examples of fighters that have totally changed their style going into a fight

Can you recommend any fights/fighters that had an established style that totally mixed things up going into another fight? To either good or bad consequences. I'm just interested in the idea of a fighter entirely changing their expected process.

 

Chavez surprised me vs Sergio not in a good way though

 

MAB going in for Hamed.

Carl Froch before he fought Abraham.

 

groves for degale.

 

Ali when he fought Foreman is the first that comes to mind. Leonard fought Duran with different styles. Calzaghe was also very versatile.

 

I don't know. What was JCC's style change there? Was it not that he just hadn't met anyone like Martinez?

 

he just wasn't as aggressive as I envisioned.

 

Floyd in the Mosley fight

 

Seemed overly passive to me, which made me think Martinez hit harder than he thought he would.

 

Berto trying to be a shoulder-rolling counterpuncher vs. Guerrero

Manny counterpunching Bradley, and later boxing vs. Marquez in the 4th fight before getting pissed and throwing that plan out the window after the KD in round 3

DLH boxing Trinidad and then stupidly trying to walk down Shane in their first fight

Hagler brawling with Hearns

 

That had nothing to do with Chavez. That was all Sergio's jab and movement.

 

If we swap the game plans, for Oscar (the Tito and SSM fights) do you see the results being different?

Personally, I think he'd of stopped Trinidad who was having a very hard time making weight.

 

The clearest example of this was Leonard v.s. Duran II. He didn't fight toe to toe against Duran in the second fight like he did in the first fight, and it worked.

 

I think so, yes. Oscar claims in his book that him and Alcazar both wanted a slugfest with Trinidad, feeling that Oscar's greater chin and handspeed (and comparable power) would see him through. Gil Clancy, however, insisted that they had to box. Trinidad was kind of vulnerable early in fights as well, and suffered several early round knockdowns in his career; it's not outside the realm of possibility that an aggressive Oscar could catch him cold early and put him down a time or two en route to a mid rounds TKO or an even clearer UD.

Oscar clearly outboxed a roided Mosley in their rematch, and there's every reason to believe he would have done so at 147 as well had he chosen to box. But he was bent on giving the fans a good show because he was tired of getting criticized over the Trinidad fight.

 

I agree with most of that mate.

I think the roids damaged Mosley's chances rather than enhanced them as the bulk decreased his natural fluidity in my eyes.