It’s Thursday once again and that means gathering around my bloated, distended sack in anticipation of the wisdom soon to be spilling forth. This week we deal with questions involving Anthony Joshua, Regis Prograis, the WBSS, and more:
Biased Much?
Magno.
Again, your blind hatred of all things white and European is blatant. You call Gennady Golovkin overrated! He’s only cleaned out the entire middleweight division, knocked everyone out doing it, and instilled total fear in every top middleweight along the way. What the hell else do you demand in a fighter? You’re a fucking joke. And it’s funny how much you LOVE Terence Crawford when his resume isn’t even half as deep or as good as Golovkin’s. Biased much?
-- Jack
Jack.
Technically, Golovkin is Asian. He’s based out of Kazakhstan and I believe his mother is Korean. So, right there shows where YOUR bias is at. You have to rise up and defend someone you see as white. Funny how I never see guys like you up in arms over my criticisms of Deontay Wilder and Adonis Stevenson—and I’m considerably harsher in my criticisms of them than I am of Golovkin.
As for Golovkin’s career—my criticism stands. 20 defenses into a world title reign and the first 18 were against tailor-made opposition with zero chance of beating him, all to fawning critical acclaim. Who gets that kind of free ride? Do you honestly think that Errol Spence, as respected as he is, would be getting such a free ride if he spent the first 18 fights of his title reign defending against the Lamont Petersons and Carlos Ocampos of the division? Hell no. He wouldn’t get to 5 soft touch defense before people started (rightfully) dragging his name through the mud.
And, yeah, I like Terence Crawford and appreciate his skill level and overall flexibility as a fighter. I never once claimed him to be an ATG, never talked him up alongside Sugar Ray Leonard or Sugar Ray Robinson. The Golovkinites, less than ten fights into the guy’s title reign were already listing him among the greats and, even with his flimsy resume, daring to make claims about his run being better than some of the legends’ runs. THAT is what I object to. When you’re almost 36, 20 defenses into a title reign, and your high-water marks have been a draw with Canelo and a close decision over Daniel Jacobs, how can you be compared to some of the greats? I’ve said it time and time again—Golovkin deserves his #1 ranking at 160 and I do regard him as one of the best offensive fighters in the game. How much more “love” can I throw at the guy without being dishonest? If you’re being real and honest, you HAVE to put his stress-free career into perspective or you’re just being a fanboy.
Joshua, Bum Fighter?
Magno.
Let’s be real here when it comes to Anthony Joshua vs. Povetkin. Alexander Povetkin is just a name. He stands no chance of beating Joshua and this is just a waste of time. I’m disgusted by this so-called champ and his cherry picking. If he wanted to get the least bit of respect from the real boxing fans, he would’ve put off the Povetkin mandatory and continued to work on making the Wilder fight. We all know that him and Hearn could’ve worked something out with the WBA if they wanted to. But they didn’t want to and they wanted this easy fight for an easy paycheck. I’m done with this fraud of a champion. He’s Britain’s champ, not the WORLD champ.
-- Joseph Strickland Taylor
I agree, Joseph. Judging from his fairly tough time putting away David Price, it appears that Povetkin may be near the end of his run. At his best, he’s a solid heavyweight contender and I don’t really have an issue with him challenging Joshua. It’s just, as you mentioned, this is not the fight to make when a Wilder fight is still out there.
There are varying schools of thought as to who’s to blame for Joshua-Wilder not happening, but any way you slice it, Joshua-Povetkin is NOT the fight most people want. And as the three-belt world champ, Joshua is going to take more flak than Wilder for the fight falling through.
Can The Rougarou Make It?
Hi Paul. How far do you see Regis Prograis going? He’s old to be at the level he’s at, IMO (he’s 29). Can he eventually move up to welterweight and join the big time players? I like the guy, but I’m not convinced that he has the time to do everything he may be capable of doing.
-- Rachel H
Hi Rachel. I’ve been on the Prograis bandwagon for a while now. I think he can do it all and as he gets some world class experience under his belt, he’ll pick up the seasoning he needs to become a great. The age does give me pause for concern because he has hit his physical prime before he fully develops as a complete fighter. But this is 2018, not 1958, and the modern athlete can fight at a world class level well into his late 30’s and early 40’s. As part of the WBSS tournament, he’s going to get a crash course in high-end, elite-level boxing and I suspect he passes those tests fairly decisively.
The WBSS: BS or Not?
Paul,
What are your thought on the future of WBSS?. Naoya Inoue, Regis Prograis and Josh Taylor are on board for the next round. I like the idea of the younger hungry fighters joining the competition. Do you think the WBSS has the potential to be the boxing equivalent to UFC?
-- Nail Rahman
I really do like the idea of the WBSS, although I’ve been critical of certain aspects. My fear was always that high-end fighters would stay away from that level of commitment and that the tournament would essentially become a Euro tourney made up of second and third-tier talent. This new run of tournaments (junior welterweight and bantamweight) shows that maybe this won’t be the case. The 140 tourney, for example, has most of the top talent in the division, with the exception of Jose Ramirez and maybe one or two others. I hope the WBSS succeeds and becomes a path to many title unifications.
Got a question (or hate mail) for Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack? The best of the best gets included in the weekly mailbag segment right here at FightHype. Send your stuff here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com.