Do we make too much about people moving weights to make fights?

Just thinking about the Ward v Dawson fight, and all the Pac fights that have involved people moving or giving up weight, and it got me thinking: do we make too much of this these days?

Take Duran for example, he moved up to fight some of he best there has ever been, and no one regrets that, as far as I am aware.

Nowadays we are starved of huge fights, or even really great match-ups at times. But when two fighters who would make for a great match and it involves one of the fighters moving weight category, it is a huge issue.

I am as guilty of this, if not more so, than most.

Ward v Dawson. Great fight in terms of quality and Dawsonis fully willing to drop weight, but I have complained.
When marquez went up 5 pounds to fight Manny, thought it would be too much, but was wrong
Manny fights Cotto at catch and people say Cotto was drained

I am not talking about when Oscar zombied himslef to fight Pac, that was ridick; but say for example Ortiz moving up to fight Canelo, some are already saying he is toast att he weight. But really he is big at 147.

Do we make too much of fighters moving divisions to make fights?

what other examples are there?

With Ortiz the issue for me is that his style is somewhat reliant on being a bully and strong. With these kind of fighters - Hatton, Williams, Ortiz etc I think the higher up they go and the bigger their opposition becomes the more they struggle. Alvarez is easily going to be the biggest opponent Ortiz has fought and I cant really see him having any physical advantage there. Probably the opposite given Alvarez looks strong at LMW.

Even taking a technical fighter like Mayweather, his two lmw fights I scored both 116-112. I thought they were good performances but by no means his best. De la Hoya and Cotto were able to muscle him far more effectively than Hatton could - who without much of a size advantage actually ended up getting outmuscled himself at his own game.

Good points. I think we have to remember though that Hatton was coming up to the weight. So maybe it is ortiz inability to adapt more than the weight? I mean he will be very fast in there and still pac a punch, after all, he has put a lot of opponents on their jacksy

manos de piedra wrote:With Ortiz the issue for me is that his style is somewhat reliant on being a bully and strong. With these kind of fighters - Hatton, Williams, Ortiz etc I think the higher up they go and the bigger their opposition becomes the more they struggle. Alvarez is easily going to be the biggest opponent Ortiz has fought and I cant really see him having any physical advantage there. Probably the opposite given Alvarez looks strong at LMW.

Even taking a technical fighter like Mayweather, his two lmw fights I scored both 116-112. I thought they were good performances but by no means his best. De la Hoya and Cotto were able to muscle him far more effectively than Hatton could - who without much of a size advantage actually ended up getting outmuscled himself at his own game.

Right on the money.

A few pounds won't make any difference in Ward vs Dawson, so long as Dawson doesn't look De La Hoyaish, as it will be a very technical fight and although both hold their own physically they're not what you would call bully's who rely on strength. The Maidana's and Rios' of this world who get by on being big at the weight and using that advantage rather than boxing particularly well are the ones who struggle when they fight the bigger opponents and that edge is taken away.

Seanusarrilius wrote:Good points. I think we have to remember though that Hatton was coming up to the weight. So maybe it is ortiz inability to adapt more than the weight? I mean he will be very fast in there and still pac a punch, after all, he has put a lot of opponents on their jacksy

By the looks of what he weighs in the ring on the night I dont think he will be small. Hes a big welter. But the problem is Alvarez is going to be correspondingly big or bigger which is generally not the case with Ortiz. Both guys are quite open and hittable but I think ALvarez is by far more accurate and will have the strength to hold his own which will make the difference for me.