what factors derailed don curry from greatness

[Sugar Adam Ali]

I always thought Curry looked so good because guys like Colin Jones and Milton McCrory were average. Had Curry fought in another time against the likes of Hearns and Leonard, he would not been in the top ten p4p.

Mccory was a very good fighter, not elite but very capable in the ring...

Curry's issue was mental... Took honeygan lightly and paid price, and then was never really mentally there.. Much like how doņaire seems to not be mentally there after rigo

[Scott9945]

I always thought Curry looked so good because guys like Colin Jones and Milton McCrory were average. Had Curry fought in another time against the likes of Hearns and Leonard, he would not been in the top ten p4p.

Marlon Starling was well above average, and Curry had two impressive wins over him.

[RINGG]

Marlon Starling was well above average, and Curry had two impressive wins over him.

Starling was a very good fighter.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Marlon Starling was well above average, and Curry had two impressive wins over him.

Great point

[{Darko}]

curry was having huge problems making weight by the time he fought honeyghan

[mickey malone]

How true. One of several amateur superstars having too many fights in the unpaid rings ...

Indeed... Mark Breland was another

[Isaac Hunt]

i think that was part of it.

i think personal issues played a role as well, someone close to him died (his sister i think) right around the time he faced his first career crisis. the grief and depression he went through may have made it harder for him to recover mentally from some very tough defeats.

also i think he just went through some of those things that happened in boxing, only they happened more frequently for him. he underestimated honeyghan and wasnt properly prepared physically or mentally. against mccallum he was fighting a terrific fight and just got caught with a perfect punch. after those two losses he never fully recovered.

I remember watching the build up to the Honeyghan fight in the UK and feeling something was missing with Curry. The personal issues make a lot of sense.That combined with having difficulty making the weight,taking the eye off the ball by thinking ahead to a mega fight with Hagler and hot taking Honeyghan seriously provided the right circumstances for a disaster.

[greeh]

Donald Curry was thinking ahead to a mega fight with Hagler when he fought Honeyghan. His head was not in the right place this combined with Honeyghan's headbutts and spoiling tactics brought about the devastating loss. He was never the same after that fight.
Curry's footwork was not up to the standard of his upper body work. H looked better than he actually was.

What was wrong with his footwork?

It didn't have many shortcomings from a technical perspective. He could execute every move in every direction while remaining perfectly balanced - he just preferred to operate from ring-centre in his sharpshooting-mode instead of using the perimeter of the ring. You don't have to be constantly moving and wasting energy to have a good footwork.

I think you are being a bit too harsh when you said he looked better than he actually was. Curry gets overrated by some, but he was still a brilliant offensive fighter that would thrive against almost anyone in a textbook-polite fight.

[Isaac Hunt]

What was wrong with his footwork?

It didn't have any shortcomings from a technical perspective. He could execute every move in every direction while remaining perfectly balanced - he just preferred to operate from ring-centre in his sharpshooting-mode instead of using the perimeter of the ring. You don***8217;t have to be constantly moving and wasting energy to have a good footwork.

I think you are being a bit too harsh when you said he looked better than he actually was. Curry gets overrated by some, but he was still a brilliant offensive fighter that would thrive against almost anyone in a textbook-polite fight.

You have pretty well covered it other than his stance was too wide which limited movement. His lack of versatility in his footwork is what Honeyghan took advantage of and exploited. Honeyghan charged in like a billy goat to what you described as

"he just preferred to operate from ring-centre in his sharpshooting-mode "

and this was Curry's undoing in the Honeyghan fight. Had he had more fluid footwork and movement and other options and sidestepped Honeyghan like a matador he would have beaten him easily. But he was stuck there with his wide stance and was a sucker to fall victim to Honeyghan's ugly unorthodox charging attacks. If his footwork was more comlete like a Leanard this would not have happened. But footwork wise Curry was a one trick pony and Honeyghan spotted his achiles and exploited it.
Curry's upper body movement and technique was excellent and complete but it did not extend below the hips. This is why I say he was not as good as he looked he was too dependant on his MO sharpshooting-mode which he was exellent at to the point where did not develop other skills and options.
He was very stylish but not complete, had he worked on his footwork mastering it like he had with his upper body movement he would have had a far better career.

You wrote

"he was still a brilliant offensive fighter that would thrive against almost anyone in a textbook-polite fight."

I would go with that but it was not designed to deal with ugly raggamufin charging billy goat head butting spoiling Honeyghan attacks. With more versatile footwork he would have defeated Honeyghan.In your post you have made a lot of my points already.

[#1Assassin]

What was wrong with his footwork?

It didn't have any shortcomings from a technical perspective. He could execute every move in every direction while remaining perfectly balanced - he just preferred to operate from ring-centre in his sharpshooting-mode instead of using the perimeter of the ring. You don***8217;t have to be constantly moving and wasting energy to have a good footwork.

I think you are being a bit too harsh when you said he looked better than he actually was. Curry gets overrated by some, but he was still a brilliant offensive fighter that would thrive against almost anyone in a textbook-polite fight.

i agree that he was being to harsh by saying curry looked better than he actually was. he truly was a very good fighter.

i do however agree that his footwork wasnt as good as his upper body movement, thats really all he said. not that it was poor just not up to par and he is right.

i dont think curry just preferred to operate in ring center, nor do i think he had to. but i certainly think he was more effective doing so and its because his footwork was inferior to his other skills.

he was so good at blocking/parrying shots and moving his head he could get away with standing in front of people. his footwork meanwhile was good but far from great. constantly moving isnt necessary to have good footwork, like you said that mainly just uses up energy. but fighters with great footwork tend to make small moves that dont require them to spend much energy yet makes a significant difference by creating angles and keeping just the right amount of distance between them and their opponent.

curry didnt do this, his feet were spread too far apart and his movement suffered. he also had a habit of squaring up his feet making himself a bigger target and even less mobile. when he did move it was often in a straight line which is what got him knocked clean out against mccallum.

again, its not that he had bad footwork but if you look at all his technical skills there is no doubt his footwork was the weakest point.