The Daily Bread Mailbag returns with Stephen "Breadman" Edwards tackling topics such as Errol Spence vs. Danny Garcia, the pay-per-view fights featuring the Charlo brothers, Manny Pacquiao, and more.

Hello Bread, hope all is well!

Recently Teofimo Lopez picked out his dream fighter based on some categories.

Power: Mike Tyson

Speed: Manny Pacquiao

Footwork: Muhammad Ali

Ring Generalship: Roberto Duran

Jab: Andre Ward

Chin: Gennady Golovkin

Heart: Arturo Gatti

Defense: Floyd Mayweather Jr

I'm interested to know how yours look like. I like Teofimo's picks, although I would have made some changes he is in the ballpark in all categories.

Also, we got some interesting fights coming up that I am curious about the prediction guru's views on:

Jermall Charlo v SD

Jermell Charlo v Rosario

Manny Rodriguez v Daniel Roman (Manny moving up)

Subriel Matias v Malik Hawkins (Matias lost his 0 in the night of Fury-Wilder rematch while Hawkins got somewhat lucky in his last fight against Darwin Price).

All the best,

Ari

Bread’s Response: I like the Charlo Bros by late tkos in shootouts. I just think they are too strong, too relentless and their chins hold up under punishment. I expect both fights to be highly competitive.

Power: George Foreman

Speed: Roy Jones

Footwork: Vasyl Lomachenko

Ring Generalship: Roberto Duran

Jab: Tommy Hearns

Chin: Marvin Hagler

Heart: Muhammad Ali

Defense: Pernell Whitaker

I did that fast and I most likely would change a few of my picks. It’s tough to narrow it down to just one.

A few mailbags back, someone asked about a fighter’s best night. You mentioned Ali’s best night was against Cleveland Williams, while his most important nights were against Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman.

Who are some guys whose best nights and most important nights were one in the same? I’m speculating on these, but I wonder if Sanchez vs Gomez, Hopkins vs Trinidad, or Barrera vs Hamed fit that description. Do they? If not, what are some fights you think do?

You ever see a live fight you knew would turn into Ali-Williams as you watched it? Like, it ends and you think to yourself... “That may have just been his best performance”?

Greg K.

Bread’s Response: I think Canelo in the GGG rematch was at his best and it was his most important night. Canelo came through that night and he needed it.

You hit  the nail on the head with Bhop, Sanchez and Barrera.

Duran vs Leonard 1.

McGirt vs Brown was a fight I watched saying to myself that McGirt was on cloud 9.

Bowe vs Holyfield

What are your thoughts on the upcoming match between Errol Spence and Danny Garcia? A lot of folks (myself included) have questions about post-accident Spence... will this fight answer those questions? DSG has yet to take a BAD loss in my opinion, so I see this as a competitive fight.

In the event DSG wins, what does that do for him and his career? At the moment, I see him as a borderline HOF. Would a win over Spence be enough to boost him into the HOF... or does Spence’s accident tarnish that? I hope not, but I could see fans grumble about it if DSG did win (“Pre-accident Spence would’ve carved him up!”). I would feel bad for him if that turned out to be the case. What are your thoughts on this fight, Breadman? What does a win do for either fighter?

Bread’s Response: IF DSG wins he’s a HOF. If Spence stops DSG then he’s a HOF. I expect a great fight. High contact, tactical shootout.

Good morning Bread, I hope you're well. My best to you & yours

I rewatched Toney v McCallum 1 recently. I had it a draw although somewhat controversially because I gave JT a 10:8 for r12. He dominated, he knocked Mike around from pillar to post. Mike never actually touched down, but, to me, it was a 10:8.

Anyway, one of the 'expert' commentators commented that MM, notorious as a body puncher, hadn;t thrown any body punches. I thought not surprising because he was consistently on the back foot against a physically stronger man. I thought you have to be on the front foot to throw body punches.

Erm, do you? Thinking of all the fights I've seen, Tommy Hearns definitely could land body shots backing up, but he had huge height & reach advantages. I sort've recall Naseem could land body punches backing up but I can't remember when he did it & my memory may be deffective.

So I thought I'd go to the Boxipedia that is Breadman Edwards! Can you punch to the body while on the backfoot? If so, how & who did it best?

