Foreman could definitely look crude but as is often the case there was an art to it. If he really was some talentless hulk who could only punch hard he never would have made it the way he did not once but twice, decades apart as has already been pointed out. His record's pretty excellent overall. Out of his five losses only the loss to Jimmy Young really stands out as being anything really damaging to his image. Losses to Tommy Morrison and Shannon Briggs aren't really worth marking him down because he was at an advanced age for a boxer at that point and both of those were very solid competitors at the time. And then his only other losses were to Holyfield at the peak of his powers and to Ali. And then you look at his W column and even though it's filled up with plenty of fairly unremarkable fighters there are also plenty of major scalps in there too. Joe Frazier (twice), Ken Norton, Ron Lyle, Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Gerry Cooney, Michael Moorer. Out of the current crop of heavyweights, even amongst the top guys you won't find many with as many good wins as that.
It's honestly crazy how heavily favoured Canelo is by the judges. Against Golovkin X2, Trout, Lara and Mayweather he's been the beneficiary of sus cards, and that's just what's coming to mind at this moment.
The real answer to this thread is obviously Freddie Flintoff though. He got humiliated by that fat yank they bussed in for him to fight and was flailing all over the ring like a gibbon with motor neurone disease only for him to get what must be the most generous gift decision win I've ever seen.
Amongst actual real fighters, I think JCC (Senior) deserves special mention for that disgraceful draw decision against Pernell Whitaker. There's an argument to be made against Leonard as well for the Hearns rematch and the Hagler fight, though I do think he won the latter (one scorecard was way too wide though.) Ultimately though I can only really think of certain fighters with sporadic cases of judge favouring - most with long enough careers typically end up having some bad luck to go along with the good that basically cancels everything out. Canelo's really the only one I can think of where there's a consistent pattern to him benefitting from bad scorecards.
I think Joshua showed a bit of everything in this fight. He showed the good movement and smart boxing of the Ruiz rematch but also brought back the killer instinct that he's not really shown for a good while now. It was probably his most complete performance to date.
Good performance but it's not entirely wise to read too much into a fight against an opponent of that level. Szremeta or whatever his name is didn't look horrible but he was clearly nothing special either. If a 3rd Canelo fight doesn't materialise, which I'm not expecting it to, then Andrade next makes a lot of sense.
He's obviously a clever and talented boxer with many excellent attributes, and his record on the fact of it is excellent even if many of his best fights are tinged with controversy. I thought he lost both times vs. Golovkin for instance, plus there's the ambiguity around those failed tests, and just the way in general that every wack or suspect judge's card is always in his favour. That controversy is probably the only thing that's stopping me from acknowledging him as number 1, as well as the bias I can't help but hold against him thanks to his personality - I think he exploits status as one of the sport's premier cash cows by being a massive diva - he just seems to be impossible to work with from a promotional or matchmaking point of view. It seems like nary a month goes by without some kind of new dispute taking place that involves him.
All that said, I still think you'd have to be stupid to not admit, however begrudgingly that might be, that despite all of that he's still an excellent fighter. I don't personally think he's P4P no. 1 right now, but all of that's likely to change if he legitimately beats Callum Smith at the weekend - that's not an easy fight no matter what anyone says.
I think Smith was very heavily weight drained, which might explain why he didn’t show much in the way of punch resistance. Kovalev has shown signs of a weak chin ever since he got knocked out by Ward, who’s not noted for being a big banger.
That said, the amount of impact that Canelo‘s punches has isn’t normal. I said during the fight that it was like he had rocks in his gloves. Even if Smith was very drained like I think he was, I’m not sure that fully explains away the force of his shots. I’m not going to straight up accuse him of anything but considering that the whole “Mexican beef” fiasco was fairly recent and was never conclusively settled one way or another, I’m not going to blame anybody who’s suspicious of him.
I thought that Fury v AJ would go the same way as Fury v Wilder 2, but I'm not so sure of that now. I think Joshua has a lot more to his game than Wilder now, and as such I think he's got a better chance than Wilder. There are things that Joshua is better at - I think that Fury's size actually works against him when it comes to his punching technique - he can slug when he sits down on his punches, and he can flick with his jab, but there's not a great deal of snap on his shots and he's not really a very precise or fluid puncher. It's not really his fault, his arms are longer and heavier than most people's legs, but its still a fact that his handspeed and accuracy aren't all that impressive compared to the rest of his attributes. Joshua by contrast is more precise, varied, faster, heavier and fluid with his punches all around - Joshua's going to be very dangerous even for Fury if he can establish the right distance and work. I still think that Fury has the most advantages though and is right to be a heavy favourite, the mixture of size, reach, footwork and ring IQ that Fury has presents a mountain for Joshua to climb. Joshua needs a very good gameplan perfectly executed and probably a fair bit of luck if he's going to win if I'm being entirely honest.
