Comments Thread For: Thurman: Comeback vs. Lopez Evidence Of How Great I Truly Am

[Sledgeweather17]

The question no one is asking is what happens if Spence ever gets hurt??? We don’t really know. We do know how Thurman reacts when hurt. He comes back and wins. What happens if Thurman hurts Spence??? What happens if Porter hurts Spence??? That’s yet to be seen.

We seen Spence hurt before. He was hurt by Lartey. Granted the circumstances were unique. He had pressed really hard, even by Spence's freakish Stam standards in that round, and the timer incompetently let the timer run on for five minutes.

Guess he was mesmerized by Spence's offense or whatever, anyway Spence got sloppy and was countered late in that five minute round, and got hurt as a result. He weathered the storm with good movement ans well timed clinching.

After taking the necessary time to recover, he was back on the offense again.

Brook didn't outright hurt him, but at times Brook showed his superiority in size and strength and bullied Spence in their fight, he even staggered him at some point.

Spence stayed composed and just continued working on that body, stuck to the game plan.

So I don't think you should worry about what happens when Spence gets hurt. The guy's mind is a fortress. He won't break.

[Sledgeweather17]

Well said Sledgeweather, I do think we're on the same page though. "Clinching" might just have to come into play if an opponent is tougher than usual. Hey, If I can see flaws in Spences game, imagine what Thurman & his team will eventually/already see/s, and feel they can exploit?? Thurman in all your examples has clearly won though. No one ever said those fights (or life) would be easy.

My point is that he was crafty enough to win. To get the job done. Using his "hop around" skills shows he's akin to the "setting up" mentality which provides more options for point scoring, instead of the mindless rock em' sock em' blow for blow mentality. Thurman does seem to fade during the latter half of his fights, so if Pac catches that 2nd wind better, Thurman might just catch that bad one.

Every above average boxer/fighter has had that "vulnerable image," Every opponent "sees it" and counts on exploiting it for his payday and bragging rights. Its never as easy as they think though. I'm not saying Thurman is unbeatable, I'm jus sayin' he's in tune with the "movers" and "thinkers" of the game. While the brawlers keep on brawling for machismo sake......including Spence (to some degree in my opinion).

Everything you said was fine until the very last part. Did you just include Spence in the brawling for machismo sake? Bro you seriously need to retract that.

Didn't you watch the boxing clinic he put out against Garcia?

Did you miss all the technical and tactical nuances of the Brook fight? If you did let me know so I can explain everything you didn't see in that fight.

[lion33lit]

Everything you said was fine until the very last part. Did you just include Spence in the brawling for machismo sake? Bro you seriously need to retract that.

Didn't you watch the boxing clinic he put out against Garcia?

Did you miss all the technical and tactical nuances of the Brook fight? If you did let me know so I can explain everything you didn't see in that fight.

Thats why I stressed "imo".....but I've gotta take you up on your "boxing clinic he put out against Garcia?"(??) Garcia came in as moving manniquin extraordinaire - he was too small, too limited and physically WEAK compared to the naturally BIGger Spence. It wasnt even "a fight." It was a BORING mismatch that Garcia knew would get him PAID if he could fool the public with his cornball talk of "creating history."

Brook? Brook already had a broken eye socket from GGG that was intrinsically connected to the 2nd one that Spence took the liberty of bashing & fracturing in like manner. I mean, what seperated the 2nd eye socket from receiving its due portion of fracturing? The little bridge of his nose.

When Spence fights Crawford, Keith or even wildman Porter then I'll appreciate all the "technical nuances" you see. I do see the tight defence, good power and mentally digging deep (after Brooke had his moments of actually outboxing him).

But I'd like to see how Spence cuts off the ring while countering and stalking an above average "mover." Spence usually trashes your "stiff" come forward style, but he's got some splainin' to do against tougher stiffer comp. Granted, Its no fault on Spence's part, or his desire to fight the very best.....

