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[daprofessor]

self managed fighters such as bhop, roy jones and floyd mayweather do not rely on matchmakers and promoters (like pac and toprank) to pick their opposition because they are special talents that are capable of doing that on their own. it's a huge part of their success.

roy had his deal with hbo....and as a result we got to see him dominate over matched opposition for years. guys i never heard of like glenn kelly or the police officer that sold the bottom of his shoes for advertisement...and guys way past their primes like pazienza who had absolutely no business at super middle. he did some amazing things against those no-hopers. then he went up in weight and fought ruiz. prior to that though...he was avoiding his mandatory opponent, antonio tarver. everyone thought tarver would be killed by roy, myself included. tarver had to fight to be the mandatory twice. he knew something we didn't. roy didn't want any part of tarver. tarver called him out at the press conference for jones/ruiz and the world was shocked. the first fight happened and roy squeaked out victory and had a ton of excuses for winning. then the rematch happened. we all remember that.

bhop has been thee master at picking his opposition. he prides himself for "doing it his way" for all of these years. he's beat some great opposition along the way too! his best wins came against guys no one thought he could beat....tarver, pavlik and more recently....pascal. the potential opponent that no one paid attention to was dawson. a lot of fans feel bhop was avoiding dawson....but many more felt it was the right thing to do because after all...he wasn't a draw and dawson lost to pascal. and he looked like crap in his fight prior to hopkins. no way dawson belongs in the ring with bhop. then came the fight at the staples center where i believed bhop faked injury to get out of an inevitable ass whoopin. that theory was proven right imo after this past weekend when bad chad put it on bhop for several rounds in a fight that was more one sided than all of his losses combined.

notice the pattern? fighter picks opponents...he shines. forced to fight an opponent...no so much.

which brings me to floyd mayweather. arguably the most brilliant fighter of his time. he was voted fighter of the year in '98 and then again in '08. that alone is a huge accomplishment. but let's be honest....since his move up from 135....he has been picking and choosing his opposition in the same fashion as rjj and bhop and he's been shining. now....he's been forced to settle for miguel cotto because he has run out of options. on the surface it would appear that he chose miguel...but the honest truth is he didn't have any other options that would pay as much. so now...he's forced into this match that he chose to avoid when he retired after the hatton fight. will the pattern repeat? i think so.

i am now going on record....cotto is going to be the first fighter to beat floyd.

(then next month...when pac faces bradley...he's also going to lose. that doesn't apply here because pac isn't self managed. ) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

This post has been edited by daprofessor: May 1 2012, 08:32 PM

[mitukczuk]

Cant say I agree with you Professor. RJJ maybe...but B-Hop ? Floyd out of opposition ? Floyd being FORCED into fighting Cotto? I don't think so. He knows what hes doing.

Don't over-hype Cotto.

This post has been edited by mitukczuk: May 2 2012, 08:16 AM

[daprofessor]

Cant say I agree with you Professor. RJJ maybe...but B-Hop ? Floyd out of opposition ? Floyd being FORCED into fighting Cotto? I don't think so. He knows what hes doing.

Don't over-hype Cotto.

i don't expect everyone to agree. this is just something that has crossed my mind. i love the fact that i can come to a forum to discuss topics like these and get sooo many different perspectives from ppl who also force me to reconsider my line of thought sometimes. it's refreshing. if we all thought alike, this world would be a boring place.

yes...bhop. outside of his 20 defenses...and the mandatory no-hopers...he's been picking and choosing since he moved up in weight.

maybe forced is a strong word for floyd/cotto...but what other options does/did he have that would make him the kind of money this fight will generate? i stand by that one.

i don't think i'm over-hyping cotto. i just think sometimes they get it wrong...and the more i see and hear...the more i am starting to believe floyd is getting this one wrong. his tirade yesterday is another sign imo. it's all speculation though. none of this is an exact science.