Misjudged fighter qualities

[Someone88]

Couple more:

- David Tua's handspeed (not footspeed, not brainspeed). In his prime his hands were very fast for a heavyweight, and always had bad intentions on them. When he fought Darroll Wilson he hit him with three left hooks in under a second, all solid shots. When he killed John Ruiz to death the shot which set it up was a wicked leaping left that caught Ruiz cold. He landed that shot a few times against Lennox as well who was generally pretty good at avoiding shots from shorter fighters.

- Evander's power. First man to drop Mercer, stunned Big George badly, stopped Tyson. Not bad for a CW.

- Bruno's chin. Someone already mentioned this but I'll reiterate it. His chin wasn't so much a problem as his stiffness, poor stamina and, occasionally, mentality. He could physically absorb a hard shot, but mentally he'd sometimes go to pieces which would lead to his downfall. Many of his stoppages came from repeated punches to the jaw which forced the ref to step in. Not a great jaw, obviously, but not a truly terrible one either.

- Wlad's heart. For some reason Wlad got this undeserved moniker and it's stuck. He's never quit in a fight, never mentally given up, and always tried to get up from knockdowns. Even against Sanders, where he was as close to getting knocked unconscious as he's ever come, he was struggling to get up.

- Mercer's jab. I think this is one of the best heavyweight jabs of all time but it's so rarely mentioned. He outjabbed Lennox and was matching jabs with a prime Wlad at age 40. Anyone that can do that has to be at least considered among great jabbers.

I agree about Tua and Wladimir

[New England]

I'll go for Lennox Lewis' chin as well. It was by no means the glass people make it out to be.

you dont beat all of these guys with glass in your jaw:

tyson
klitschko
ruddock
tua
rahman
botha
grant
holyfield
briggs
mercer
morrison
tucker
golota

some mean punchers on there, and i'm probably forgetting one or two
from solid punchers to flat out bombers


hagler's boxing skills get horribly underrated. coming forward one one aspect of a very complete skillset for hagler.


ray leonard was very strong at WW, a hard puncher, and he could also play very rough.

tommy hearns was a mean body puncher with a great left hook

mike tyson had some of the best head movement of all time in the division,



i will say this, most people who are really into boxing know all of this stuff already

[Barn]

you dont beat all of these guys with glass in your jaw:

tyson
klitschko
ruddock
tua
rahman
botha
grant
holyfield
briggs
mercer
morrison
tucker
golota

some mean punchers on there, and i'm probably forgetting one or two
from solid punchers to flat out bombers


hagler's boxing skills get horribly underrated. coming forward one one aspect of a very complete skillset for hagler.


ray leonard was very strong at WW, a hard puncher, and he could also play very rough.

tommy hearns was a mean body puncher with a great left hook

mike tyson had some of the best head movement of all time in the division,



i will say this, most people who are really into boxing know all of this stuff already

It's mainly in the fantasy matches. Lennox Lewis vs Fighter "x" who has a good chin himself and power.

"Fighter X KO."

Annoys me, even if Lewis does have the much greater skills people pick against him because he got poleaxed against Rahman/McCall who although not all that great was a very hard puncher and super strong.

[raf727]

It's mainly in the fantasy matches. Lennox Lewis vs Fighter "x" who has a good chin himself and power.

"Fighter X KO."

Annoys me, even if Lewis does have the much greater skills people pick against him because he got poleaxed against Rahman/McCall who although not all that great was a very hard puncher and super strong.

McCall had a very underrated chin as well IMO.

[nomadman]

you dont beat all of these guys with glass in your jaw:

tyson
klitschko
ruddock
tua
rahman
botha
grant
holyfield
briggs
mercer
morrison
tucker
golota

some mean punchers on there, and i'm probably forgetting one or two
from solid punchers to flat out bombers

Not that it adds or detracts from your point, but I'll add Bruno and even Mavrovic to that list. Mavrovic wasn't a monster puncher, but he could **** a bit in combinations and could have KOed a lesser chinned fighter with that barrange in the later rounds.

It's mainly in the fantasy matches. Lennox Lewis vs Fighter "x" who has a good chin himself and power.

"Fighter X KO."