[Sledgeweather17]

Thats why I stressed "imo".....but I've gotta take you up on your "boxing clinic he put out against Garcia?"(??) Garcia came in as moving manniquin extraordinaire - he was too small, too limited and physically WEAK compared to the naturally BIGger Spence. It wasnt even "a fight." It was a BORING mismatch that Garcia knew would get him PAID if he could fool the public with his cornball talk of "creating history."

Brook? Brook already had a broken eye socket from GGG that was intrinsically connected to the 2nd one that Spence took the liberty of bashing & fracturing in like manner. I mean, what seperated the 2nd eye socket from receiving its due portion of fracturing? The little bridge of his nose.

When Spence fights Crawford, Keith or even wildman Porter then I'll appreciate all the "technical nuances" you see. I do see the tight defence, good power and mentally digging deep (after Brooke had his moments of actually outboxing him).

But I'd like to see how Spence cuts off the ring while countering and stalking an above average "mover." Spence usually trashes your "stiff" come forward style, but he's got some splainin' to do against tougher stiffer comp. Granted, Its no fault on Spence's part, or his desire to fight the very best.....

Lol, at no point of the fight was Brook outboxing Spence, perhaps winning some of the rounds yes, but trust me he wasn't outboxing him. His weapons were being taken away the whole time until he had nothing left in his arsenal.

It's like saying Mayweather was being outboxed by Judah or Ricky Hatton etc etc in the early rounds. He wasn't, he was computing the other guy's skills and systematically taking away his weapons.

Anyway going back to the Brook fight.

The Battle of the JAB:

You'll notice in the first round Spence was controlling Brook with his jab. From the second round onwards Brook made adjustments and started landing the overhand right over the jab, in other words, he figured out the rhythm to Spence's jab and took advantage.

BUT THEN Spence started making adjustments to his jab. He kept switching between jabbing to the head and jabbing to the chest, he also introduced variation to his jab, from stiff, thudding jabs to fast, flickering jabs to feint jabs. The constant switching of jabs made it difficult for Brook to counter the jab, eventually the stopped trying to counter it at all as he was too confused about the timing of the jab.


The Body Snatching Battle:

From the start Spence was nailing Brook with the straight left to the stomach and the uppercut to the stomach. Brook seemingly never was able to prevent Spence from landing this shot, which was sucking out his energy reserves at a rapid pace.

Brook tried to copy this move with his own straight right to the liver, but every time he threw this shot Spence would step back and counter with an overhead left hand to the head. Even when Brook actually landed this shot Spence would take it while still landing his overhand left hand. It became a battle of wills that Brook lost as he eventually gave up on that tactic. This was the second weapon that Spence took away from Brook.

The Psychological Battle:

Everyone knows Spence is a big Welter who bullies and beats his opponents into submission.

Brook, while slightly shorter (0.5 inch difference) and eith shorter reach, was still actually the bigger and stronger guy. He is built like a tank and he is hella strong, and the first thing he wanted to do was to disillusion Spence about his own size and strength.

We can see this as many times in the fight Brook tried to bully, manhandle, and overpower Spence, with SUCCESS. He succeeded in this, but the problem is that it didn't have the desired effect. He expected Spence would be intimidated and disillusioned and would mentally break. Instead, Spence just became even more relentless in his approach whenever Brook used his strength on him. He continued to land crushing body shots while being mandhandled, and when Brook would try to move away and take a break, Spence would go after him on attack mode, not giving him the breather that he needed.

Every weapon, move and every tactic Brook employed with initial success, was taken away from him. He was completely stripped and left defenseless. There is also the fact that Spence seems to get stronger and more relentless as the rounds go on, he doesn't slow down, he goes even higher and faster.

Brook's will, body, and face were left broken to the point he felt he had no choice but to quit.

Brook was by far the most skillful and tactical fighter in the division, but Spence took all of his skills, tricks, and tactics away from him. All that shieet that worked on Porter didn't work on him, and when it did, he quickly made adjustments.

It was completive yes, but the longer the fight went on the more one sided it was always going to be. If you knew what you were watching you'd have seen that.