Old and famous adage in boxing but give me examples of when the opposite happened. In your examples it must big GOOD big fighters that lost to good little fighters..so don't give me Louis vs Carnera type examples.
^^ aren't those examples of little great'un beat good big'un...? Toney n Hopkins being GREAT...while Tarver n Jirov being just good...
Are you channeling your inner xplosive? Mosley De La Hoya is a good one. Duran Leonard. Ward Kovalev.
Duran-Leonard is probably the best example. Only in that case, you have two guys who are WAAAAYYYY beyond just "good". Both top 5 all time greats.
That was a case of two different levels though. Pac's an all time great. Cotto's not even a "great" IMO. I've always considered him merely "very good".
GTFOH! Mosley jumped TWO DIVISIONS to fight DeLa Hoya. Floyd against DeLa Hoya (which you named) just went up ONE division.
Oscar had fought at 130 previously - so fuck? Mosley couldnt make lightweight, moved to the weight he was comfortable at, exactly as Oscar had a couple years prior, and had had 2 fights to acclimatise before facing Oscar. I bet mosley weighed more in the ring! as opposed to floyd-Oscar where Oscar had 15lb on floyd
Cotto is definitively a great fighter. But, as you said, PAcman is clearly a whole level abovre great
Miguel Cotto was never a great fighter. Not at all. We've had this discussion on this forum many times before. Cotto was too flawed and vulnerable to be considered a great fighter. There's too many fighters in history who I'd pick to kick Cotto's ass for me to consider him a great, and A LOT of them aren't HOFmers. Cotto will make the HOF of course, but there's a shitload of better fighters than him who never reached his level of fame.
Cotto's one of those guys who's surpassed what I thought he'd do. I can't call him great but he was obviously very good. Just a step and a bit below the best though.
Depends on what your definition of great is. I see some persons calling Tzsyu a great fighter, and Cotto is clearly greater than him. If a guy like Trinidad is great, Cotto is probably great also, cause he has a pretty similar career (even if Tito probably kick his ass in a h2h matchup). Of course he falls short of the truly best,like Pacquiao and PBF, but these guys are ATG, not merely great.
