Completely stole this from Yahoo Answers. But I thought it would make for some decent discussion. So what is the most misleading stat in boxing?
For me the stats on power punches. It seems any non-jab is considered a power and that is misleading when some boxers, in particular the inside fighter, is just throwing arm punches.
Yup. Anything besides a jab is a power punch. But also the fact punch stats landed are very mis leading. I use them mostly for how many punches thrown. You can somewhat use them for how many a fighter missed, if he was only counted for landing less than 10% of his punches. Ex. Tarver vs Jones Rounds 3-6. Tarver was registered as throwing only 25 "power punches" and landing only 4 if I remember correctly.
I think it's ko%. Joe Calzaghe had a ko% of 69.57. I don't think anyone would have called him a power puncher or ko artist. Timothy Bradley has a 40%. Would anyone call him feather fisted?
of course. bradley has been called a weak puncher....which is fine. it doesnt matter to a point. he has some pop on some of his punches and makes up the lack of weight behind them with another punch following the one before. calzaghe is pretty much a guy who just puts his opponants in trouble and doesnt aloow them to get out. will they get koed? no, will joe tire out before they get stopped? yes. but he put his act down to a tee. it makes refs stop the fight. but yeah, ko percentages is useless and makes no refrence to competition. not long ago there was a spanish light heavy/cruiser called david quinonnero. 27 wins 26ko's look at him on youtube. clearly not a big puncher just under matched and a good engine wears down the sluggish unready journeymen.
Titles, by a country mile. It's 2013. It has been a long time since titles ever meant anything. They are literally pointless as far as how accomplished a fighter is. Only good for marketing on fight posters and commercials.
the ko percentage has been a relatively new sort of statistic to use in boxing. if it's amount of koes then yeah. but percentage was only adopted by boxrec to get a new trend. now they are splayed all over the forums as facts. completly ignore tough opponants or big hitters who never got the chance to catch there man. personally it has to be the big 'O' on the record. because it implys being unbeatable as if you are a new tyson or something that is ready to take over the world. it inflates the rankings with untested overvalued young fighters who would benefit stiffer fights at a younger age to win the big one instead of losing at a hurdle and being thrown off the conveyor belt. a loss should not be a backward step only an example of character.