I'll take this one.
When I went out two years ago I gave the game a lot of praise after spending time with it.
But there's 2 things you should be aware of:
1. We had a very limited time with the game. I'm going to estimate 3-4 hours.
2. The game played differently at the Event than the retail version. As an example, I recall the right-cross having more weight to it.
Now how many times have you seen members here get their hands on a game and praise it for 24-48 hours. Then, after 3 or 4 days in, they come back and start flaming on all the flaws.
Why is that? Because they had more than 3 hours of playtime with it before they discovered all the bugs.
Also, everyone that makes a complaint like you about community members being soft, or 'yes men' has never been in their shoes. You want us to blast these developers for every little error or mistake, or for something we don't like.
When you meet these people you see the genuine love they have for their product. It takes a cold hearted S.O.B. to get in their face and say "This sucks! That sucks! What have you been working on!".
Saying that, when I was out there, we had multiple people give constructive criticism to many aspects of the game. Off the top of my head, I remember more than one person saying they made Ali too powerful. Getting off the canvas was too hard (it should be attribute based at the very least). They made a big mistake taking a button scheme out of the game entirely.
If can remember right, one person made a complaint about the responsiveness about the controls and Brizzo walked over and tinkled with the code right then and there and corrected it.
When I went, we spent most of our time doing fun gags like working out at a gym, getting a tour of their facilities and then getting a long video presentation of the product, followed up with a Q&A presentation with Mosely and Mora.
By the time we got our hands on the game, we didn't have a whole lot of time.
Now with Phobia, if I understand correctly, he basically played the game for 16 hours a day, two-days in a row. They were there to really beta test and hammer out bugs.
Our experience seemed to be more of 'do you like what we have' more than 'drill this baby for glitches'.
Saying that, I felt we all had a handle on what we could expect from the final product. And even though FNRd4 has flaws, it's still the best North American boxing game that's been released in a long, long time.
I trust Phobia. I've read his takes on UFC and MMA and he seems to be a sim MMA/boxing guy. If he liked it, most will too.
In the end, what do you care? The game will come out, you can rent it and if you don't like, don't buy it.
No need to slam people for something you've never experienced yourself.