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By far my favorite thread on these boards. Thanks as always for posting these!
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didnt tim bradley do a "best ive faced"?Comment
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Pinklon Thomas - Feb 2019
BEST JAB
MIKE WEAVER: I would say Mike Weaver had the best jab, we were exchanging jabs pretty good. I kind of took it away from him when we fought. I was popping him to the body. I had a strategy and I kind of took the play away from him. My jab was powerful and it was fast. I took a lot out of guys.
BEST DEFENSE
TREVOR BERBICK: He was very awkward, he had an awkward style. He wasn’t an easy target.
BEST HANDSPEED
EVANDER HOLYFIELD: I would probably have to say Holyfield because he was moving from cruiserweight to heavyweight. He had fought James Tillis and I was his second heavyweight fight. He had good handspeed at that time.
BEST FOOTWORK
HOLYFIELD: Again, I would probably have to say Holyfield. He had good footspeed; moved really good on his legs.
SMARTEST
HOLYFIELD: It was his foot movement, good handspeed. He had a nice style, I liked his style, I was very impressed by him.
STRONGEST
BERBICK: [Gerrie] Coetzee was pretty strong, Rid**** Bowe he was a pretty strong boy, Tommy Morrison. I would say Trevor Berbick; he was very strong, he was a strong man. I think that Trevor had been there before; he’d fought Larry [Holmes], he had fought some tough guys, he had been to war. He did a lot of tree chopping, pull ups on trees, he did some crazy training, he worked hard.
BEST PUNCHER
TOMMY MORRISON: Mike Weaver had a big left hook, a good right hand. He hit me with one punch and I felt it big time. I felt Berbick’s punch. Tyson to be honest, the first round was crazy because he was knocking everyone out. I knew he was going to come out strong like that, but after the second round I kind of had Tyson figured out. He wasn’t really reaching me with big punches. It didn’t happen till after the fifth round when my glove got split; I got hit and my right shoulder popped out. I would say when I got hit by [Tommy] Morrison it was like being hit by a baseball bat. I got hit to the ribs and my leg came up, I got hit with one punch and my eye split. Tommy hit me harder than anyone else I was ever hit by.
BEST CHIN
GERRIE COETZEE: Coetzee took some big shots and didn’t go anywhere, he went the distance.
BEST BOXING SKILLS
RID**** BOWE: I have to revert back to Holyfield. Rid**** Bowe had some skills, he was a big man, he had a decent jab and right hand, it was between Bowe and Holyfield. As a heavyweight, I would pick Rid**** Bowe.
BEST OVERALL
BERBICK: Bowe was a big, strong, young boy, but I would have to say Trevor Berbick again. Me and Trevor Berbick went 12 hard rounds. I think Trevor at that time had a lot of experience, he was fighting me for the championship. It’s a big difference when you’re defending you title and when you’re just fighting a 10-round fight.Comment
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Danny 'Litttle red' Lopez - Feb 2019
BEST JAB
Salvador Sanchez: As far as I can remember, most guys I fought had a good jab. Salvador Sanchez would be the main one; his jab was always in my face (Laughs). Bobby Chacon had a good jab.
BEST DEFENSE
Sanchez: That would be Salvador Sanchez again. I never could hit him. If I could have landed a shot on him, I might have knocked him out but I couldn’t land a shot on him.
FASTEST HANDS
Bobby Chacon: Bobby Chacon had good hand speed. He was very quick and kept me off-balance.
BEST FOOTWORK
Sanchez: That would be Salvador again. He could go back and forward. He was always moving and I could never hit him.
BEST CHIN
Ruben Olivares: I never hit Salvador so I don’t know if he had a good chin. Ruben Olivares was one of them. He had a pretty good chin. He knocked me down and came in for the kill and that’s when I hit him with a sharp right hand and I won the fight.
SMARTEST
Sanchez: Salvador was the smartest I fought. He had a lot of movement. He was able to do things others weren’t able to do; he set traps.
STRONGEST
Chacon: I hit him with some mighty good shots and they never fazed him and he came back with his shots.
BEST PUNCHER
Chacon: Ruben Olivares was one of the hardest punchers I fought. I felt every shot he landed on me. Also, Bobby Chacon was a good puncher. I’d probably pick Bobby.
BEST BOXING SKILLS
Sanchez: Probably between Bobby and Salvador Sanchez. Salvador had excellent boxing skills, so did Bobby. I’d probably pick Salvador.
BEST OVERALL
Sanchez: He was so sharp and he’d be out the way before I could land on him. I fought him twice and he beat me twice.Comment
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Good stuff Chris
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Originally posted by Chrismart View Post
Oh man that's a good one.
Salvador Sanchez is undoubtedly the greatest Mexican fighter of all time.Comment
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Originally posted by Chrismart View PostA little reminder of Lopez/Muhammad
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Holy **** what a round.
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Guts Ishimatsu - 2019
BEST JAB
KEN BUCHANAN: He was always able to keep appropriate stance and angles from me in order to throw his jabs effectively.
BEST DEFENSE
SAENSAK MUANGSURIN: He had long reach and it was difficult for me to land my punches on him.
FASTEST HANDS
BUCHANAN: His jab and straight right were the fastest I experienced. Ismael Laguna was fast of foot as he quickly moved away just after hitting, but his punches were visible. Duran’s hands were also fast, but I could see and react against his punches.
BEST FOOTWORK
ESTEBAN DE JESUS: He was good at keeping good stance from me in both offence and defense.