Canelo's struggled the most against opponents with very good footwork. Hagler might not fit that mold in the exact same way as the likes of Lara and Mayweather but he's exceptional at creating angles with his feet and seamlessly switching stances in the middle of his attack. That's what I think gives Hagler an edge and makes his offense too much to handle for Alvarez, though it'd definitely be a good, competitive fight. I think it would be Alvarez's hardest fight by far but I don't know if it's true vice versa.
Margarito is basically a non-starter, he's not skilled enough to hang with Hopkins at any weight. Even if Margarito was bigger than Hopkins, Hopkins would still clown on him.
It's feasible that Cotto could find a common weight with Hopkins at somewhere between LMW and MW and give him a decent fight. Hopkins would be a heavy favourite but I could see Cotto having some success and winning some rounds, but I still wouldn't pick him to win the fight outright.
I think Mayweather and Pacquiao are kind of pointless to speculate about, any weight that they'd be competitive at, Hopkins probably wouldn't be able to make. You've got to remember that both guys started in low weight classes and Hopkins has never been at a weight class lower than 160. IIRC Hopkins was actually pushing to fight Mayweather at some point not long before he retired but the whole thing was kind of ridiculous. It was ridiculous when Oscar challenged him too honestly and I think the outcome of the fight shows that.
I think outboxing him for a few rounds before putting him away was a better showcase of what he's capable of overall rather than just blowing him away after the 3rd round like he probably could have, I think. He won every round but the 4th on my card, never really let Pulev do anything and made him miss a lot, controlled the ring, still looked fresh after 9 which is a good sign that his stamina's improved a lot, and showed that he could force the finish and show killer instinct, punching not just with power but with volume and accuracy. I think he could have finished Pulev off more or less whenever he wanted, but carried him for a bit. My only real critique was for all the clinching - Pulev was mostly to blame for all that, but not entirely, Joshua did his fair share of it. Not only is it ugly to watch, it could be a liability against Fury with how huge and heavy Fury will likely come in. Aside from that I'm not really sure what other boxes he could have ticked.
I thought Golovkin deserved to win both times prior and I would like to see him set the record straight, but there's no escaping how Canelo has been in great form since they last fought and Golovkin has looked fairly average or even poor compared to previous years. I think Golovkin owes Deryvanchenko a rematch as much as Canelo owes Golovkin one.
He's improved a lot since he lost to Ruiz. Obviously he looked great knocking over stiffs in between him making his debut and beating Charles Martin, and he pulled off that big win against Klitschko, but in between that and losing to Ruiz, he was on a run of flat and fairly unimpressive performances. Against Takam, Takam arguably came away with more credit than Joshua did, the Parker fight was a snoozefest all round, he had way more trouble than he should have against Povetkin. In those fights, as well as the fight against Ruiz that he lost, he was fairly flat-footed and not very fluid apart from spots. I think some people base their perception of him off of those fights, which is why a lot of people wrote him off. In the Ruiz rematch he showed massive improvements in terms of footwork and controlling distance (though arguably Ruiz made it easier for him by coming in in such grotesque shape.) Against Pulev last week, he showed those improvements again, but at the same time managed to recapture the devastating offensive performance that made him exciting to watch in his early career and first won him the world titles. I think it was his best performance by far.
I think Fury will still be the favourite to beat Joshua, but it's not going to be as easy as some people make out. Joshua's shot-for-shot a harder puncher, has faster hands and is a cleaner and more accurate hitter, and if the Pulev fight is anything to go by, Fury's advantages in ring IQ and footwork aren't as likely to be as massive as they were against Wilder or any of his other recent opposition, though his height and reach are still going to be mountains to climb for Joshua or anyone else for that matter.
That leaping left hook that Wlad detonated on Pulev didn’t even look that devastating but it sent him out.
I remember when I first watched that fight, the TV crews caught a really great angle on it and caught the whole thing in brilliant slow-mo. The thing that I remember is that you can see Pulev's cheek reddening even as he toppled to the canvas in slow-mo, probably less than a second in real time. I'm convinced that punch broke his cheekbone.
That said it was a single right straight shot that Joshua finished Pulev off with, and it really knocked him sprawling. I think that punch was nearly as good as Wlad's hook. You can probably argue it either way but I don't think there's a whole lot in it.
I do think he won the fight. He needed to execute a very clever gameplan to win against Hagler and that's what he did. Everything went pretty much according to the script he'd planned. But he definitely didn't dominate. I don't think it was possible for him to truly dominate in that fight.
