In recent weeks, just as I was getting ready to update my pound-for-pound top 20, out of nowhere several friends virtually simultaneously remarked to me or in print that such lists of the best boxers in the world across all weight classes were worthless. It never occurred to me that anyone wouldn't find them valuable. When things like that happen where a fundamental, institutional concept is challenged, I get to pontificating about whether it deserves to be. It's a good thought exercise. Maybe this thing I take for granted deserves scrutiny, I says. So I scrutinizes it. If it makes me rethink matters, that's great, because I've learned something, I says. And if I come out thinking the same as I did before, at least I've now battle-tested the idea, I says.
I did it, and I came out with pound-for-pound lists being the battle-tested kind of thing. Maybe it needs more battle-testing yet, and feel free to battle it. But here's what I'm thinking, as I try to take a break from some negativity in these parts. (It also amounts to the second installment in my "Defending The Establishment" tour, after the first installment.)
No comments:
Post a Comment