Whatever Happened to The Man Beating The Man to be The Man???
 

Saturday night we had a first for this century: Oleksandr Usyk unified the heavyweight championship by beating Tyson Fury and winning the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF), World Boxing Organisation (WBO), and World Boxing Council (WBC) world heavyweight titles. Fantastic, the baddest man on the planet is now proven. Welll, it was fun while it lasted: the IBF is going to strip its version so it can put it on the line for two tomato cans to fight in two weeks for it, followed by the winner to face Anthony 'Glass Jaw' Joshua after that. Meanwhile, the other three titles will be on the line in October for the rematch.

One of the reasons I've drifted away from modern boxing is this kind of nonsense. For 200+ years, a fighter had to beat the man to be the man. The exceptions were when the man retired or refused to fight for a long time. Not anymore. These damned greedy sanctioning organizations are so eager for purse fees that they have devalued the titles to the point where they are only slightly more impressive than wrestling belts.

I'm a lineal supremacist, these fake belts are just marketing.

The biggest issue, for me though, is all the suspicious or rigged fights still going on. Canelo vs. GGG 1 and 2, Fury Wilder 1, etc. When we do get a good matchup, it's often with a tilted scale and doesn't seem fully honest unless we get a knockout.

I had a very hard time getting to the scores the judges did for Usyk v. Fury. 115-112 Usyk was egregiously wrong. Good match though. That Usyk can even hang with the top heavyweights is great, that he can beat at least some of the very top is amazing.

What is the reason the IBF is stripping their title from Usyk? I don't really follow boxing, but I thought the point of this fight was to have a unified title.

I'll admit, I've been out of the loop for a few years now, on the present day boxing scene. Once HBO gave up on boxing, and the biggest paydays/events became celebrity and novelty events, rather then having anything to do with higher level boxing, I started to lose interest in keeping track in what was going on.

However, fans and sports writers have been left to piece together lineal titles for decades now.

You still have to beat the man, to be the man, but the sanctioning bodies often have nothing to do with that.

"Undisputed" nowadays is only ever temporary. No fighter or fight manager in their right minds want to pay sanctioning fees to 3 to 5 different outfits, every time they defend their title.

...and if you follow all the various weight classes, it can get real murky on who the actual man is when there is outright avoidance between different boxers and/or promotional outfits.

I'm also not sure you should continue being "The Man", if you never agree to fight the 3 or 4 top guys directly behind you in the rankings...and not necessarily the sanctioning body rankings, which let's be honest, can be quite "rank" sometimes.

There's only one fight I'm waiting for. And oddly I hope it's over quickly.

Almost want it enough to get PPV for the first time ever.

I have one like that also. I hope Mike goes to sleep early to stop a serious humiliating one sided beatdown.

LOL, it's the same one. We just want different outcomes.

We actually want the same outcome. I am just being realistic if it is actually a real fight.

As a former boxer in my personal experience a young above average boxer will easily beat an old former great boxer. I know I used to love when the old former nationally ranked guys would come to the gym to spar. Just the speed difference made them very easy to hit and avoid their slow punches. Now sadly I am the old guy getting lit up by kids that when I was their age I would have easily beat.

That's kind of my fear.

Tyson lost badly to a couple gatekeeper type boxers to end his career 20 years ago.

Jake Paul is probably a few rungs of the ladder behind those guys, but Tyson is 20 years older, and last I heard, smoking lots of pot, is NOT a performance enhancer.

Tyson was never known for his stamina, so if this goes rounds, it could get ugly.

I hope Tyson lights him up, and this whole thing is exposed for the spectacle that it is...but I have a feeling I'm going to be disappointed.

A part of me even thinks that Tyson is going to be happy just to get the payday...and if he does see an opening, he's not going to really go after it...and this will end up being just a lame exhibition like Tyson vs. Roy Jones or Floyd Mayweather vs. whoever he's fought in the last whatever, whatever......

....and the fact I'm even talking about this seriously right now, is part of why I haven't really tracked boxing for several years now. It's just depressing. :(

I don't follow boxing very closely, but if you missed the Santillan vs Norman fight last weekend, you missed one heck of a fight. Probably one of the bloodiest fights I've seen since the old Jerry Quarry days. Norman broke Santillan's nose late in the fight and it got bloody, I'm talking all over the ring, both fighters, the referee, etc.

Of course I was cheering for the San Diego fighter Santillan, but he was toast after the broken nose.

Mike Tyson is 57 years old. I don't care what shape he is in for a 57 year old. This is boxing, not golf. That said, I doubt it will be a real fight.

Ben, who do you think the rules favor?
Eight two minute rounds, 14 oz gloves, headgear optional I think?

The fight is real, I think maybe the guy dis-respect him and Mike tyson want to show him how to respect elders. The match is getting closer we can watch and see ave already bought my own ticket what I know is it's what it's and it take what it takes [emoji41][emoji2389]

Sent from my oraimo using Tapatalk

Wow! That may have been the quickest knockout in Net54 history. :D

Whoever/whatever It is sure is persistent

Always a green light for legitimacy to see this!

They favor the younger guy IMO. 2 minute rounds mean the young guy can push the pace very easily. The faster he makes Mike tired the better. 14 oz gloves are a huge advantage for the young guy. They are going to make Mikes slow punches even easier to block and will slightly reduce the impact. As someone who is very close to the age of Tyson. I am not even close to as strong as I was at the younger age but I was on ALL the super creatine back then. What I am is still considerably stronger than most young guys so I doubt Tyson is the weaker fighter. Once you have been real strong it comes back quick even as an old guy in my experience. Headgear is just horrible and I absolutely hated it.

The big thing is speed. I still see all the openings sparring but I'm just too slow to hit them. Same with blocking punches. I see them coming I just can't get there fast enough to block or move out of the way anymore.

Track and field records by age are a pretty good proxy for the inevitable effects of nature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ters_athletics

Thought this was gonna be about wrestling before reading the first post. *chuckles*

Okay Peter, how about Mike Tyson vs Scottie Scheffler on the links.

I'll take Scheffler and give you and Mike a few mulligans.

Deal?