By Adrian Alvarez Jr.: I just read an article today by Dallas Oryiuk about Danny “Swift” Garcia possibly ducking or being afraid of Lucas “The Machine” Matthysse. I’m not going to get into to much detail on whether he is or not, but what I will say is I’m a huge Boxing fan and a fan of both fighters I’ve rooted for Garcia in all of his bouts and have followed him more but I wanted Lucas to win in his fight against Peterson and have great respect for him.
I’ve also seen a few of his fights and it would be a great fight.
I’m not going to speak about Dallas’ article or elaborate more on it what I’m going to tell and remind you all about is what if in the history of this Beautiful beautiful sport the best had never fought the best? What would the sport be like today? How popular would it be? Granted the sport and art of it are beautiful and popular by themselves but imagine if we the fans would’ve never had a Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, or Louis vs. Marciano, Lamotta vs. Robinson, Ali vs. Frazier, Trinidad Vs. DeLahoya, Tyson vs Holyfield (Though this fight came much later than fight fans wanted it to), Leonard vs. Benitez, Gomez vs Sanchez or any of the super fights between the fab 4 (Duran, Leonard, Hagler, and Hearns) of the 1980’s? Just to name a few and I mean a FEW of the great fights between the best. How much less popular would the sport be?
Yes, the true fans would still be there and you wish every fan was true but not every fan is and I believe that it’s better for every sport to have it’s casual fans at least than for those seats to be empty or those fights to go un-ordered they do help keep the sport alive believe it or not in some way shape or form but everyone has their own opinion on matters like that I’ll let you form yours and will respect it. Again I’m not going to speculate on whether Garcia is ducking or afraid of Matthysse, what I will say is if he is it would be a great shame and would rob many fans of a fight that everyone wants to see and in my humble opinion must happen in order to determine who the best is in the hot 140lb weight division.
On another note I recently read about a boxer named Charley Burley who is one of the top 100 greatest boxer’s of all time and it was sad to see that this all time great and legend who a former sparring partner said he saw a lot of in Roy Jones Jr. never got a world title shot because of how much he was supposedly ducked and feared by many, many greats including Billy Conn, Marcel Cerdan, and “The Bronx Bull” himself Jake Lamotta just to name a select few, Lamotta who fought greats like “Sugar Ray” Robinson, “Battling” Bob Sadderfield and Burley’s greatest rival Holman Williams, Lamotta who when you think of him is a boxer and fighter that a lot of people wouldn’t think of as someone who ducked or feared other fighters, now it may not be certain that these fighters ducked or feard Burley but it’s hard to believe that not one of these boxers could get in the ring with Burley in their careers and in all the years they were fighting and if it’s true that they didn’t want to fight him many fans were robbed back then just as we have been a few times in recent years and just as we would be now.
Burley is just one example of boxers who have may have or have been ducked or feared, some of today’s examples are Andre Ward (Even the legendary and great BHOP said “I Will Never fight Andre Ward”), Genady “Triple G” Golovkin, Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez a couple of years back, and apparently now Matthysse not just by supposedly Garcia but by other’s from what I’ve heard, and also Marcos “El Chino” Maidana, again just to name a few. I find it very sad and upsetting as I’m sure every boxing fan does true and casual, when these great boxer’s in a way get robbed of a chance to hold a world title, most of the time you see a boxer not get a title shot it’s because he probably doesn’t deserve it or isn’t high ranked enough, or good enough, or talented enough, but with these guys ironically it’s because of their talent.
I feel our beloved “Sweet Science” a lot of times should be like the team sports maybe more tournaments and if this team wins their series and that team wins their series or this team wins their playoff game and that team wins their playoff game for the NFL, college basketball and football they’re playing regardless of what either team says and they want to play each other anyway, I feel it should be this way also between these gladiators of the squared circle. Please by all means fellow fans tell me what you think.
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