"True Greats Sometimes Have To Let Their Hearts Rule Their Heads"

Greats tend to be controlled, patient, disciplined. Golota and Tyson let their hearts rule their head, as did Gatti in another way

 

If you stop thinking youre doomed

 

Hopkins: a trivial counterexample.

 

Riddick Bowe let his heart rule his head; he saw delicious cake calling his name & he just had to eat it.

His true love was cake, that i am sure of. :verysad

 

In a way, yes.

Of course, you need your head in there, you need to stay cool under certain situations. But I see what the guy is saying. Your head would be saying "why the hell am I doing this?" Especially for the fighter who is more proven/successful. Why are you continuing when you're tired, bleeding, in pain, and you have your family at home along with millions in the bank and a spot guaranteed in Canastota? But your heart says to fight on to win, or fight on and go out on your shield?

You've got to be a tad crazy to box, I mean just look at how ****ing dangerous it is.

 

Yes,I saw it - exciting fight,but nothing that Khoren Gevor hadn't already done two years ago.Fought at a slightly higher pace,perhaps - but still a very similar fight,with the same aggressive,smothering,high-volume output strategy that Gevor employed - which brought him the same type of early success that Macklin had.

 

I like Macklin, seems to be a nice guy, has something in his head and is a warrior with an interesting style - reminds me a bit of Sam Solomon - is he still fighting? They should fight!!.

What does he mean by heart? Does he mean passion? If he does, than there are examples for both, the forst coming to my mind are Monzon and Duran.

 

Some things sound profound but when you delve deeper you can't really come up with anything thoroughly sensible to them. This seems like one of those things to me, this morning anyway.

 

Was he refering to himself? Does Macklin consider himself to be a "True Great"?

 

Passion? That's a hot blooded thing..an emotional thing...sure Duran was ruled by that..but not the cold blooded Monzon. It's one of the reasons Monzon wasn't as loved by the fans as much as Duran.

 

I can make sense of that phrase in the following ways:

1. Going out on your shield in an attempt to cause a very unlikely upset when the easier and safer and more rational option is to run/stay passive and see a fight out with a decision loss.

Examples: Morales trying to bomb out Pac in the third fight. Counterexamples: Mosley and Barrera (in the rematch) against Pac.

2. Taking a fight where you are almost certain to lose, but taking it anyway to find out what your actual limits are, rather than staying undefeated and never putting yourself on the line against the ultimate challenge, and thereby trying to 'sell' the image of your greatness rather than proving it.

Examples: Jose Napoles vs. Carlos Monzon, Mickey Walker vs. Max Schmeling
Counterexample: Floyd Mayweather and his failure to make fights with the likes of Tszyu, Winky, Martinez, Williams or even Pac

 

When your getting your ass kicked or your in a rough fight, cut and bleeding, your mind starts to tell you to stop, get out, take the safe route. Thats when the heart takes over, the will to win takes over the negative thoughts.

 

I read an interesting quote from Larry Merchant the other day, that has some relevance here. Basically he was saying the great fighters can be great every night, the normal fighters are great for one night, ala Douglas vs Tyson, and people can relate to someone who can put it together once but struggle to maintain it.

I think he has hit the nail on the head.

And it ties into Macklin's quote, as I feel he had to fight with his heart, otherwise if he boxed with his head he would have lost wider, but the true greats have to box with their head.

 

Your last sentence is on the money. No disrespect to Macklin but he's average, or decent at best. I know people like him because he's a nice guy but who gives a ****? It has no bearing. From what I saw in the fight Macklin basically just thought to himself 'well I'm not good enough so I'll just throw loads of leather, I'm going to hit the arms and gloves with a great deal of my shots but at least I can say afterwards I gave it my all, because that is the best case scenario here, that I win some respect and not the fight'.

Cue the British booze wagon brigade to come in and score the fight on ineffective aggression and label it a robbery, which is silly. One thing about Sturm though is that his workrate is attrocious. It's ok saying 'oh if he threw more shots he would be better' but he doesn't, so that's part of what he is, a fighter who covers up, is strong and throws quality scoring shots and not enough of them.