By Wil Patino: It seems that in today’s world of boxing losing a fight gets you more opportunities than winning it. Of coarse thats not always the case but I am sensing a shift in the way fans have accepted losers being given undeserving shots at titles and bigger money than the actual winners of the fights. At first I just thought some were in the right situation at the right time, but when I scrutinize it all its a concerning pattern worth mentioning.
For example, lets go back a little and take a look at the pattern of this new era that continuously grows. If you remember not long ago Brandon Rios lost to Mike Alvarado, yet Brandon Rios gets a shot at Manny Pacquiao. OK, maybe Pacquiao needed an easier tune up than Alvarado to bounce back from his knock out loss.
So now we fast forward to Mike Alvarado vs Ruslan Provodnikov. Provodnikov knocks Alvarado out and ends up fighting Chris Algieri (a tough match up stylistically) but Alvarado is rewarded the bigger money fight in battling Juan Manuel Marquez. Now this seems to be a huge problem with the way Top Rank has been operating. Yet Golden Boy is no different.
We all remember Keith Thurman beating Diego Chaves in a competitive fight winning by knock out. Afterwards Keith Thurman isn’t promised much better opposition skill wise or money wise. Diego Chaves now has an upcoming fight against a bigger name in Brandon Rios. I don’t know what Golden Boy is doing with Keith Thurman and what seems to be the problem. I think at this point he (Thurman) has shown enough skill, power, entertainment and charisma to be moved along much faster now. Lets not forget robberies and bad reffing in the mix of all that and we have a whole lot of losers getting more opportunities than winners. Remember Rigondeaux vs Donaire? Rigo schools Donaire and his last fight wasn’t televised. Nonito gets schooled and they show his fights even after struggling in a rematch with Darchinyan. What is happening lately!
Now we have Danny Garcia facing Rod Salka? Rod Salka isn’t even ranked! Why is this fight allowed. Mauricio Herrera and Lucas Matthysse the losers against Danny Garcia (although I believe Herrera won) have fought better opposition than Danny is facing in his title defense. the losers are fighting higher ranked opponents. The champ is fighting a nobody! What are they doing with Danny Garcias career? Why is Khan not fighting tougher opposition. There are too many things wrong with this picture lately I mean what is happening to boxing? Boxing has always had its ups and downs and definitely its controversy, but as a life long fan I’m finding myself in a place where I’m questioning the sports integrity as a whole and If i can still support and follow a sport full of B.S.! Rigondeaux is a free agent who may never make the money he deserves. Andre Ward still has promotional issues, Gamboa took forever to get a significant fight and got KO’d, Stevenson seems to be ducking Kovalev, Garcia wont give Herrera a rematch, Broner gets exposed and ends up on a Mayweather undercard in his following fight, popular fighters are always shown favoritism, too many belts, Pacquiao is fighting Algieri, Mayweather is fighting Maidana again, Mayweather and Pacquiao have not fought each other yet, too many ppv’s lately…. and the list goes on.
I know maybe it sounds like i’m just being whiny. I don’t like when people go off ranting neither, but its worth discussing. I can’t be the only one who feels like the wrong fighters are being rewarded. I understand boxing is a business with many obstacles and politics but we fans don’t have nor should put up with it anymore. Are the losers now becoming the winners and vice versa? Seems like too many pound for pound champions are not getting their just due. How do you feel about this? What are your concerns?
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