From AstralTraveller:
Now that O’Shaquie Foster has thoroughly dispatched of Navarette, what is his most likely scenario moving forward? With Charly Suarez, Anthony Cacace, and now Loma at 130, but also Foster’s stated desire to go after bigger fish like Stevenson and Haney, what do think his most likely path will be?
Until proven otherwise, I’d still expect him to take the mandated fight with Charly Suarez. It’s a good fight and even with that terrific win over Navarrete, it may be hard for Foster
to find any bigger a fight quickly enough, unless Lomachenko is ready to dive right back into the deep end next spring. Foster dropping a belt to take that one would not be a surprise.
From LarryLegend78:
Where do you rank Canelo amongst greatest Mexican fighters of all time?
I mean, he’s up there. I don’t think he’s passed Julio Cesar Chavez, nor will he, because to me, greatest is about a lot more than belt collecting and listing achievements, which always comes with potential asterisks based on who you really beat and all that, anyway. There are a lot of fighters who never won a world title that I’d rank over Adrien Broner all time; like, a lot.
I say this as an outsider, obviously, but I think Chavez’s cultural impact, both in the sport and in Mexico, soars him past Canelo and it’s still not all that close and probably isn’t going to be. But that’s how I see it; if you are just jotting down achievements and that’s how you rank it, yeah, Canelo has an argument as Mexico’s GOAT. I wouldn’t have him there, but I’m also not Mexican. Someone who is is absolutely better qualified to answer this, and I can really only talk about the modern era (when I say modern I’m still going back to the 70s/80s so … it’s not really modern, a lot of it), but I was asked, that’s my view of it.
From CRUCIFILTH:
Lomachenko is coming back and wants to be undisputed again at 130. What odds do you give him to accomplish this? Seems like a tall order for his age coming back after a long layoff, but he is Lomachenko.
I think the odds are low, but then the odds of anyone going undisputed are low. I love Lomachenko, think he’s a great technician, a wonderful boxer, but he has never been unbeatable or anything. I do think the best shot he has at that sort of achievement now is at 130, certainly not 135. He was never a true lightweight, though he did very well at the weight anyway, obviously.
I really don’t know what sort of form Vasiliy is going to be in on return, but O’Shaquie Foster is no paper champ or pushover, and I think today’s version of Foster would have always given Loma some problems at 130, let alone an older Lomachenko who hasn’t fought in roughly three years by the time we see him again. But if he’s in shape and all that, I’m glad to see him giving it another go. Boxing careers are very short, even the guys who stick around “longer” than they “should.” And he’ll be 39 in February, not 50 or anything. If there’s anything left and the desire is still there, good to give it the go and have no feeling you left something on the table.
From Boxingjim:
If you could invest in either Leo Atang or Adam Olaniyan, who would you invest in?
Olaniyan, just by a little bit. Not by a lot. Both good prospects. Both very young. VERY young. Way too early to really be sure of this, but if you want to know which gamble I’d take, it’s Olaniyan. And at this point, with both, it’s all still a gamble what the long-term is going to look like. You know when you know, and not a moment before.
From battle axe of doom:
If you could shrink any big man to fight any little man what would you do? I’m doing all Ukrainian, Loma vs Usyk.
That’s a good one, and might be my pick. But since you picked that already, let me go with Tyson Fury vs Bud Crawford. I know the latter is Officially Retired and Fury will probably be Officially Retired again in about two months, but I always wish there were more fighters like Fury in lower classes. Fury is odd in his style and approach. He’d still be abnormally tall for any shrinking, mind you, or else you lose that, but all divisions have abnormally tall guys. So if he’s down at 147/154 to fight Bud, Tyson needs to be about 6’3” or so. I mean this is all make believe, I can make any rules I want.
From saad:
The sanctioning bodies have shown no real interest in organizing North America with regular regional title fights and rankings – NABA, NABF, NABO and USBA. We still get fights for those belts but they never seem to lead anywhere and there isn’t a clear path to getting those title shots.
Would it matter if one of them took it seriously? Could it become something that American fighters cared about on the way up? Or does it really just not matter, and that’s why the sanctioning bodies don’t spend any time on it.
I just think it’s too late to get American fighters and promoters to buy into that sort of functional, useful, regional system like we see in the UK and Japan, in particular. But yes, in theory, I think it would be good, because I’ve seen evidence of how it works. Not only do you give top prospects clear paths, but you create a level at which fighters who are going to top out there can have good, memorable careers and be matched appropriately, which produces good fights. American fans would need re-training, too, but the audience has shrunk so much that I think you could probably pull it off. Those left are the diehards, they don’t leave, and those coming in new would come in knowing that system and appreciating it.
From Hahahawhatever:
How did Terence Crawford go under the radar as a prospect for so long? He was arguably the most talented fighter of his generation, in the biggest hotbed of boxing talent, promotion and scouting in the world, and he wasn’t signed by a major promotion until Top Rank signed him after Bradley’s recommendation? Also how is such an untested fighter as a young Crawford able to just walk into the gym against a bigger future hall of famer and just whoop him as Desert Storm admits?
On the latter, it’s just talent. Maybe to some degree Bradley was so surprised by his quality that that played a part, too, but Tim Bradley could have known and he wasn’t going to be better than Bud. And Bradley could fight, he was not actually “ass.”
That happens, though, and it’s always a mystery in hindsight. How has Sampson Lewkowicz managed to find so many diamond in the rough types over the years? Because others weren’t looking where he looked. But Crawford didn’t have any big amateur career and he was from Nebraska. It happened before him, it happened with him, it will happen many more times. There’s some 15 year old right now in a gym somewhere, and no one’s looking, but he’s got it. We’ll know his name eventually.
From soulrise:
We still have a couple months left but who are your leading contenders for FoY? O’Shaquie? Dubois? Someone else?
It’s O’Shaquie for me. Dubois is a contender, but O’Shaquie’s outstanding performance against Navarrete sealed it. What a story. What a career turnaround. And what a fighter he’s become.
From Victhegoat2023:
Canelo is near the end of his career, when it’s all said and done, is he a true Hall of Famer and all time great or is he just overrated?
If Canelo gets knocked out in a round by Mbilli, he is a first ballot, no doubt Hall of Famer.
The biggest real, actual question is about the doping scandal. That’ll be for fans to debate, because nobody in boxing actually cares. They’ve shown us that many, many times over many, many years. They say they do, but they don’t.
From Mindkillerr:
O’Shaquie Foster in or near your top 10 P4P after last weekend’s performance?
He’s in, yeah. Honestly, it could be short-lived. That might have been the climax of his journey. But again: He is one of the best stories in boxing over the last decade. It wasn’t some big, over-hyped, headline news story, it was a real story of a guy refusing to pack it in, making changes, and becoming the best version of himself he could be in a boxing ring.
