a star was born

G'day fellas,

Boxing my its nature is a sport filled with subjectivity. When judging a fight many people look for different things, whether it is ring generalship, offence, defence or work rate. Young fighters are generally either hyped up beyond belief or played down as nothing more than that same hype. They have to deal with every man and their dog questioning their motives and supposed class for a long time, usually. Some fans might think they're the best thing since sliced bread while others might think they're nothing more than a mouth. The young fighters therefore have a point to prove. They ate either going to fall by the wayside or push on to become the best fighter they can be.

Take the case of Ali as an example. Coming home from the olympics a gold medallist. He was not accepted with open arms by the authorities and public in America. His skill was questioned as he fought professionally and many wanted to see him fall and exposed as nothing but a show pony with bad fundamentals. This was most evident in the Patterson and Liston fights. However something happened here. He won. Especially after the Liston 2 fight the doubts were eroding fast over his ability. I don't want to make this an Ali article, as I'm not the biggest fan, but in my eyes its a prime example.

So the question is, When do you think are the best examples of a fighter truly proving thenselves and pushing on to greater things in the face of doubt?

Cheers

I think Ward dismantling Froch the way he did may prove to be a similar case when people look back on it in a few years. Before that fight, there were a lot of questions being asked of Ward; the fact that he'd not fought outside of America in the Super Six tournament, the suspicion that he needed to use headbutts as a way of gaining an illegal advantage, doubts about him being able to hold his own on the inside against a tried and tested Super-Middleweight tough man like Froch. I think that fight has shown everyone that Ward is, beyond doubt, a very special fighter with the potential to be great.

Oscar De la Hoya beating Julio Cesar Chavez to win the LWW title. True JCC was a bit long in the tooth at that stage but he had still only lost once and the gulf in experience was vast. Even though he'd beaten some decent fighters there were still doubts about the still green Goldenboy, especially among the Mexican fight fans who idolised JCC and saw OLDH as a bit of a fake Mexican..

88Chris05 wrote:I think Ward dismantling Froch the way he did may prove to be a similar case when people look back on it in a few years. Before that fight, there were a lot of questions being asked of Ward; the fact that he'd not fought outside of America in the Super Six tournament, the suspicion that he needed to use headbutts as a way of gaining an illegal advantage, doubts about him being able to hold his own on the inside against a tried and tested Super-Middleweight tough man like Froch. I think that fight has shown everyone that Ward is, beyond doubt, a very special fighter with the potential to be great.

Ward is a special talent but he will never be a star, for 3 reasons. 1. His promtion is poor. Goosen just isn't v good. 2. He is fairly uninteresting (if a very nice man) 3. His style. Event hough he showed flashes of eye catching brilliance v Froch (those quick left hooks) he still spends most of his time walking his opponent to the ropes, then sticking his nut in their face, manouvering his arms so that he can get of first and firing some shot to body and head. Successful style but v ugly. Molina did much the same with Kirkland. Hit, smother hold and hit. This to me is a v worrying trend in boxing that I don't want to continue.

Mayweather vs corrales. Both were undefeated, both young and #1 and 2 at 130 lbs and both were in the top 10 p4p ratings. I know mayweather was highly ranked at the time, but corrales was a real test and he completely bossed him. It was as dominating a performance as any big fight.