Do these Sparring stories hold any weight on how a fight would go ?

Ray Leonard did admit being knocked out in sparring a week before the Hagler bout. Didn't say who did it. Possibly Taylor.

I don't think it has any weight because Leonard's intensity would be different in an actual fight. Where a guy like Taylor would be trying to make a name for himself.

 

Problem is that so many of these stories are poorly attested / documented.

 

Back in the day a fighter name Michael Ward was like a phenom. He was blasting out everybody in the gyms in Maryland.
He was so good when he turned pro his manager paid for his apartment and gave him spending money.
Supposedly he use to beat the crap out of Leonard when he was an amateur.
But sadly he didn't pan out in the pros(drugs).

 

For a couple of years Ward was the talk around the gyms. But he had horrible discipline. I saw him fight Weaver and that was a horrible decision- Ward won that fight.
Also so Joppy before he was a pro - he used to slug it out alot more especially in sparring.
When he turned pro he turned boxer.

 

I think you could certainly consider it as one factor in a broader analysis. Any footage would be selective and context-light, unfortunately, but if the fighters in the footage are showing the same reactions to each other that you already expect independently (Tyson having some issues with a specific Page quirk that you've already argued would be significant, for example), then that's something.

 

Don't know how true this is but supposedly James Page busted up De La Hoya pretty good in sparring and was asked to leave the camp in which I think Page was a sparring partner.

 

Sparring is sparring. It only means something if your guy does well.
There are a lot of things that can be going on there. One guy might be well along in his preparation for a fight, the other guy just getting warmed up. It isn't unusual for a small guy to do well with a larger guy because the bigger guy isn't going hard.
And it is training. It is like a day at the office; some days you kick as, some days you don't and it means nothing at the end of the year. As a fighter, your goal is to peak on fight night. So the results of sparring 10 days previous means less than nothing.
The late Dempsey1234 managed Jesus Chavez. He told me about watching Chavez spar one day and being concerned that Chavez was getting hit with everything and was missing everything. Chavez told him that it meant nothing, just an off day at work. The next day he took the same sparring partner apart.
Most people do not want to pay for sparring. If you live in Las Vegas or LA, you can readily come by a ton of good sparring- there are a ton of guys with fights coming up looking for work. If you are in Oklahoma City, even with Top Rank money, it is hard to get good sparring. If this is what you do, you can watch it run in circles. Certain areas get strong in certain weight classes and they become hot- guys of that weight flock there to get work. The Wild Card was that way for a minute at 168 and then kit boomed at 140. Houston was hot for 147-160 for some time, while the place to be at 118-130 shifted from Las Vegas to Houston.

 

Burley never sparred with Robinson perhaps you are confusing him with AaronTiger Wade who punched Robinson in a street fight over unpaid wages?
Sparring isnt full on fighting and so usually doesn't mean much.
Marciano's regular sparring partner Toxie Hall dumped him on his ass with a left hook prior to the Cockell fight.
Travis Walker and Raphael Butler both floored Vitali in sparring.
[url]Trainer Confirms ShoBox Co-Headliners Floored Vitali Klitschko During Sparring | The 8 Count (wordpress.com)[/url]

Ray Patterson floored Sonny Liston during sparring in Sweden.
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Nobody would seriously consider putting them in a ring with their employers in real fights.
Harry Greb made Jack Dempsey look clumsy and slow in their sessions ,over 15 rds it would have been a different story. As Marciano said of his visit to the canvas courtesy of Hall, " in sparring you try different things."

 

The story I saw about Lewis and Ruiz, was that Ruiz was thrown out for being rubbish and holding.

 

I believe it was Johnny Banks Walker. John David Jackson will tell you how hard he hit. Even DM Qawi used him for sparring. The only guy in the South Bronx who could stand up to Walker in the 80s was Chris Eubank Snr

 

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