Annoys me, even if Lewis does have the much greater skills people pick against him because he got poleaxed against Rahman/McCall who although not all that great was a very hard puncher and super strong.

I think Lewis's reputation in the chin department has strengthened quite a bit over the years. You'll still hear the odd bit of nonsese like, "all it takes is one punch from Dempsey/Marciano etc and that glass jaw shatters" but that seems to be very much the minority these days. At least among genuine fans and not just the youtube crowd.

[nomadman]

McCall had a very underrated chin as well IMO.

I've never heard McCall's chin being called anything other than cast iron, to be honest.

[StarshipTrooper]

Actually, the one that irks me is "Tommy Hearns has a glass jaw".

Poet

[nomadman]

A couple more:

- Golota's boxing ability and his general talent for putting together fast destructive combinations was very underrated. In his prime he was an excellent judge of distance, with a solid jab that was the keystone to a very vicious and varied assortment of heavy punches. It's easy to pin Bowe's "losses" to him on Bowe being past prime/undertrained, but Golota played his part as well, and it was no small one.

- Vitali's jaw. Most things involving the Klitschkos seem to get blown out of proportion, either negatively or positively. Vit's jaw is something that I think is getting a bit overrated of late. It's a good one for sure, but best HW jaw of all time, can't be cracked, immune to hurt? Sorry, no where near. He simply hasn't been in the type of fight that would allow us to make that claim, I'm talking about a Holmes vs Cobb type fight where it was pretty much just Cobb's jaw that was keeping him in the fight. To be fair to Vit it's actually a good thing he's never been in that type of fight. Insane punch resistance is rarely something to brag about.

- Bruce Seldon's jab. Another underrated/overlooked jab. Unfortunately Seldon's chin, stamina and general ability didn't allow him to use it to the utmost effectiveness.

- Larry Holmes's post Tyson performances. It's fashionable to belittle Tyson's win over Holmes by mentioning how old and past it Holmes was, completely ignoring the fact that he fought on until well into the nineties, beat a prime Mercer, and lasted the distance with a prime McCall and Holyfield. Tyson remains the only man to ever knock Holmes out. That fact need to be given its proper respect, as does Holmes's pretty awesome old man run in the nineties.

[Scott9945]

A couple more:

- Golota's boxing ability and his general talent for putting together fast destructive combinations was very underrated. In his prime he was an excellent judge of distance, with a solid jab that was the keystone to a very vicious and varied assortment of heavy punches. It's easy to pin Bowe's "losses" to him on Bowe being past prime/undertrained, but Golota played his part as well, and it was no small one.

- Vitali's jaw. Most things involving the Klitschkos seem to get blown out of proportion, either negatively or positively. Vit's jaw is something that I think is getting a bit overrated of late. It's a good one for sure, but best HW jaw of all time, can't be cracked, immune to hurt? Sorry, no where near. He simply hasn't been in the type of fight that would allow us to make that claim, I'm talking about a Holmes vs Cobb type fight where it was pretty much just Cobb's jaw that was keeping him in the fight. To be fair to Vit it's actually a good thing he's never been in that type of fight. Insane punch resistance is rarely something to brag about.

- Bruce Seldon's jab. Another underrated/overlooked jab. Unfortunately Seldon's chin, stamina and general ability didn't allow him to use it to the utmost effectiveness.

- Larry Holmes's post Tyson performances. It's fashionable to belittle Tyson's win over Holmes by mentioning how old and past it Holmes was, completely ignoring the fact that he fought on until well into the nineties, beat a prime Mercer, and lasted the distance with a prime McCall and Holyfield. Tyson remains the only man to ever knock Holmes out. That fact need to be given its proper respect, as does Holmes's pretty awesome old man run in the nineties.

If you ask Holmes about that, he'd tell you that he didn't have enough time to train for Tyson off a layoff, and probably needed a tuneup fight. When Holmes fought Mercer he had been active so his timing and conditioning was much better.

[nomadman]

If you ask Holmes about that, he'd tell you that he didn't have enough time to train for Tyson off a layoff, and probably needed a tuneup fight. When Holmes fought Mercer he had been active so his timing and conditioning was much better.

Holmes was ring rusty, sure, but people like to bring up his age as though it was the main culprit for his loss.