Which boxers was the best at pissing off his opponents?

Our current heavyweight champion, is one of the best that I have ever seen in this regard.

 

Tony Galento deserves a mention.

 

Don't know about peeing his oppenent s off, but Prince Naz used to really get on my nipples!

Oh and Chris Eubank snr, but at times I actually found him more amusing than annoying.

 

mayorga

 

Funny, the first two guys that jumped out at me were 2 trainer/cornermen. John Ruiz' Norman Stone and Danny Garcia's Angel Garcia would probably p*ss off Mother Teresa. When thinking of a fighter, I can't help but gnash my teeth when thinking of the very annoying Adrien Broner. But thinking of one who was very successful at putting another fighter over the edge, I cannot help but think of Benny (Kid) Paret baiting Emile Griffith by constantly sniping at his manhood. That worked...unfortunately for Paret.

 

Usyk?

I've never really picked up on this.

 

Larry Holmes comes heavily to mind for me.

In the pre-fight presser he called David Bey white, telling him everyone knows white people bleed before scaling up to calling him a half breed. Bey was out of his seat and ready to fight for free.

Hew called Witherspoon a punk during camp and then thrown a towel at him causing both camps to come together. A couple of day prior to the fight Witherspoons wife and baby were on the same floor as Holmes and his people and a huge fracas ensued after Witherspoons brothers had mistakenly knocked on one of Holmes offsiders doors. Chaos ensued and Witherspoon and co raced up from the lobby after seeing security racing to the elevators saying there was a battle on that floor. Holmes told Witherspoon he wanted his people off his floor and Witherspoon said it's just my wife and baby after which Holmes gave him half an hour to get them out of there. Witherspoon then offered Holmes downstairs to settle matters. Fair to say he was pissed off

If you followed enough of his fights he had a penchant for heated exchanges leading up to a fight.

Tho they didn't fight he criticized the likes of Thomas and Coetzee for some time attacking Coetzee about being South African and labelled Thomas a drug addict.

Watch his fights and you can often see him talking a lot to the other guy and really going at him verbally.

I think Larry was one of these guys that needed to feel that tension and anger and he went looking for it. He felt he needed to wind himself into that determined state to perform his best IMO, he fed off it.

 

Holmes definitely liked to make things personal.

 

That's a great nutshell description of what i was trying to convey.

 

Greg Haugen. It was a standard part of his game for many years and it usually worked out well for him. Not against Chavez. But his comments before that fight were pure gold: He said that Chavez had fought nothing but cab drivers and thereby created a phrase that has become a standard catch phrase on boxing forums

 

Duran, number one. He beat Leonard-- a bigger, younger, faster, Olympic medalist, because of his ability of **** the man off. Called his wife a ***** and spit in his face before the fight. Got him out of his game and pulled off the impossible.

Ali of course a close #2.

Fury. Nuff said.

Mayweather sure irritated a few folks.

Hector Camacho. Boy, opponents hated him, and all the more when he started fighting like a chicken **** and still ran his mouth.

Haye for the cancellations and building himself up with his mouth.

Trevor Berbick...at least Holmes hated him.

Galento was a good shout.

I will mention a very tragic one, Kid Parret got himself killed outing Emile Griffith, and I don't mean to go dark on what is an entertaining thread, but it comes to mind.

Archie Moore had the gift for gab.

The Klitschko bros were very irritating in a sense. They had this whole narrative about themselves that their fans carried the water for long before they ever earned it.

Max Baer's clowning was known to irate people.

Naseem Hamed got on people's nerves with the big ego.

Tex Cobb had a particular incident that I won't mention.

 

Tijuana cab drivers, to be exact!

 

Tell me about Tex Cobb.

 

Don't forget that he almost attacked Cooney on national television before their fight was signed because they were going to bring Cooney over to interview them together, and Holmes hated him. Years later, after the fight, Holmes said "I'll never fight him again. I'll play him checkers and beat him at that, too, but nothing he can make money off of."

The dropkick incident with Berbick. And also saying that he was glad Berbick was dead because "god don't like ugly."

Of course "Rocky Marciano couldn't carry my jockstrap," and "you're living off your dead brother."

And some nasty things to say about Joe Frazier after the Marvis fight for putting his son in there when he wasn't ready.

He hated Leon Spinks, too...something about Leon winning something at auction that Larry's wife wanted (I could be butchering the story, if anyone knows if better) and he bragged that he knocked Spinks out for revenge.

Holmes was just a charming guy.