By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: Fans love to use the phrase “they fought everybody” when talking about the 50’s 60’s 70’s and especially the 80’s.
The phrase is thrown around loosely, but I have a good idea where that mentality comes from. It comes from highlights that are put together by media and boxing historians. Notice they are called highlights and not low lights. Highlights only focus on the big matches a fighter had. They may show an A plus fighter knocking out a second tier opponent but never go into great detail about it.
The only way I have ever found out about both high and low lights of a fighters life is documentaries and research that was left out of the documentary (the behind the scenes stuff). Think about it. If one was to read an obituary about a person, no matter how much bad stuff they did, they tend to focus on the good stuff he did. I will use the 80’s era while touching on a few points from other eras.
Sugar Ray Leonard finished his career with 40 fights. Out of those 40 he produced 4 big fights (Hagler, Hearns, Duran, and Benitez). Those fights erase any memory of him fighting Davey Moore, Kevin Howard, or Bruce Finch. They also covered the fact that he insisted on a catch weight of 164 for his second fight with Hearns in 89. Marvin Hagler had 67 fights and produced big fights (Hearns, Duran, and Leonard). This wipes out any memory of him fighting William “Cave Man” Lee, Fulgencio Obelmejias, or Wilford Sypion.
It also covered up any memory of light heavyweight champion Michael Spinks calling out Hagler which went un-returned. Thomas Hearns racked up 67 that produced four big fights (Leonard, Hagler, Benitez, and Duran). This covers up any memory of him fight Murray Sutherland, Doug Dewitt, or Mark Medal. Roberto Duran had 119 fights that produced (Esteban De Jesus, Ken Buchanan, Hagler, Hearns, Leonard and Iran Barkley). This covers up the fact that his title was not on the line against Esteban De Jesus (the first fight which he lost) and he had many non title fights and piled up wins against (what can be considered today the who’s who of boxing).
Evander Holyfield was such a warrior that people forget that 2 of 3 title defenses came against fighters who were well into their 40’s (George Foreman and Larry Holmes). But the way Main Events, Holyfield’s promoter, marketed the fight it took pressure off of Evander. The focus was on Foreman should not be fighting a young stallion like Holyfield for health reasons. But Foreman made such a good showing of himself in a losing effort that his age no longer became a factor. But don’t get it twisted. He was still 40 plus years old. Riddick Bowe’s three fight clash with Holyfield etches out any memory of him dumping the WBC belt in the garbage because he didn’t want to fight number one contender Lennox Lewis. And to cap this off, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and Leonard’s big fights also cover the fact the 80’s version of Gennady Golovkin, Mike McCallum, was kept out of that circle at all cost. The closet McCallum ever got to the fab five was in 1984 when he became the number one contender to Duran’s WBA junior middleweight belt. Duran opted to be stripped and fought Hearns rather than give McCallum a shot at a big fight and pay day.
So to recap. It’s okay for Leonard to insist upon a catch weight with Hearns in their second encounter, but Manny Pacquiao does it (Margarito) and Floyd Mayweather does it (Saul Canelo) and it’s an atrocity? And all a fighter has to do is have 3 or 4 big fights and they can be considered great? It’s okay for Duran to have a few non title fights, but if it’s done today then it’s considered ducking? But one thing is for sure, a big fight will cover a multitude of sins.
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