BEST CHIN
MUANGSURIN: Since he was a legitimate junior welterweight, he was physically much stronger than me. I landed some solid shots, but he shook them off due to his physical strength. Duran had a strong chin, but I sometimes scored with good shots and gave him some damage.
SMARTEST
ISMAEL LAGUNA: He was good at getting points by not chasing any opponent too far.
STRONGEST
ROBERTO DURAN: Duran’s physical power and stamina was beyond description. He always kept punching with his physical power so that he wore down all opponents with his abundant stamina. His opponents fell as they didn’t like to absorb more punishment incessantly. That’s the way of Duran’s knockout.
BEST PUNCHER
DURAN: Duran, Muangsurin and Gonzalez were all hard-punchers, but the quality of their punching power was different respectively: Duran; hard punches in succession, Muangsurin; hard single pinpoint punch, Gonzalez; very solid puncher, though I could fortunately defeat him twice.
BEST BOXING SKILLS
LAGUNA: He knew the importance of judgement of distance. He always kept his own distance of hitting without getting hit. He always moved away after hitting me to make himself an elusive target. Buchanan also kept his distance by continually jabbing. De Jesus was also skillful with his constant footwork and hit-and-run tactics. Muangsurin was a southpaw boxer and therefore it was difficult for me to fight with him.
BEST OVERALL
DURAN: He was a super champion and enormously excellent in every aspect. His strength, as I felt in fighting him, was chiefly based on his tremendous stamina. As he had exceptional physical power, he could overwhelm his opposition with his volume of punches and his hand-rotation speed. He never got tired throwing double or triple as many punches as his opponent. Duran’s overall strength resulted in his monstrous stamina.Comment
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Thanks for posting love his description of Duran what a beast he wasComment
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Armando Muniz - March 2019
BEST JAB
EDDIE PERKINS: Oh gosh, it would be between Emile Griffith, Jose Napoles, Eddie Perkins and Angel Espada. Emile had been doing it so long, he knew the jab would land. He was near over-the-hill, but he still had a great jab. Napoles’ jab was different in that it was as good as a right hand punch; it was almost a power punch, you could feel it. He developed that over the years. Eddie Perkins was a boxer who could handle you in many ways and one of them was with the jab. Perkins was a hard guy to catch; his jab kept him away, I followed him all over the ring, he had the jab and did good. Like an idiot I didn’t stop and try to figure it out. Espada was very shifty, but along with that he’d throw a jab and catch you all the time, he wouldn’t be there when the jab was thrown. I’d say Perkins had the best jab; he figured me out real quick and carried me. I was always on top of him, trying to get in there, but his jab was always stopping me.
BEST DEFENSE
SUGAR RAY LEONARD: Sugar Ray Leonard maybe; I couldn’t find a place to hit him. He had a good defense. It was tough to realize in the middle of the ring that I was being used as a stepping stone and how nice it must be to have the networks, promoters and the whole system of boxing behind you. He moved around pretty good. He was very fast, he had a fast jab, fast right hand, he moved around, back and forth.
FASTEST HANDS
LEONARD: Leonard would be one of them for sure, Angel Espada was pretty good; he was a helluva boxer. When I fought Clyde Gray for the NABF welterweight title, I only had 16 fights. He had more knockouts than I had fights and I knocked him out. He threw jabs and real fast punches; at one time he was pretty good. I have to say Sugar Ray Leonard. It was a blur but I have to say when I fought Leonard I was near the end so everything would seem fast [laughs].
BEST FOOTWORK
PERKINS: Leonard, Clyde Gray and also Eddie Perkins. Perkins was an accomplished boxer; that’s why he became a champion, and I would include Jose Napoles. I’d have to say Eddie Perkins. He was hard to hit and the reason was because he was never there to be hit.
BEST CHIN
RUBEN VAZQUEZ ZAMORA: There was this little Middle-Eastern guy [Eltefat Talebi] I met when I was coming up. I know he was put there for me to win, but I was hitting him and I was like, ‘Jesus Christ, I’m going to kill this guy.’ I hit him so hard. There was another kid I fought twice from Mexico [Ruben Vazquez Zamora]. This guy took punches galore. I’d hate to see him now because I hit him hard and he had a lot of fights. And how many fights did he have with guys like me? Other guys that took a punch real well, Oscar Albarado for one, [Ernie] “Indian Red” Lopez, he finally withered down. Napoles wasn’t too bad, he took a lot of shots too. Ruben Vazquez Zamora could take a shot like a son of a gun, oh my God!
SMARTEST
JOSE NAPOLES: He had a knack of being right next to you, he would slip and you could not hit this guy. Next to Napoles was Eddie Perkins and Emile Griffith, they had their trade down crazy. I thought I could do it good, but I guess I couldn’t do it as good as them.
STRONGEST
EMILE GRIFFITH: I have to say probably because of his experience, Emile Griffith. That is the one I can remember being physical. (Ernie) Lopez worked his career as a carpenter and he had strong arms.
BEST PUNCHER
ANGEL ESPADA: Angel Espada when I fought him. He was the boxer and I was coming at him, he’d hit me and I’d go, ‘Son of a Gun, I’ve got to watch out.’ But I kept doing it. I’d say Espada, he made your whole body shake.
BEST OVERALL SKILLS
NAPOLES: I’d say Jose Napoles; he was well-trained, he had everything, he could slip and slide, jab, uppercuts. I’d say Jose Napoles was the No. 1 guy as far as boxing skills.
BEST OVERALL
NAPOLES: He had real fast hands, slippery, he was an excellent boxer. He had supreme vision, that’s why they called him Butter Man, ‘Mantequilla’.Comment
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