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[Afro]

Of All-time who do you think the most overrated/underrated Boxers are?

[Punk Ass]

Very hard question to answer. I don't think I can say of all time because I wasn't around in the 70s to make a judgement. But from what I've learned Ali might have been the most underrated in his time because people thought he would lose to every champion he fought. Sunny Liston and Forman come to mind.

Now I would say DLH. He's not in anyone's P4P list and I really think he's going to beat PBF.

The most overated in my time would have to be Tarver. I don't think he wasnt nearly as good as people gave him credit for. He was lucky enough to catch RJJ on the down slide of his career and I think gaining so much weight and cutting burt RJJ out.

[Afro]

Ya Tarver is def overrated, late bloomer that beat RJJ when he was well past his prime and Tarver was just gettin started..

DLH is tricky.. I dont recall seein' him on any Top 20s I dont think he ever was the P4P best boxer in the world but hes always been the biggest draw.. dont know what to say about him in terms of underrated/overrated

Underrated.. Pernell Whitaker.

[billbrasky]

Yea sweet pea is definitely on the underrated list mainly because he was a technician and his fights werent all that exciting. Another guy I dont think gets enough credit historically is Aaron Pryor. He was an absolute animal in the early to mid 80s before drugs ruined his career. Sugar Ray was a natural 140 but moved up to welterweight to avoid pryor.
As for overrated, even though I loved him you gotta say Tyson. He did great things during his title reign but whenever he was matched up with someone who had heart and wasnt afraid of him, he lost or melted down. He didnt have the heart to beat other former great heavys like Ali, Louis, Frazier, Foreman, etc.

[Salvy_Mic]

Tyson definitely falls into the overrated column, and as much as I hate to say it because he's my favorite boxer I've seen so far, Oscar De La Hoya might fall into that category too. He gets a lot of credit for fighting the best guys out there at a given time (Kostya Tszyu aside), but frankly, he lost to the very best guys he fought, Felix Trinidad, Shane Mosley (twice), and Bernard Hopkins. If he beats Mayweather though, I feel he'll be vindicated in that respect, and that may be his driving force going into the fight. It's been awhile (other than the Hopkins fight) where Oscar'll be a definitive underdog.

[Luis Cruz]

This is a hard topic to answer and it'd take some thought. But from what you guys already said i'll comment.

Tyson may very well have had too much hype, he got old and kept fighting which obviously hurt his legacy. But i believe barring any outside problems his career would've been even more successful, those distractions hurt him a lot i'm sure.

Tarver is a def, i've said that forever. lol

Sweet Pea is a very good choice for underrated, he was a great fighter.

Now Oscar. If he was active a lot more, i'm sure he'd be on the p4p list and he definately was on it in the past when he fought actively. I don't think he was overrated at all. He has tremedous boxing skills and i mean from the very basics. Some guys, like Jones, rely on their flashiness which will later catch up to them as you can see but Oscar has those basic skills he takes to another level that will make him a threat for as long as he wants to fight. His loss to Felix could be argued for days that he won that fight, he messed up by fighting safe in the championship rounds. His fights with Mosely were also very close and the 2nd one i THINK i had him winning, i'm not positive though so don't hold me to that. But i do know both fights were very close. His performance against Hopkins was nothing to shit on either. No one expected him to win and no one also expected him to do as well as he did. He was winning that fight because Hopkins didn't provide much offense in the early stages and Oscar actually did what he said he was going to do and that's stand there and fight. He loses no creditibility in my book because he exceeded my expectations of how well he was going to do. Then of course there's Sturm who Oscar clearly took lightly and came in very out of shape and it should've cost him because he lost that fight and got a gift decision. So with all that said, i wouldn't put on an overrated list.

[Jones]

Originally Posted by Salvy_Mic

Tyson definitely falls into the overrated column, and as much as I hate to say it because he's my favorite boxer I've seen so far, Oscar De La Hoya might fall into that category too. He gets a lot of credit for fighting the best guys out there at a given time (Kostya Tszyu aside), but frankly, he lost to the very best guys he fought, Felix Trinidad, Shane Mosley (twice), and Bernard Hopkins. If he beats Mayweather though, I feel he'll be vindicated in that respect, and that may be his driving force going into the fight. It's been awhile (other than the Hopkins fight) where Oscar'll be a definitive underdog.

I'm with Luis on this one. I don't see De La Hoya as being overrated at all. He gave Trinidad a boxing lesson, and he beat Mosley in the rematch, regardless of what the judges penciled into their scorecards. He went in as a huge underdog against Hopkins, he had no business being there. It was obvious how badly and weak he looked against Sturm that Middleweight was way out of his league.

[Punk Ass]

Originally Posted by Luis Cruz

This is a hard topic to answer and it'd take some thought. But from what you guys already said i'll comment.

Tyson may very well have had too much hype, he got old and kept fighting which obviously hurt his legacy. But i believe barring any outside problems his career would've been even more successful, those distractions hurt him a lot i'm sure.

Tarver is a def, i've said that forever. lol

Sweet Pea is a very good choice for underrated, he was a great fighter.

Now Oscar. If he was active a lot more, i'm sure he'd be on the p4p list and he definately was on it in the past when he fought actively. I don't think he was overrated at all. He has tremedous boxing skills and i mean from the very basics. Some guys, like Jones, rely on their flashiness which will later catch up to them as you can see but Oscar has those basic skills he takes to another level that will make him a threat for as long as he wants to fight. His loss to Felix could be argued for days that he won that fight, he messed up by fighting safe in the championship rounds. His fights with Mosely were also very close and the 2nd one i THINK i had him winning, i'm not positive though so don't hold me to that. But i do know both fights were very close. His performance against Hopkins was nothing to shit on either. No one expected him to win and no one also expected him to do as well as he did. He was winning that fight because Hopkins didn't provide much offense in the early stages and Oscar actually did what he said he was going to do and that's stand there and fight. He loses no creditibility in my book because he exceeded my expectations of how well he was going to do. Then of course there's Sturm who Oscar clearly took lightly and came in very out of shape and it should've cost him because he lost that fight and got a gift decision. So with all that said, i wouldn't put on an overrated list.

I never said DLH was Overated, I meant he was underated.

[Salvy_Mic]

This was tricky for me, because my head tells me that Oscar was a bit overrated, but my heart and gut tell me that he's rated just fine, as one of the absolute best boxers of the past 15 years. If he beats Mayweather, then there's no doubt in my mind, but for some reason, I dunno. Maybe I've been listening to too many hardcore Mexican boxing fans who loathe Oscar and everything about him, seemingly.

For sure, though, I've always been an Oscar fan, and I always will be. He's my favorite fighter, MMA or boxing.