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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

[checkleft]

I can't agree with either of you guys.. cotto isn't the same. Yes he can box and he has gotten better at it but his pressure fighting has diminished as his chin has been disintegrated. Do you honestly think cotto could take a shot from a guy like ortiz or berto at this stage in his career and beat the ten? Because I honestly can't. He ran and pushed for most of the marg fight and barley got touched yet he was still swelling up fast and he was starting to gas.

I have a lot of respect for cotto and I'm a big fan I've been following him since early in his career but he is not the same fighter he once was. The animal that used to apply pressure and unrelentingly attacked the body and showed some of his boxing skills at the same time is gone. He's gonna need a home run to beat Floyd

[daprofessor]

I can't agree with either of you guys.. cotto isn't the same. Yes he can box and he has gotten better at it but his pressure fighting has diminished as his chin has been disintegrated. Do you honestly think cotto could take a shot from a guy like ortiz or berto at this stage in his career and beat the ten? Because I honestly can't. He ran and pushed for most of the marg fight and barley got touched yet he was still swelling up fast and he was starting to gas.

I have a lot of respect for cotto and I'm a big fan I've been following him since early in his career but he is not the same fighter he once was. The animal that used to apply pressure and unrelentingly attacked the body and showed some of his boxing skills at the same time is gone. He's gonna need a home run to beat Floyd

we'll agree to disagree because i feel that he is the best he's ever been at this point. i have not seen him hurt at 154. at 147 he was getting rocked....but he's always had the composure and awareness to take a knee...or give lateral movement when he was seriously hurt. the guy knows how to survive. floyd doesn't bring the pressure that margarito does with a big body and heavy hands. i also don't believe he packs the same punch as pacquiao. he doesn't force the exchanges like him either. floyd paces himself and fights in spots. that's what cotto prefers. it's the pressure that has made him wither. floyd is NOT a pressure fighter. the few times he has tried to pressure anyone with skill he got rocked. *see corley and judah. sure cotto is shop worn...there's no doubt. but he's been increasing his skills and confidence over the last 3 years. i don't believe he's forgotten how to walk down and pressure fighters. it's been a while since he's faced and opponent small enough that he can do that to. let's not forget....cotto is undefeated against undefeated fighters. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)