How can a universally recognized world class fighter with world title belts and sometimes even pound-for-pound recognition be underrated or overrated? How can a fighter at the top of his division be regarded as both overrated and underrated by subsections of boxing fandom?
Well, because it’s boxing, of course.
Here’s a fair and balanced look at some of the sport’s most diversely assessed fighters and whether each is, in reality, overrated, underrated or neither.
Saul Alvarez
Overrated because: He WAS gifted his first world title as a 20-year-old prospect and has been able to call his own shots to a greater degree than almost anyone else in the sport—something that has gone hand in hand with some pretty dubious opponent selections.
Underrated because: He DID sign on to face Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara—two tricky boxers with the ability to make opponents look bad-- when he didn’t really have to. He also signed on to face the much-avoided Paul Williams, only to have that fight fall through when Williams suffered his career-ending motorcycle accident. Throw in two fights with Gennady Golovkin, one with Floyd Mayweather, and one with Miguel Cotto. All before turning 29.
The Reality: Add it all up and the red-headed Mexican star has a pretty deep resume, at least much deeper than he’s given credit for. There’s also a lot of fluff there, gimmes and softballs with name value tossed his way to fatten up the bank accounts of those in the Canelo business. But, in recent years, the criticism of Canelo and his body of work has been so intensely over the top that he’s probably underrated at this point. Canelo may not be a legendary presence in the sport or a true ATG-level talent, but he’s certainly not the hobo-stomping bum his dedicated legion of critics portrays him to be.
Anthony Joshua
Overrated because: He got his first world title shot despite having beaten nobody of note on his way to the top and he became IBF world champ by beating Charles Martin, perhaps the weakest world heavyweight champ of all time. Since becoming world champ, his resume has been hot and cold with a couple of big wins standing out among a generally nondescript (but highly lucrative) 6-defense reign.
Underrated because: He went to war with the best version of Wladimir Klitschko we’ve seen in ages and actually stopped the former undisputed champ. His win over a fading, but still sharp Alexander Povetkin is also worthy of praise.
The Reality: Joshua was a star before proving himself in the ring and was afforded all the shortcuts and advantages that generally go along with stardom. The truth is that he never proved himself worthy of all the adulation and next-big-thing hype until he went to war with Klitschko. It’s hard to call someone overrated when he’s shown himself a step ahead of legitimate top 3 and top 5 fighters like Klitschko and Povetkin. But another truth is that the book is still out on Joshua until he beats the only two heavyweights who can claim equal standing in the division—Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury.
Adonis Stevenson
Overrated because: After obliterating Chad Dawson for the WBC light heavyweight title in June of 2013, he went on a mediocre 5-year, 8-fight championship run that swerved around every high-end, elite-level possible challenge at the time (such as Sergey Kovalev, Bernard Hopkins, and Jean Pascal) in favor of safer second-tier opposition. Most recently, an inconsistent performance in a defense against quality contender Badou Jack resulted in a majority draw that easily could’ve been a loss.
Underrated because: Stevenson’s big left hand is still one of the sport’s deadliest weapons and the assumption is that he can still physically compete at an elite level, even at 41 years of age.
The Reality: He’s overrated. The problem with Stevenson is that he never put his prodigious physical gifts to any sort of reasonable, continued test at any point of his career—and especially not after he became a champ, landed a big deal, and started having the power to call his own shots. Simply put, a fighter is only as good as who he has overcome. Now, it’s too late to know how good he could’ve been. He’ll eventually be taken out by what would’ve been considered an inferior fighter six years ago and he’ll have nothing but question marks planted all over his professional legacy.