Greatest Ring General?

[Ray Corso]

Pep
B. Leonard
Sugarman
Sanchez

theres 4 very good ones, Pete too!

Ray.

[greeh]

Ring generalmanship

Anyway, I think Hopkins is a great general. Generalship involves neutralizing your opponent and forcing them to fight your fight. Roy Jones is another example.

Good mention.

Jones gets severely underrated as a ring-general IMO.

[The Old LefHook]

Ho'kins is definitely a good general. In fact, that is what he is best at, it is his whole game, you might say. Speed is average, punch is average, takes it well.

The problem with him is he spent fifteen years vulturing meaningless belts and defending them, for the most part, against mediocre opposition. When stepping up means Eastman and Joppy and the faded Hoya and the much overrated Trinidad, it leads to the question who was he fighting before? Don't look, I warn you for your own good.

Once he was shot, he wanted to fight everybody. No, thanks, I couldn't stand watching you when you had something left in the tank. You proved with Calzaghe you could not handle the best anymore, now go away. But he didn't.

As fans, we are so hungry that we fall for the promotions a lot of the time. Sometimes we are so mesmerized by punching power that we forget to notice horrible shortcomings right before our eyes, just waiting for a perceptive boxer to exploit them. Didn't we way overrate Pavlik for a short time? Trinidad was overrated too, and a smaller man coming up.

Then Ho'kins cherry picked Tavoris cloud for the same reasons he had wanted Pavlik--the guy was a limited slugger a la Jeff Lacy who had built a big reputation dispatching ham & eggers and collected a trinket, as well. Ho'kins has always been a collector of worthless trinkets. Here is another chance to knock off a guy who has the boxing education of an amateur, who the public thinks he is a monster, and he is even a champion. So he did.

He had studied the tapes well. He always does. He never fights anyone he is not sure he can beat because he has found exploitable flaws.

He plays hero all right. But to knowledgable boxing fans he was not a hero but a pest whose presence and sway was preventing more meaningful fights from happening, while guys stopped to pick up a payday. Perhaps he was a good exposer of mediocrity. Where is Chad Dawson now? Strip away the hype, and few of them have much underneath.

Ho'kins was sure he had found another plodding sucker to exploit in Kovalev. He was sure or he would never have taken the fight. You bet he was cherrypicking again, he thought he was. I don't think he got old overnight, I think he has been old for ten years.

All champions have big egos. Ho'kins has a gaint ego. After success and money they want the legacy, the all time accolades. Not some, all of the champs.

Realizing he was not quite good enough to be the greatest middleweight or the greatest anything, he developed his Meadowlark Lemon circus act and travelling show, based on the gimmick of age. He found a little curio in the curiosity shop, and decided to make it his own at any cost. He already held some kind of phony trinket record with the so called middleweight title, now he would see if he could grab the age record. So he did.

Now get out of the way, boor.

No, he is not ready to leave us alone yet. Losing all twelve rounds to Kovalev was not enough. He casts his eye about for another limited slugger with a big reputation, and comes to rest upon Froch.

Froch wants to retire. He should take a look at a tape of any Ho'kins fight and do so, unless there is a jumbo jet he wants to buy. There is no legacy for him in beating Ho'kins, there is certainly negative legacy in losing.

Froch is real tough. He is a lot tougher than guys like Pavlik. Once you have him beat up, instead of falling down, he gets p*ssed. Still, fans don't need swang songs, boys. Go on now, boys, go away.

[f15bone]

Klitchko is an excellent ring general...he controls space and distance as well as anybody in the sport...

Rigo is another superb ring general...

Pac & Mayweather are both great at dictating tempo and space....

[The Old LefHook]

The thing about Robinson and Ray Leonard was that they both had at least ones serious lapse in ring generalship which cost them a major fight. Leonard could have changed tactics any time the first fight against Duran. Robinson fought crazily against Maxim. In 100+ degree heat in a smokey indoor arena, it was a serious lapse in judgement to put so much into his punches against a man who could stand up to Charles, Walcott and Patterson. Joey wasn't going anywhere. Very bad judgement. He could have lessened his energy output by 20% and won a comfortable decision, since he could hit Joey anytime he wanted and Joey could not hit him with a B-B gun.

[rogdogx]

prime jones
ray robinson
monzon
mayweather is in there too somewhere

[The Old LefHook]

I'll tell you, Robinson did not err much with Maxim. At least he was pretty much fighting the right fight, whereas Leonard fought the wrong fight against Duran.

Early, Robinson seemed happy to clinch, though, because he was an in fighter too. He initiated many of the clinches. Leonard, for instance, probably would have avoided more clinches than Robinson did, and might have beat Maxim for that reason. Maxim fought like Winky Wright that night.

Any other night and Ray wins. His strategy was sound, if not perfect. Too many early KO bombs and agreeing to too many clinches. He really did not err by much, but enough to lose.

[The Old LefHook]

One reason I chose Monzon was because he never had a lapse that I know of and fought the wrong fight or let anybody else fight theirs. I don't know if there was ever a round where he fell off his generalship wagon. Granted, though, his adaptability was not tested in the same variety of situations as some of the other contestants, or against as high a caliber.