When Tyson lost to Buster Douglas, it wasn't an indicator that Tyson was a bad fighter, it was a showing that Tyson wasn't in his prime anymore.

Muhammad Ali's win over George Foreman is greater than any win on his record because of how much the odds were against Ali in that fight. His loss to Frazier is always a telling fight, because it proved that Ali had heart, and he had chin.

There are fighters that always come to fight, and no matter whether they win or they lose they put on a great effort. George Chuvalo is best remembered for his efforts against Frazier, Ali, and Foreman, and rightfully so. Sometimes, the challenge that a contender yields in a fight is the biggest concern whether than if they won the fight or not.

So, really, it is subjective.

Nice post mate



Petty that the the 63 people that viewed it couldn't be arsed to write anything. I give up!!!

[p4pking]

Haha, not a lot to add to Slim's post really, it all depends on the fighters and where they are in there career. In any case where you could make the arguement that a boxers best opponent beat him it is obviously going to hurt their standing, unless they are the perrenial contender type. For instance, Naseem Hamed never faced a better opponent than Barrera, and the manner of his loss in that one plus retiring afterwards makes it dead easy for anyone to assert that he was never as good as he was. Roy Jones scraping it so close to Tarver and the losing to him after so many years without a really live opponent(in hindsight) hurt his legacy the same way, etc etc.
Or take Shane Mosley, for instance. If he had just retired a few years ago he would forever be in the fantasy matchup debates with current welters like Floyd or Manny. Tonnes of people would probably still be talking about how he would've whipped them both. Now whether that were true or not it doesn't matter because and OLD MOsley has gone and embaressed himself against the pair of them.

[0james0]

Good question.

My gut instinct says that you can tell more about a fighter by who the lose to. But, on reflection, no one ever seems to care about who beat you, you will only get remembered for who you beat.

You can take any big name and we all gloss over the people that beat them.

Manny Pac- Rustico Torrecampo, probably owns a nacho van somewhere now, beat a legend, but no one cares and no one looks at Manny any worse because of it

Tyson
Lewis
Kilt
Ali

You could go on with any great fighter, we don't care who they lost to, it's all about who they beat.

[Mattyhitman]

Good question.
You could go on with any great fighter, we don't care who they lost to, it's all about who they beat.

Good point this actually!

Ya take Hatton for example, got beat by the two best P4P fighters in the modern age, yet he gets battered from pillar to post by many on here for who he fought.