Abuse in Sparring - Has Any Fighter...

Brandon Rios is well down the path of having too many gym wars.

Hagler was known to have intense sparring sessions, but I'd imagine he was usually the one doing the pounding so it likely didn't have too much of an impact on his career.

Jerry Quarry went to war in the gym and it likely played a big part in his condition later in life.

 

Muhammad Ali let himself get punched so he got comfortable with getting punched.

Pretty stupid considering what the punishment caused.
Just like foreman did a lot of weight draining because his trainer thought it would increase his performance. (it didn't, he drained too much)

 

So many fighters I know do this...

Such a horrible, horrible idea. Let the opponent try to hurt you. Let your buddies in the gym help make you better.

One of the goals of this game SHOULD be to get out of it able to think and talk.

 

Gregorio 'Papa' Benitez ruined many fighters, including '3' sons by putting
them through the rigors of tough sparring with bigger men.

Wilfred was always put in the ring with 180 lb. guys when he
was only 15 years old and 140 lbs.

 

Not sure about durability but Norris and Meldrick come to mind as fighters who took sparring too seriously. Really called "wars". Meldrick being from philly he would have "philly wars". Think Frazier did too if I'm not mistakened. Sure Chavez had serious sparrings at times too but only speculating.

 

I read also that Chappie Blackburn would sometimes put him in with lighter guys and put real heavy old canvases down for the spar which were really slow? solely so that when he then go in the ring on fight night he would be that much faster when he got back on the nippier quality canvases uses in the main event rings

 

Ive read stories about fighters liken Duran, Liston, and Joe Louis who only had one gear and was brutal on there sparring partners...

I would imagine old school guys like Dempsey, Johnson, Robinson, Basillio, and Langford, that there sparring partners had there ****in hands fool for sure.:good

 

Dempsey was known for going all out on sparring partners and wrecking them.

 

Not Greb though :hey

 

Sugar Ray Leonard before his bout with Hagler. Knew he was rusty and needed very hard sparring to get back.

 

I know one of the old guys, I think it was Terry McGovern used to insist on sparring bareknuckle (without head gear too obviously). It's not shocking that McGovern ended up a total nervous wreck after his career from all of the concussions.

Also, Aaron Pryor would routinely spar 300 plus rounds for each bout and without headgear before Emmanuel Steward stepped in and put a stop before the second Arguello bout.

 

Marciano's sparring partner's said they almost cherished the moments between fights, because when a fight rolled round and Marciano was in shape and focused he absolutley brutalized them.

Max Baer's sparring partners, alot of the time just fooled around with Max trying not to get him mad because his power was too punishing.

 

Wouldn't be surprised ... Tyson used to spar without headgear when he was with Cus

 

you know..im still not sure on all that...how much force does headgear take off..and for what it does take off (i think it does..im not one of the people who buys into what fox sports science show says) does that make up for having a bigger target (i can totally slip punches without headgear that i get hit with when wearing headgear).

 

Headgear as my coach explains it, is worn to prevent cuts, just like gloves were originally made not to reduce damage to the other person's face but to reduce the damage to the puncher's hand. I pefer sparring without headgear, like you said makes certain things better, also has a habit of blocking my view or coming undone, mid fighting.