somerset
02-11-2008, 07:50 PM
When I was flying back to the UK from LA on Saturday I noticed there was a 2-hour highlights package of JC's fights on the in-flight entertainment tvs. It covered Eubank through to Lacy and was quite interesting looking back.
Incidentally on the other BA flight I was on in November it was Ricky Hatton instead. Funny how they changed it...
Anyway, from where I was looking his opponents didn't seem as bad as everybody says. Reid and Woodhall were former WBC champions; Brewer, Mitchell and Puckwell(!) had gone the distance with Ottke; Veit was unbeaten and huge - it wasn't obvious that he'd be so china-chinned; Sheika - highly regarded.
The time I think that the standard did drop was after Mitchell until Lacy. In the 3 years between those fights you had Mkrtchian, Salem, Veit and Ashira. What was ****** thinking? And Salem was really dirty too. Worse than Bika. Why would you put your champion in against such rough & dirty fighters?
The Ashira bout was the worse though. A small middleweight. Beat him one-handed and it wasn't even close!
If in those 3 years he'd of beaten maybe Siaca, Tate, Lucas, Mundine, Beyer and Ottke would anyone question his legacy?
Instead Ottke was getting all the plum fights.
The other thing to note about Joe's old fights was how much more he used to trade back then. Taking 2 to give 3. Always came off the best though.
Incidentally on the other BA flight I was on in November it was Ricky Hatton instead. Funny how they changed it...
Anyway, from where I was looking his opponents didn't seem as bad as everybody says. Reid and Woodhall were former WBC champions; Brewer, Mitchell and Puckwell(!) had gone the distance with Ottke; Veit was unbeaten and huge - it wasn't obvious that he'd be so china-chinned; Sheika - highly regarded.
The time I think that the standard did drop was after Mitchell until Lacy. In the 3 years between those fights you had Mkrtchian, Salem, Veit and Ashira. What was ****** thinking? And Salem was really dirty too. Worse than Bika. Why would you put your champion in against such rough & dirty fighters?
The Ashira bout was the worse though. A small middleweight. Beat him one-handed and it wasn't even close!
If in those 3 years he'd of beaten maybe Siaca, Tate, Lucas, Mundine, Beyer and Ottke would anyone question his legacy?
Instead Ottke was getting all the plum fights.
The other thing to note about Joe's old fights was how much more he used to trade back then. Taking 2 to give 3. Always came off the best though.