The Boxing Myths and Conspiracy Thread

[The Surgeon]

Against Spinks he weighed 218.25 against Douglas he weighed 220.5

That is a tiny difference over 1.5 years. He obviously wasn't in that bad shape, contrary to popular fans of his belief.

He wasnt fat anyway and for the fight to go as long as it did after taking such a beating at a fair pace he was obviously pretty fit but he wasnt focused on training and he wasnt focused in the fight either which is mainly why imo he got the hell beat outta him

[Barn]

I believe the fact that he was not emotionally or mentally focussed and coupled with the fact that he met a fight which more than anything needed that, led to his end.
jmo.

[The Surgeon]

Im reading Frank Bruno's book right now - FRANK fighting back. (which is a decent read btw)
Anyway Bruno is talking about Bob Fitzsimmons and says when Fitz first came to America he was using his wife as a sparring partner, now i think he ment as a real sparring partner and not slang for he beat his wife. Anybody know if this is truth or myth, or is Frank still crazy?

[BattlingNelson]

Against Spinks he weighed 218.25 against Douglas he weighed 220.5

That is a tiny difference over 1.5 years. He obviously wasn't in that bad shape, contrary to popular fans of his belief.

Looks can be deceiving. Ali looked great for Holmes as well. Tysons's camp for Douglas was chaotic and he had the most unprofessional team to train him.

[Barn]

Looks can be deceiving. Ali looked great for Holmes as well. Tysons's camp for Douglas was chaotic and he had the most unprofessional team to train him.

Yeah, I'm saying it wasn't because he was out of condition but, was trained wrong on actually "fighting".

[GJC]

I believe the fact that he was not emotionally or mentally focussed and coupled with the fact that he met a fight which more than anything needed that, led to his end.
jmo.

Think Tyson from the 1st Bruno fight onwards was takeable just needed a great performance and some faith from the other guy. Douglas had it Bruno didn't.

[The Surgeon]

Think Tyson from the 1st Bruno fight onwards was takeable just needed a great performance and some faith from the other guy. Douglas had it Bruno didn't.

Fair assessment. Still a real handfull for anyone in the game tho

[BennyST]

Looking at the replay in slow motion I think it was a punch. It sure looks like it to me. Larry Merchant watched that fight live and believes it was a punch. But I know a lot of people are convinced it wasn't so I don't waste time arguing about it.

It was definitely a punch in my opinion. You can see his head and neck snap from it. It was a classic case of a perfect, short punch.

Probably the biggest myth is Pep's winning a round without throwing a punch though. Has been massively misconstrued, most notably by bloody Bert Sugar. It was an offhanded comment, and joke, to a reporter about hurting his hands, so he jokingly said he wondered if he could throw enough punches so it looked as if he was landing to win the round. However, suddenly it's become "Pep danced; Pep weaved; Pep spun Graves around and around again; Pep gave head feints, shoulder feints, foot feints, and feint feints. But Pep never landed a punch." Annoys the bollocks out of me and disrespects Graves greatly too.

You know the only thing both Graves and Pep remember about that fight, was that it was a hard, brutal, painful bout. That report is confirmed by every newspaper account of that fight, and the third round too, as a bout with many hard punches landed in one of the vicious, more brutal fights of Pep's career.

Another is Leonard as a the classic non stop moving boxer that was drawn into war, with Duran most notably, when that first fight was his normal style and he changed it up for the rematch. He was typically a flat footed boxer/puncher for most of his career who occasionally used movement. A couple of fights in his career (Duran II, III and Hagler) he used much more movement than typical.

The Hearns glass chin one is always frustrating. Khan has a weak chin and Norris had a weak chin. Hearns didn't. It wasn't a granite, Lamotta-like chin, but it was not close to being weak.

Pacman was quite tired late in that fight too and after that vicious body punch I'm sure he didn't want to take anything more really trying for a KO. He didn't carry Margarito though. He's always gone for KO's if he can get them, and he wasn't going to leave that one fight an exception.

Douglas was an ATG on the night he beat Tyson and could have beaten anyone in history. He was an excellent contender, and champion briefly, but he had been beaten before after looking just as good and would get beaten again. He just had a few too many faults to ever really be anything close to great. It was an excellent effort, but is as amazing simply for the odds as anything.

[Wild Blue Yonda]

"Oscar De La Hoya lost all his big fights."

Please. Here are the facts. De La Hoya's, "Big fights" are as follows...

Pacquiao (2008)
Mayweather (2007)
Hopkins (2004)
Mosley II (2003)
Vargas (2002)
Mosley I (2000)
Trinidad (1999)
Quartey (1999)
Chavez II (1998)
Whitaker (1997)
Chavez I (1996)

Eleven fights. He officially won five of the eleven, & adjusted for how I felt the fights went, I subtract the Quartey fight (a draw, IMO) & add to his legacy the clash with Trinidad & the Mosley rematch (he won both, as I saw it) & his record reads 6-4-1 (W-L-D). Not too shabby for a guy who according to his rabid detractors, "lost all the big ones." You could possibly have thrown his battle with Mayorga in for consideration, but I thought better of it.

[mickey malone]

Looks can be deceiving. Ali looked great for Holmes as well. Tysons's camp for Douglas was chaotic and he had the most unprofessional team to train him.

I thought Ali looked totally washed up for Holmes, to the point he was unable to defend himself. How he got through the medical, i'll never know.. Ali was just a flabby punch bag who reduced Holmes to tears..

Tyson turned up for Douglas hung over and dehydrated.. He'd neglected training in favour of partying. Meanwhile Douglas had just watched his mother die and wasn't in the mood for taking any prisoners. All simple facts which made the result conclusive.