By Jonathan Gonzalez: In recent years, fighters have consistently been preoccupied with keeping an unblemished record as a way of advertising themselves as “unbeatable”. Most notably, the recently retired pound-for-pound king, Floyd Mayweather Jr., was the sports staunchest promoter of the importance of his “0”.

Promoters have been constantly accused of protecting their fighters in order to keep them undefeated, which in turn boosts their earning power. After all, we’ve seen what 49-0 can do help a man earn, and I don’t know about you but taking $120 million to the bank doesn’t sound too bad. Still, it makes you think about how babied this generation of fighters is perceived to be by so many fans that recall a time when fighters fought anyone, win or lose.

This line of thinking can’t be applied in a one size fits all line of thinking as there are many good fighters that’ve come up the hard way and taken the road less traveled, but the bad seems to outweigh the good in many fans eyes.

One of the promoters most criticized by this development is Al Haymon, who with the best intentions has gone out of his way to ensure his fighters are well-paid but aren’t always pushed to face stiff competition. For example, the welterweight line-up for the PBC circuit, Haymon’s boxing bonanza that launched a year ago, is very deep with fighters like Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, Amir Khan, and Errol Spence Jr to name a few, yet we haven’t seen any of these guys face off in the ring. I don’t know about you, but the whole politics of boxing have weighed heavily upon fans that simply want to see good fights. It’s been too convenient for fighters to stick with the old, “my manager makes the fights” excuse every time they’re asked about fighting a top contender. Haymon isn’t the only person guilty of this, and this article isn’t an attack on what he’s doing as a manager. Hell, the man gets his fighters primetime spots on public networks and they get paid well, so he’s doing his job. However, it’s frustrating when fans see the endless possibilities and are left waiting for the “right time”.

What needs to be done to change the mindset that’s developed over the years in boxing is a question I don’t have the answers for, but maybe someone else does. As a boxing fan however, I simply want to see good fights happen as do so many others.