:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl What's compassionate about punching a guys head in a ring until there is no fight left in him, then telling the ref he might as well stop it because you are getting bored hitting him?
Good points. Gomez almost certainly became over-heated when facing Mexicans, which as a Peurto Rican icon was understandable.
Yes, for whatever reason, Wilfredo Gomez, the greatest super bantamweight champion ever, IMO, had mellowed somewhat by the time of the Ndukwu fight, and at no diminishment of his powers and skills at that weight. Maybe he had just matured, or for some reason, found it not necessary to be so damned vindictive. I think that he had poured out most of his sadistic wrath out on Carlos Zarate in their wild meeting back in '78, but prior to the Ndukwu fight, he had a cold, calculated brand of sadism, though vs Zarate, it was more fiery..hitting Carlos at will while his man was down and virtually helpless...other times, his sadism was more protracted, like a man who enjoyed plucking the wings off a butterfly.
Fritzie Zivic was a true sadist. Lacking God given gifts of power and speed, he had to rely on an entire ****nal of dirty tricks and the absolute willingness to ply these tricks to the max, and using your head, eyes, nuts, and any available target that you might provide that I haven't listed to equalize things.
Marciano said he spent the weeks leading up to a fight trying to despise his opponent and wanting to hurt him. He told himself the guy was intent on sending him back to the shoe factory and taking food away from his family. He wouldn't look at the other guy until the bell rang. He didn't want to see anything that might make him think he was a normal human being.
Ron Lyle was too. I used to love watching Ron fight (and still do on youtube) But while he was fighting Joe Bugner, he kept repeating "I'm gonna kill you, you white mu.th.a f.u.cka" everytime he landed a good one on Joe.
Pure fantasy. Zivic's reputation is so overblown its ridiculous. Go back and watch all the films, listen to all the radio broadcasts, and you wont see or hear anyone mention his foul tactics once. The guy was a consumate professional and a very talented boxer who Ray Robinson manged to beat by ONE point and referred to as the best boxer he ever faced. Zivic's problem is he reveled the late publicity he got from these stories and allowed it to have wings. Not saying the guy never used dirty tactics but hes rep is ridiculous. Then go watch Armstrong fight (the guy Zivic got his dirty rep fighting) and tell me Armstrong isnt one of the dirtiest fighters ever. He couldnt help throwing a constant stream of low blows, elbows, and headbutts.
I've never understood Ali's popularity, a guy who loved to taunt and belittle his opponents outside the ring, then beat them up and taunt them in the ring. And yes, his betrayal of Frazier was nasty. Yet everyone sees him as this angelic superhero.