A court of law judge, already burdened with a backlog of cases, addressed the two guys brought before him who were previously apprehended by a policeman in the thick of a fist fight, “Why don’t you just settle your dispute out of court?” One of two promptly replied, “Your honor that was what precisely we were doing when the policeman intervened!”
Is Shane Mosley better than Roberto Duran at 135? Roy Jones, Jr. versus Bob Foster – Who wins? Could Bernard Hopkins beat Marvin Hagler? These are among the so called “fantasy fights” interestingly and sometimes heatedly discussed in boxing forums.
These fighters, having been born at different times, could never face each other in the ring to provide the fighting fans the definite resolution to their disputes. So the talks and sometimes heated arguments continue. A computerized encounter between these greats of the different decades falls short of calming the fiery verbal war between fight fans.
Muhammad Ali was not happy with the “result” of his computerized fight with Rocky Marciano. Although the “fight” was a give and take in which Ali scored a knockdown in a middle round, Rocky ultimately scored a 13th round KO.
Surely, the fans of Ruben Olivares “howled” their disagreement with the recent “round-by-round” account of a make believe fight between KO artists Ruben and Manny Pacquiao. While Ruben stood his ground and scored bombs of his own, Manny, being the more devastating puncher, eventually prevailed with a later round TKO.
We can live with a non-fight between name fighters born years or even decades apart and just relish their imagined encounters. Joe Frazier vs. Mike Tyson, Fighting Harada vs. Juan Manuel Marquez, Salvador Sanchez vs. Erik Morales, Carlos Monzon vs. Bernard Hopkins, Oscar De La Hoya vs. Sugar Ray Leonard, Naseem Hamed vs. Manny Pacquiao, and more. Fight fans can even visualize a fight between Floyd Mayweather and Bernard Hopkins at a certain weight to determine the top pound-for-pound fighter today.
Let the impossible non-fights between yesteryears’ and today’s greats remain as a delightful fantasy pastime of diehard fight fans. Disagreements as to who is the better fighter between Sugar Ray Robinson and Oscar De La Hoya, Tito Trinidad and Jose Napoles, Nicolino Loche and Julio Caesar Chavez, Sonny Liston and Lennox Lewis, might keep the boxing forums alive.
What seems a disfavor to fight fans is the inability of promoters to bring together in the same ring today’s hot fighters.
As the judge mentioned earlier admonished the two protagonists to settle their dispute out of court, let Floyd Mayweather and Kostya Tszyu, James Toney and Antonio Tarver, Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera, Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo, Oscar Larios and Juan Guzman, Veeraphol Sahaprom and Rafael Marquez, Ponsaklek Wonjongkam and Lorrenzo Parra (and you can add who else) settle now the would be disputes in later years’ boxing fantasy fight forums outside of it. Let these fighters fight!
Fight promoters and managers, are you there? Cause many a devoted boxing fan’s dream to be fulfilled. Let his excitement heighten as a superfight unfolds with him hearing the now familiar, “LET’S GET REAAAAADY TO RUMBLLLLLLE!” Now copyrighted by legendary ring announcer Michael Buffer…
