Who were the most clutch fighters of all time

foreman is worth a mention in this thread .

 

:thinknot so sure about that...

ali, young, holyfield he failed to pull the win out. morrison was a complete domination and he should have put briggs away

 

leonard and marciano are the first that come to mind. i don't think i'd call arturo gatti clutch but that guy turned the tide many times in fights when he was getting the hell beat out of him. he may have lost some of those fights but damn they were exciting. i get sad when i think of how it all ended for him.

 

You realize anyone who could be declared astute in boxing while witnessing Dempsey fight in Toledo must have been at the very least in his late-50's when Marciano was peaking, most likely well beyond that age.

Personal experience tells me no observer of that age will pick a contemporary fighter over one from his heyday. It just isn't part of human nature, or more precisely, masculine nature. So, take all that "guys who saw them both at their peak" anecdotal crap and put a huge block of salt on it. Marciano would never be KO'd in one by Flynn or for that matter have allowed Gibbons to string him out for 15 rounds.

 

Seamus respectfully you are being "disrespectful" of the great boxing scribes of Marciano's reign who almost to the man CHOSE Dempsey over Marciano. They made their living in boxing,and you somehow accuse them of nostalgic bias for the older Dempsey, when conversely many of these
"biased " boxing writers chose Joe Louis over the much before Jack Dempsey. So S, you can't have it BOTH ways to fit YOUR "bias" for Marciano. You S, or I for that matter have our preferences,as did these writers who did there thing for a living. No one corners the market on
being fair and impartial. Were all of these famous boxing writers in some mass conspiracy with each other.? I think not...It is "anecdotal crap" when their choice of Dempsey over Marciano doesn't coincide with yours.
You deride Jack Dempsey for allowing the HOF Tommy Gibbons to go the full 15 rounds,whilst Tommy Gibbons was on a hot streak about that time.
But no one fighter KO's everyone. History proves that convincingly.
What say you about Rocky Marciano allowing 183 pound Roland LaStarza
to go the distance in 1950, nor for that matter journeyman Ted Lowry,
who took Rocky Marciano TWICE the distance in 1949 and 1950. ?
Do you think that Don Cockell would have gone 9 rounds with a Jack Dempsey in 1955 ? I think not S...In conclusion the mass majority of boxing people who picked Dempsey over Marciano,while Marciano was champion in 1955, because of the speed of Dempsey, should not be accused today of being in some sort of mass delusion. After all many of these same writers chose the later Joe Louis over Dempsey...Their choices should be more closer to the truth than yours or mine. After all they saw them both fight...Cheers S.:hi:

 

Bert, let's do a little math lesson here. Let's firstly assume a decent observer of the fistic scene would be at least 25 years old, allowing him the experience to have seen a decent enough sample size of fighters to draw reasonable conclusions regarding their worth. This same 25 year old who witnessed Dempsey in 1919 would be in his late 50's during Marciano's prime.

Bert you are proof itself that old codgers prefer the fighters of their heyday. In this case the arguer is the best case against his own argument.

 

Would have been my choice too? Well played sir.

 

Marciano stopping Charles in the rematch with the horrible nose cut was very dramatic and often over looked ... that fight easily could have been stopped.

 

Nigel Benn? surprised he hasnt been mentioned already, the mcclellan fight has to be mentioned when thinking of fighters winning when they're seemingly on a loser, he did it a few times

 

S,you are being too cynical in your accusations. At that time the mid-fifties,these same boxing writers raved about Ray Robinson,raved about Willie Pep,or Ike Williams, or Ezzard Charles,along with Archie Moore. I Know S, for I was there. The 1940s were considered a "golden age" by most everyone for a good reason...It was ! So to say these same hardened boxing writers who chose Jack Dempsey over Rocky Marciano were biased
does not reflect the truth. Rocky Marciano was already an icon,a great fighter, a gentleman who these same scribes adored, but they chose
a Jack Dempsey over Marciano for the most obvious reason, they truly
believed IT...Take care....

 

Nice call on Matthew Saad ! His second fight against Yaqui Lopez is one of the best exemple of all time.

 

He was in serious trouble against Graham, Norris, Cardamone and Leaks, two of which were his signature fights. That's just as many as, if not more than, Marciano. In each case, his power and heart brought him to victory.

 

Yep, the Logan fight was a clear example. Benn was getting beaten up horribly and came back in style. He was also in a lot of trouble against Doug DeWitt early on. For a fighter with only 48 fights, that's quite a lot of comeback moments.

 

You're right about Cardamone. The KO was so ingrained in my mind that I'd forgotten about the rest of the fight. Norris never had him in any real trouble, though. He just out-boxed him handily in the first round.

 

I try as hard as I can to not remember that fight... :|