Bread’s Response: Watch Floyd Mayweather vs Marcos Maidana. Mayweather was digging to the body while being held up against the ropes.

Also see Roy Jones vs Bryant Brannon.

Hearns, Mayweather and Jones all could body punch without being the aggressors.

What's up bread

Andre Ward said he heard Chad Dawson got dropped in sparring during camp for their fight. He told him that at the weigh in. Mayweather said Berto was under weight at their last press conference and Berto weighed in at 145. Team Garcia said Spence might not make weight for their fight and he had to sit in a sauna room for hours to make weight. Is it hard to stop rumors from circulating to your opponent during camp? Does this type of espionage happen often in boxing? Are you interested in how your opponent's camp is going or are you just focused on your camp? If you did receive info on the other camp, whether positive or negative,  would you tell your fighter to give him a mental edge or do you consider that a distraction?

Thanks

Bread’s Response: People talk in boxing. Sometimes the info is true. Sometimes it isn’t. I don’t believe in talking about every little rumor. But sometimes you can hear some things that will help you win. It just depends on the source!

You’ve talked in the past about Loma’s upcoming (eventually?) fight with Lopez, and how big it would be for him to get that win. Your rationale was that it is no small feat to beat a naturally bigger guy who is almost a full decade younger than you. And yet, it doesn’t seem like a lot of fans appreciate Manny Pacquiao’s win over Keith Thurman, which is that exact scenario. Why is that?

Some people talk about Thurman’s injuries and inactivity. Some talk about him looking so-so in his return fight against Josesito Lopez. Also, PacMan was on a two-fight win streak against Mattheyese and Broner after his struggle with Jeff Horn (questionable scorecards notwithstanding). What if that fight happens with Thurman facing PacMan after his win over DSG and after PacMan’s loss to Horn. If Manny gets the win then, do fans give him more credit?

Either way, it seems like his win over Thurman is an underrated accomplishment, at least in my eyes. Got me wondering, who are some other fighters with underrated wins? I think of Larry Holmes’s win over Mercer (which gets little attention compared to Holmes’s fights with Norton, Cooney, Witherspoon, and others), but what are some others? Sorry for being scatter-brained… but what’s your take?

Bread’s Response: Manny deserves 100% credit for beating Thurman. Thurman had been inactive for a few years since his reign. He was inactive when he beat DSG and Porter……and no one took away from his victory.

That was one of the best wins of the decades.

I think Roy Jones has 3 underrated wins. Reggie Johnson, James Toney and Bernard Hopkins are real wins. People say Roy didn’t fight anyone but that’s bologna.

Bernard Hopkins’s win over Glen Johnson aged well. Johnson turned out to be FOY seven years later.

Michael Carbajal over Jorge Arce. Huge win that people forget!

I have 100 underrated wins. Not enough room.

Hey Bread. Longtime reader of your column and appreciate you taking time out to give your views.

I have a simple question regarding the longtime notion that power is the last thing to go for a boxer. I just can't get my head around this statement. As a boxer gets significantly older or shopworn, their reflexes, handspeed/footspeed (not to mention speed of thought) and overall explosiveness diminishes considerably. As velocity is a key factor in punch power, it bewilders me to hear that a punch can be delivered with the same snap and power even once all of the attributes mentioned are no longer operating at peak level.  Can you help explain this please?

Pankaj Marwaha

London

Bread’s Response: You explained it perfectly. Boxing is just filled with archaic myths. It’s absurd to think power is the last thing to go on a fighter. KO% go down as fighters perform in their 30s. And not just because the competition level goes up. The ability to pull the trigger. The reaction time of seeing an opening and landing a hard shot dissipates. Every big hitter in history went through this as they stuck around. Not one kept koing fighters at the same rate.

I will give a few random examples.

Ali retired the first time at 29-0 with 23 kos. He comes back and goes 27-5 with 14kos. Ali was a very a good puncher in his early years. But when he lost his trigger pull and explosiveness the kos stopped coming.

Roberto Duran was 71-1 with 57 kos before the first Ray Leonard fight. He would score only 13 more kos in over 20 years of boxing.

A fighter can keep levels of strength as he ages. But the ability to score devastating kos changes as you get older. We are witnessing GGG go the distance on a regular basis over the last few years……..Hopefully in boxing these myths stop getting repeated.

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