Do champions have an obligation to fight until they lose?

[drbolony]

They don't have an obligation to do shit, especially if they vacate. The UFC has made it very clear these guys are individual contractors and not employees.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

Tougher competition*

So Floyd Mayweather has a strength based style? Anderson Silva? Tyron Woodley?

LOL!

I wish I could say I've never seen someone make so many excuses for a fighter in my life, but that's the standard here on Sherdog. Where people point to physical decline as young as 25, instead of dealing with the fact that this 25 year old sport is still developing and fighters are getting better - some faster than others.

Yet for all of your "physiological changes" you still havn't be able to tell me why GSP who is the same age as Tyron is can't fight him. LOL!

So your argument is that Trevor Berbick and Larry Holmes beat Muhammad Ali so easily was because they were much tougher competition than say Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston, George Foreman.

My argument is that Trevor Berbick and Larry Holmes beat Ali so easily because Ali was an old man who'd come out of two years retirement.

And its pretty obvious that the difference in current levels is that Woodley has been training hard for the last five years, while GSP spent four and a half of the last five years enjoying the good life.

On the side note I find it pretty interesting to be labelled a GSP fan, given that I was warned to tone down my criticism of giving him a completely unearned title shot at MW (a division he'd never fought in, and at a time when he hadn't done anything but sit around having a good life for four years - no real sport would have given him a title shot even at WW without forcing him to prove himself again, let alone a title shot in a division he never fought at).

You're the GSP fan, arguing he's still worthy for a title fight with Woodley, despite all the evidence that he's no where deserving a title shot, and should have to work his way up the ladder to get one.