Solving the Stylistic Puzzle: Fighters Who are The Hardest To Solve?

Have to agree with #Donaire. I think he is a very tough puzzle.

I don't agree with Mayweather as IMO he has already been beaten and hasn't changed a whole lot since. Against Mayweather being Southpaw seems to help and a good jab is essential.

I don't agree with Andre Ward either as I think Joe would have comprehensively beaten him. Even Froch was starting to get to him by the end of the 12. I certainly rate Ward but I think people have got just a tad carried away. I still think Dirrell (Andre) could prove a very tough night style wise for Ward.

 

Brilliant post and I agree with your pick of Donaire.

I would be interested to see how he would react to a Rigondeaux counter left body shot.

 

I think Rigo & Donaire are way ahead of the rest in the division, but I think Rigo would beat Donaire, hes got the speed, is fundamentally as sound as it gets, hes as good a counter puncher as there is, as is Donaire. Both have KO power in their left hands. I think that in the short bursts of activity we would see Rigo would eventually start landing that left to the body, knocking the steam out of Donaire. What a match up it would be though..:good

 

I hate him too, and I agree he is a tough guy to beat. Yeah another defensive counter puncher could do it but it would be a horribly dull fight. I also think pressure could beat him but it would have to be a bit different.

He can be hit, but it's just difficult to hit the guy cleanly, especially with power shots. Accept that you're gonna have to go 12 rounds. Accept that unless you have some serious boxing ability, you're not gonna beat him in chess match. The guy will have a higher connect percentage than you. You'll have to outwork him by fighting at a lightning pace, but you'll have to do it for 12 rounds without gassing and taking too many counters in return. Somehow.

Combinations, punches from unusual angles, mixing up head and body attacks, throwing uppercuts, backing the mutha****a up against the ropes and corner, and accepting that you won't land many clean shots will help IMO.


Also, while throwing millions of shots, I think pitter patter shots, arm punches would play a big role for a few reasons. Firstly, to make sure you don't over commit and leave yourself open for a counter, but also because Mayweather won't provide a great window of opportunity for you to hit him. I don't necessarily think you'd need great speed, but timing yes. It would be like that game wack a mole. If you tried to really bring the hammer high up and hit that mole hard he would disappear back into the hole before you got there. I think with Mayweather, not only would the opening disappear, but you would catch a counter too. That's why I think in this case, it would just be like that game, where not putting anything into your punches would help. The opening will come but will go quickly so take it while it's there. He'd also get frustrated since it would be much more difficult for him to counter an arm punch with quick pullback than a punch where the fighter is more committed.

Finally, with his defence being designed to stop him getting hit cleanly, the chances of you knocking him out are slim anyway, so if you're gonna be fighting for 12 rounds at a hectic pace, pitter patter shots would stop you getting gassed.

Also, he seems to work out a fighters rhythm very well. I'd say a fighter who mixes his movements up, and doesn't fight in a rhythm would stand a better chance of catching him out. Kind of like a batsman in cricket getting bowled because he wasn't expecting a slower ball, or getting bowled because the ball suddenly stopped a bit on the pitch rather than carrying through at the pace he's used to.


Despite his performance in the Marquez fight, I still think Pac is the man who could do it.

 

:deal This, his timing of making fights is excellent. Could have a future at the matchmaking office of sports network! :yep

 

Calzaghe, Floyd, Ward...

 

Donaire, Ward and Mayweather.

Not sure Mayweather needs explaining, he hasn't looked that likely to lose since Castillo. De La Hoya performance was dodgy but not close to being defeated.

Ward as you said, chameleon. It seems he has the answers for everything. He can box outside with his footwork, he's a master inside, he's fast, he doesn't get hit. Complete package.

Donaire on just pure athleticism, power and boxing ability. At these weights people have no chance but to walk to him in order to make an impact and that usually spells disaster

 

A long list.

 

Anselmo Moreno seems like a tricky customer with a solid defense who'd be tricky to break down.

 

Mayweather is a good (but obvious) call. He has a lot of good names, and a few excellent, on his resume, but the timing and situation of many of them take the shine off somewhat. I know that the same can be said of almost every other boxer, but Floyd picks his opponents particularly well, and the gulf between his ability and that of his selected opponent is often a little more than I would like.

It's very easy in hindsight to add up the resume to greater than the sum of it's parts, with the mitigating circumstances fading from memory and the resume typically being viewed in a more positive light....to avoid that I must keep reminding myself how constantly frustrated I have been with Mayweather's matchmaking over the years. For a long time, he was fighting someone good, but not exactly who people viewed as his biggest threat or most interesting fight.

I do count the first Castillo fight as a loss for Floyd (I frankly don't care what the record books will say, or what the not-so-impartial 'officials' said, I'm only interested in who I, and the majority of educated boxing fans, think won any given fight). That said, I don't know if that is necessarily the formula to beat Floyd. The shoulder injury likely had a large part to play in that.

The style that I have often said would pose the most problems to Floyd, is a tall rangy fighter with speed, timing and a bit of pop. Obviously there is more to it than that, but that's why I've always felt that Hearns would be hard work for Floyd, and even Amir Khan. Yeah, he's lost a little shine recently after the close fight with Peterson, but there is no comparison with styles there and the challenges he would face would be entirely different. Khan is one of the few boxers on the planet that has some physical attribute that he can leverage as a means to potentially make some headway in a fight with Floyd. There are better all round fighters than Khan who would struggle more with Floyd.

 

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good pic man didnt go cafe today with junito hes ill lol why u asking for

 

Featuring a lot of average fighters.

 

Hearns, absolutely. I feel he could've maybe even taken out Floyd early on, and he would've been able to do it his way. As for Khan causing Floyd problems, I can see why you would think that, but I don't think Khan would really be competitive. He has certain attributes that are in his favour, and I also feel that unless you are some incredible outside fighter like Hearns who can beat Floyd from a distance, going in and throwing Khan/Calzaghe type flurries could be a good tactic, but I don't think Khan would know how to use those attributes to really make Floyd work for the win.

Yeah, while I don't really think that Khan would cause too many problems for Floyd, he could possibly be more competitive than a lot of much better fighters than him would be.

 

Oh and from the past, Ali. Not so much "what do I have to do to beat this guy?" but more "how am I supposed to do it?". First of all you gotta have the ability Today's heavyweights don't cut it. Somebody who actually has the footwork, and moves their head enough to dodge those punches flying at them while trying to get in. Dodge those lightning fast, hard combos.

Then, if you have the ability do that, actually doing it. How the **** are you supposed to catch the guy with that kind of footwork, that kind of hand speed. Just getting close enough would be a battle in self. You'd probably be spending half the fight doing just that. Better not have a glass jaw either as no matter how well you move your head when going in, you're still probably gonna catch a few. Oh you have a great chin and took the shots? Well you're still losing the round.

Okay so you finally manage to get close, the guy has been throwing combos, he's been outworking you. You haven't thrown much because you've been too busy trying to get inside while avoiding any fire coming your way. How the hell are you gonna win the rounds while getting severely outworked? So you figure you'll rough the guy up, beat him up, you accept that you'll land fewer punches but will land quality ones. Stopping him is the only way.

You finally land a peach of a punch bang on his chin. Dude shakes it off like it's nothing.

Twinkle toed, lightning fast puncher with super jab and combos, as well as an iron chin. You know what you need to do. Get close enough to go to town on that body. It's not really rocket science, but how are you supposed to do it?