Top fighters with low ring IQ

Eubank Sr and Benn.

 

Hagler never seemed to adapt well, although it's evident he knew what he was doing so, I don't think that's fair.

Pipino Cuevas was never a guy who didn't fo things in a calculated way, he just came for your head.

Max Baer just came in looking to spark you out. Similar to Wilder, but wilder.

Micheal Moorer was a good boxer, but he made some incredibly stupid decisions.

Dennis Andrias was a warrior. Not a thinker.

 

Nah, I agree on Hagler. He could go in there and do everything, but he never adapted when things went wrong, Durán kept changing, and Hagler went along with it. It's why he had so little success vs Duran imo. Although, it's probably stubbornness more than a low ring IQ.

You need a ring IQ to make the plans anyway.

 

Yeah I've heard that, but surely that respect goes when you're losing to him and need to start getting your **** together? I don't know.

I do feel that if stormed at Duran like he did Hearns he could've stopped him.

 

Mike Tyson , he was co- dependent on Kevin Rooney, could not fight on his own.

 

Just had a very big jug head.

 

Erik Morales.

 

Agree that if we're talking true greats, then Hagler isn't a bad shout. His ring smarts let him down in big fights every now and then. But it's all relative - he was far from a dumb or unintelligent fighter. It's just that his ring IQ didn't match up to a lot of his other awesome strengths.

Don't know how others feel about this, but I've always thought that Kid Gavilan, for such a great fighter, wasn't always a particularly smart one (again I'll stress - that's relative to his other strong points). He had a great jab and good skills when he chose to use them, but he made fights harder for himself than he needed to. Underused his jab and footwork and relied on winning fights on his toughness, hand speed and stamina, getting involved in brawls and messy contests when he didn't need to. I'm thinking of his fights against guys like Graham (third one stands out), Womber, Turner etc. where he really took a lot more shots than were necessary. He did put on boxing clinics when he used his jab and skills more, like against Davey or the last few rounds against Basilio...But I think his concentration and smarts went missing every now and then. Probably a controversial pick, though.

 

McGrain takes about how Gavilán used his smarts in decent depth here.

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/fighters-that-couldnt-be-beaten-in-a-brawl.636650/