Where did I say that belts affect ratings? I simply said that they no longer give those fighters the championship recognition that they've earned. BoxRec isn't just a ratings site it's professional boxing's official record keeper (the other is FightFax) and has its own wiki pages with a wealth of knowledge there.
Boxrec and Fight Fax both had worked mainly with proved pro boxing fight records.
It's not Usyk fault that the best heavyweights in the last years were all from UK
What other era of cruiserweights was more stacked than the one Usyk cleaned out? Rocky Marciano is still considered an ATG even though he fought in a weak heavyweight era. You can only beat who's in front of you.
The question should be who doesn't have Marciano in their Top 10 HW ATG list? Ring Magazine does. BoxingScene does. Most historians have him rated in the Top 10 as well. I've even seen him rated as high as Top 5 or fringe Top 5. Cruiserweight isn't that relevant historically but you could say the same about all of the "tweener" divisions including Super Middleweight. Did Andre Ward waste years of his prime there? A lot of fighters from the former soviet union turn pro late. They invest more into the amateur scene compared to most other regions.
Your calling CW as shame and poor, weak etc is cos you are thinking that they might get just 10-30 k per fight and are poor, living in debts etc....
Yes. And that’s the problem. How much of Marciano’s rating is wishful thinking? Could Marciano beat Fury? Or Wylder? Maybe the size and power difference would be too big.
You don’t define one by other eras you define them by theirs ,that’s how that works. If we used your criteria we would just be shrugging off any great fighter because he doesn’t have a Time Machine to go fight the guys you think he should ,makes no sense for the sport or in general .
I think Marciano being routinely rated in the all-time Top 10 heavyweights is deserved. He's the only heavyweight champion in history to retire on top and undefeated and he did it with a high KO ratio. Marciano was undisputed & undefeated at 49-0 with wins over several ATGs & HOFers. That's why he rates so highly in the all-time rankings. It's about his resume. In a H2H match-up between Marciano and the likes of Fury/Wilder he would be too small. He was only around 185 lbs and less than 6 feet tall. The further back you go historically the smaller the heavyweights were. Most "heavyweights" today are only heavyweights in name. They're realistically super heavyweights.
Recency bias certainly exists but so does nostalgia and since the median boxing fan's age is older than that of the other combat sports I'd argue that nostalgia is even more widespread.
Old times were always better. Am I right?
Yup. And guys like Marciano and Frazier would probably be middleweights today.