If Fury gets tied up with Wilder then sure, might as wll get it out of the way. If not and the opportunity to make AJ-Fury next presents itself, then I'd be fine with Joshua dumping the belt to make it, though for sure it'd be frustrating to have an opportunity to crown an undisputed champ go down the u-bend. Usyk being mandatory is ridiculous to begin with if I'm being perfectly honest. On the evidence of Joshua's fight just now vs Usyk's last fight against Chisora I've got no reason to believe that Usyk has more than a slim chance of winning.
I think Kovalev might count, actually. Sure he picked up a lot of knockouts but in those fights he pretty much always kept it at arm's length. Andre Ward showed that once you get up in his face the big bad scary Russian monster persona pretty much drops instantly and he folds pretty quickly. I think his lack of grit in close quarters is the biggest thing behind his downfall. I don't think he's ever won a fight where the opponent really went at him, with the possible exception of Yarde, but even then Yarde was winning those close-up exchanges big and only really lost because he gassed and let Kovalev reestablish his distance. Get Kovalev at a distance where he can't really use his jab and straight right and you've pretty much got his number IMO.
Honestly despite how he lost to Fury I'd still pick him against most other heavyweights because other heavyweights don't have what's necessary (ie. height, reach, footwork) to duplicate what Fury did. I'm not saying that's the only way to beat him but any other strategy that isn't working from outside of Wilder's range is going to constantly be working against the risk of getting blown up by his right hand.
Both guys are good, that's why this is an anticipated fight.
I'm rooting for Loma, if only because of Lopez doing Fortnite dances when he wins. There are some things I just can't forgive
If Bob Arum and Frank Warren try to use 'force majeure' due to the global COVID-19 epidemic, a revision of their contract would likely be the outcome. As such, the Gypsy-Bum is going to have to fight the 'Bronze-Bomber' and honor his rematch-clause, like it or not fandumb.
Tyson is just stupid, he rather get sued for fighting a bum in a meaningless fight than wait on a financially viable date -- his own promoter ( Bob Arum ) has advised him on rescheduling, so what is Tyson going to say in court? I was starving for my regular Tomato-can, I couldn't wait!
Wrong. Typically force majeure voids a contract entirely. That'd mean he'd have even LESS of a leg to stand on.
I think "skilled" is the wrong adjective for Fury. While his defensive skills and footwork are excellent, I think his punching technique is actually fairly clumsy compared to other elite heavyweights of the past and present. What he is, however, is extremely crafty. He's really mastered leveraging his massive height, reach and weight advantages in a way that totally disarms opponents.
Naz, honestly. Hatton wasn't bad but he was never as sensational as Naz nor was he even the top dog in his weight class, like Naz. Hatton probably had more heart and more grit in him, which goes a long way to explain why he was so popular, but he always fell way short of the mark against the top welterweights, whereas Naz was utterly dominant for a long time. He was like the featherweight version of Roy Jones. He's definitely in the conversation for the most freakishly gifted guys to ever lace them up.
People acting like Floyd vs Mcgregor was a win for anything other than the promoters' and fighters' bank accounts are fooling themselves.
Floyd came in visibly past his best, didn't train, looked like garbage by his typical standards.
McGregor came in trying to portray himself as some kind of monstrous fighting machine and then in the ring looked shy and rigid, didn't throw a punch that looked like it could break wet tissue paper, was completely gassed after a few rounds despite the relatively sedate pace of the fight, and despite Floyd not training, being old and looking like garbage, ended up being his first stoppage victim in 6 years.
A fight between McGregor and Pacquiao will be just as if not even more pointless, unless McGregor's made massive, massive improvements to his boxing game in the last three years.
It's a good thing only if it paves the way for Fury-Joshua to be made faster - that's the one fight that everyone wants to see.
If that's not the case, eh, it's not great honestly. Fury would be a huge favourite to win the 3rd fight but, the first two were both entertaining enough that I would have wanted to see it anyway. If Fury's next opponent isn't Joshua then there's nobody else that I'd really want to see challenge him more than Wilder.
I'm not going to cheer about Wilder-Fury 3 being cancelled if they're going to serve up this garbage in its place. No excuses for soft touch opponents like this, he won his last fight easily and that was ages ago. He could at least fight someone like Oscar Rivas or even Charles Martin or someone like that, pandemic or no.
Ultimately it all depends on who you beat to do it. That said, it's probably easier to win multiple belts without fighting great opposition that it is to do the same while becoming undisputed.
Honestly so long as the ref would have let him keep getting up and keep going he probably could have made it to the final bell and been fine at the end of the day. Of course he'd be beaten bloody by then and he'd lose on the cards by a score that might have been the most lopsided in heavyweight title fight history. If his corner hadn't pulled him out the ref would probably put an end to it after another round or two anyway.