In careers as decorated as those of Oleksandr Usyk and Katie Taylor, two of the greatest to ever lace up the gloves in the modern era, indulging commercially attractive fights with Wilder and Rousey, as has been mooted this week, is much easier to do. After all, you can’t please every one.
‘You can't please all of the people all of the time.'
It doesn't matter for the purpose of this meandering introduction whether Abraham Lincoln, as is widely attributed, was the first to say these words or not. Their true origin is disputed, but it is hard to imagine the writing of English Monk and celebrated poet John Lydgate - a contemporary of Chaucer and the original Author of the lines - had not passed before Lincoln's eyes.
Lydgate was a son of sleepy Suffolk, and focussed on writing once he became ordained into the monastery in Bury St Edmunds in the late 14th century. Despite his eminence in the period and friendship with Kings, Lydgate's later poetic words were not fondly remembered. One critic described him as 'A voluminous, prosaic and drivelling monk'. Satirists could suggest these to be good qualifications for the life of a promoter in the boxing world or wonder if poetry is much like boxing, eventually you run out of prime. Others may more pointedly asked, where are you going with this?
The news veteran Heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk is attracted by the prospect of facing geriatric American puncher Deontay Wilder and Ireland’s Katie Taylor is contemplating a fight with Ronda Rousey, a former MMA fighter and sometime actor, were unsurprisingly met with disappointment from the virtuous and apathy from those who've read most of these stories before. Aged 38 and 39 respectively, and with similar status as undisputed champions - irrespective of the baubles they win and return to the sanctioning bodies - Usyk and Taylor will surely be indulged these departures from their usual mandate of fighting the very best fighters available.
And for the sanctimonious, in a world of the increasingly superficial, precious few modern day fighters have earned the right to wander from the obvious and to dictate the terms of their next engagement more than the Usyk and Taylor. Fury, Joshua and Dubois are still scrabbling in the broken lumber and shattered pipework of their defeats to Usyk and of those in hotter pursuit; Parker, Wardley and Kabayel, at least one appears to have misunderstood the idea of staying in line.
Lest fans forget, Usyk unified the Cruiserweight titles while fighting in the opponent's back yard multiple times and then repeated the trick at Heavyweight by first rendering Joshua an awkward, twitching novice, Fury a hesitant giant and Dubois a shrinking man-child - all in quick succession with few alarms along the way.
Taylor has similarly boxed the best available around her weight classes and however contentious two of the outcomes to those fights were, she boasts three wins over Amanda Serrano. Both Usyk and Taylor, who were pictured together at the WBC Convention this week, are beyond criticism for their endeavour and courage in a sport increasingly embracing of inactivity and cautious matchmaking.
Wilder was once the WBC Champion, it may have been when John Lydgate was still a choir boy but nevertheless old champions are often brought in from the pasture for one last farewell scuttle round a familiar track. Joe Louis getting his fight with Rocky Marciano one example of note, perhaps Vitaly Klitschko for the WBC belt after a four year hiatus another. If the fight is signed, and there is a lot of smoke to clear before that certainty is found, the cliche 'the last thing a fighter loses is his punch' will be carrying a lot of the promotional punditry load in the build up to a fight between the two.
At 41, Wilder is not better than he was a decade ago. And he was dreadful but for the right hand of Zeus for most of that period too. Usyk will be too quick, too durable, too nimble, too clever, just too damn Usyk.
Wilder will still retain sufficient threat and verbosity to sell the fight commercially too. Deontay could always talk. There will also be a sense of neatness to a Usyk win, as it will add the last of his era's biggest names to the roster of the vanquished he has compiled.
For her part, Rousey brings name appeal and a similar know how on the art of promotion, again the fight is merely mooted at this point and may prove little more than a kite flying exercise to assess reaction. Regardless, like Usyk, Katie Taylor has earned the right to commercially capitalise as her career reaches its conclusion. Both are at the pinnacle still, but both have shown shards of light through their decade long dominance and in the end, as Joe Louis will attest, nobody beats time.
As Usyk smiled his way through the WBC convention, he was named Fighter of The Year, sacrificed his WBO title a month or so ago rather than face young slugger Fabio Wardley and he pauses to heal and refresh before his final run - it is important to remember, you can't please all of the people, all of the time.
But Usyk and Taylor have come much, much closer than most.