gerald mccellen back to back losses

[OctoberRed]

Well ... yes. But there's flawed or weak defence and there's *NO* defence.

Take Benn for instance. Whilst he never shied away from "a tear up" and particularly during his early career he was prone to risk-taking to the point of recklessness - beneath the surface he was technically competent with a solid amateur career behind him during which he was well-coached.

^^^^ This!

[ShoulderRoll]

His extracurricular dogfighting activities aside, Gerald McClellan was a real talent.

Here he is sparring with James Toney at the Kronk Gym:

[The Old LefHook]

Well ... yes. But there's flawed or weak defence and there's *NO* defence.

Take Benn for instance. Whilst he never shied away from "a tear up" and particularly during his early career he was prone to risk-taking to the point of recklessness - beneath the surface he was technically competent with a solid amateur career behind him during which he was well-coached.

Fight fans didn't really see evidence of this until he picked up a couple of defeats (as well as some lucky escapes ... such as the Anthony Logan fight) and moved up a weight.

As a middleweight Benn's power was as explosive as anyone's I've seen but when he moved up to fight bigger guys he could no longer rely on one-punch KOs and he had to modify his game. It was at this point that he fell back on the skills he learned as an amateur and he became a much more balanced fighter.

One of my major bugbears with today's fighters is their lack of head movement. Nothing depresses me more than seeing a supposedly P4P-level boxer fighting as though his head is bolted into one of those steel frames victims of broken necks have to wear. If you aren't moving your head you've made your opponent's task ten times easier - at the very least.

If you want a great example of the benefits of head movement watch Benn's performance against McClellan. Sure, he was tagged and put down twice. But Benn's evasive tactics swaying to-and-fro in huge arcs made the G-Man's task of finishing the fight impossible. Just watch that fight again. For me it's a peerless example of the kind of defence which Gerald lacked completely. For just about all of the fight Benn kept his head low forcing McClellan to hit down at an angle he was uncomfortable with. He had figured (correctly) that his opponent lacked the obvious counterpunch - the uppercut - and this gave him freedom to launch himself upward with single or one-two bombs which were landing flush seemingly at will.

Eubank was a far more cagey fighter who worked behind a solid guard and preferred to catch opponents with clever counters. The thing about Eubank is that he was a far harder hitter than people give credit. Indeed, at Super Middle I think he may well have possessed greater one-punch power than Benn himself. Certainly the shot he caught Michael Watson with was (tragically) a hammer.

I guess what I'm saying is that none of the names you listed were as flawed as the G-Man. The guy was a brain-haemorrhage waiting to happen, unfortunately.

This.....!

[billeau2]

Well ... yes. But there's flawed or weak defence and there's *NO* defence.

Take Benn for instance. Whilst he never shied away from "a tear up" and particularly during his early career he was prone to risk-taking to the point of recklessness - beneath the surface he was technically competent with a solid amateur career behind him during which he was well-coached.

Fight fans didn't really see evidence of this until he picked up a couple of defeats (as well as some lucky escapes ... such as the Anthony Logan fight) and moved up a weight.

As a middleweight Benn's power was as explosive as anyone's I've seen but when he moved up to fight bigger guys he could no longer rely on one-punch KOs and he had to modify his game. It was at this point that he fell back on the skills he learned as an amateur and he became a much more balanced fighter.

One of my major bugbears with today's fighters is their lack of head movement. Nothing depresses me more than seeing a supposedly P4P-level boxer fighting as though his head is bolted into one of those steel frames victims of broken necks have to wear. If you aren't moving your head you've made your opponent's task ten times easier - at the very least.

If you want a great example of the benefits of head movement watch Benn's performance against McClellan. Sure, he was tagged and put down twice. But Benn's evasive tactics swaying to-and-fro in huge arcs made the G-Man's task of finishing the fight impossible. Just watch that fight again. For me it's a peerless example of the kind of defence which Gerald lacked completely. For just about all of the fight Benn kept his head low forcing McClellan to hit down at an angle he was uncomfortable with. He had figured (correctly) that his opponent lacked the obvious counterpunch - the uppercut - and this gave him freedom to launch himself upward with single or one-two bombs which were landing flush seemingly at will.

Eubank was a far more cagey fighter who worked behind a solid guard and preferred to catch opponents with clever counters. The thing about Eubank is that he was a far harder hitter than people give credit. Indeed, at Super Middle I think he may well have possessed greater one-punch power than Benn himself. Certainly the shot he caught Michael Watson with was (tragically) a hammer.

I guess what I'm saying is that none of the names you listed were as flawed as the G-Man. The guy was a brain-haemorrhage waiting to happen, unfortunately.

Well it seems that your excellent post is a general view of the G-man... My caveats are as follows:

I think Eubank, Benn, Jackson all could have gotten into a punch out with the same bad consequences. Was G-man worse on defense? Yes I can certainly buy that. But nobody has a crystal ball that says a certain fighter will have brain problems fighting a certain way...It would be great if we did!

I just don't see any of those guys having much in the way of defense. But to say that G-man was perhaps the worse of the lot...yeah thats probably true. I do think Eubank had the potential to be defensive minded...but would lapse terribly mentally and get hit...Eubanks could throw a feint though. Also yes, none of these guys had head movement. Jackson was the worse of the lot this way to me.

[OctoberRed]

I just don't see any of those guys having much in the way of defense.

Agreed without question.