I think Curry's biggest wins are better than Zoo's, but he wasn't around as long. At his best, I think Curry was clearly the better fighter. Kostya greater, Don better.
Curry was a better fighter IMO. Tszyu has more longevity, though. So that makes him greater. He also came back after a loss and rebuilt himself, whereas Curry was never the same after Honeyghan.
Yup. I'm in the same boat. Tszyu was greater, but prime-for-prime, Tszyu was never on the level of mid-80s Curry.
Tszyu was greater, but in a head-to-head match, Tszyu would take a worse beating than he did against Cool Vince Phillips
At 147 Curry would have won and at 154 Curry would have won....Curry was better and I think he might even be greater. Zoos losses, and their nature, to Phillips and Hatton...very good fighters but hardly legends, are damaging and just as damaging as Currys quit job Vs Honeyghan and his KO loss to McCallum. It's possible to call Tszyu a greater fighter as he occupied a period from about 2000 to 2005 where he was obviously the best in class with a standout streak of wins.
Phillips was a big 10 stoner who literally never win another big fight in his life. But here's the rubhillips had moved DOWN to 140 because he couldn't hack it at 147 and nearly got his fuggin head took off by Ike Quartey He got that big upset win but even though he was blooming up in weight between fights he'd sooner fight drained Vs Terron Millet (who was a really suspect fighter, got blowed out by Gatti FFS) than go back to 147. Phillips preferred to try and boil down to 140 at the age of 40 and fight Hatton than go back to 147. And there was a way more money at 147 for Phillips, this being the era of Oscar etc. So that really counts against Zoo. Zoo does have that KO over Judah who went on to be the man at 147 so that counts but I don't put Judah in the class of Curry , Starling, etc.
The whole Soviet-style of boxing really did sort the wheat from the chaff, but tended to produce a certain style of fighter i.e. hard, skilled, aggressive, but often lacking that extra level of technique and adaptability compared to the elite US boxers.
