Can you call Dariusz Michalczewski a borderline atg?

I like Hill alot, but Michalczewski just straight up whooped his a**!! Michalczewski was shot when he fought Tiozzo though. The Hill fight is why Roy avoided Dariusz.

 

Tiozzo completely destroyed DM, the whole thing was embarassing to say the least. I do not even think DM was shot, it is more that he never faced a fighter like Tiozzo.

You know, they liked to play a lot of games over there in Germany placing the other fighters at a disadvantage. That goes also to the other point that you can't blame RJ for not fighting in Germany. YOu could also say DM never wanted to leave Germany.

 

Michalczewski was going down hill, but while being on his last legs he showed great heart and tenacity in wars with Hall and Harmon. He also stopped Montell Griffin in 4 rounds, oh, let me guess, Montell wasn't at his best right?

 

Right, Montell was not. He only had 4 weeks to prepare because they only notified him then of the fight .That stoppage was premature too especially considering Griffin was ahead on points. they liked to do that in Germany. With all that being said, DM has a good case for HOF but not ATG IMO.

 

Definitely hall of fame, and he was a true champ, although some of his apponents weren't the greatest, he did beat some real good one's too. He was also very exciting and had a huge fallowing.

 

He has a solid resume no question. Great jab and good puncher. He improved a lot techncially under Sdunek.

 

The first time i saw Michalczewski was when he fought Hill, after that i was hooked. I ordered all of his career fights that i could get. The only fight i saw in the US was the Hill fight. Oh yeah, i liked and respected Tiozzo as well. I was shocked Hill had his number like that in the 2nd fight.

 

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All those defences.24? And only 4 were Ring ranked.

 

There seems to be a quite a lot of bizarre revisionism going on with Michalczewski's career these days.

Granted, he was a good (occasionally very good) fighter and a cut above the likes of Ottke, Maske and Beyer who he is unfairly lumped in with sometimes, but borderline all time great? If he's anywhere near an all time great then the term must have been diluted almost to the point of irrelevance.

Excellent win against Hill. Good win against Griffin, even allowing for the slightly dubious stoppage. Aside from that, his record is embarrassingly thin for a man who fought no fewer than twenty-seven world title fights. People talk up his 'lineal' claim (which wasn't as water tight as people make out, and mysteriously never seemed to pass on to Gonzalez or Erdei) and this idea that he was some bogeyman that Jones was terrified of, when in reality I've never seen anything which made me think Michalczewski wanted the Jones fight at all. No doubt, if / when Jones had taken care of him, Dariusz would have suddenly become just another overrated protected stay-at-home WBO Eurobum on Jones' padded record.

I've got a lot of sympathy for the way in which the WBA and IBF treated him after beating Hill, but you can't live off sympathy and a Harry Hard Luck story for the rest of your career. He never kicked on after that and by the time Ring Magazine started awarding belts again in 2002, I don't think anyone could grumble with them giving their 175 lb one to Jones instead of Dariusz, who'd been basically treading water and playing it safe since beating Hill five years before.

People talking up Rocchigiani in his win column? Come on, lads. Dariusz was the beneficiary of some very shady carry-on in the first fight. Was there a rematch? Sure, four years later when Rocchigiani was 36 and hadn't fought in more than two years. I've got no axe to grind with Michalczewski and some of his fights were quite enjoyable. He had a superb jab, he was tough, he was well-conditioned and had some heavy hands. But he was also a little on the slow side, couldn't fight on the inside for toffee, pretty hittable and one-dimensional too. Nothing about him has ever struck me as truly great.

 

What happend there? I always thought that it was his decision to drop the other belts (To not have to fight mandatories and pay additional sanctioning fees).

Regarding Jones fight, I think there were some talks, but Michalczewski said that HBO didn't want to pay him the kind of money He'd expect and Universum also didn't want to put out money to bring Roy in, with additional question of Roy likely not wanting to travel to Germany.

 

I could be wrong on this, but my memory was that the WBA stripped him immediately because they wouldn't allow their title to be held in tandem with that of the WBO. Michalczewski did vacate the IBF, but only under duress as a court had ordered that he has to defend that title against their mandatory challenger on a date which was only a few weeks after the Hill fight, which wasn't feasible.

 

Jones didn't want to travel to Germany, and Michalczewski didn't want to travel to USA. Neither mans fault really but people claiming that RJJ ducked him I always thought was laughable.

Michalczewski had two wars against Richard Hall, and was lucky to win the 1st meeting with a horribly disfigured face. Jones on the other hand treated Hall like a sparring partner. Theres levels to boxing and whilst Michalczewski was very good, I don't believe he was in the same class as Jones at his best personally.

 

Thank You, it's good to know.

I agree with You. Dariusz was good champion, but I very much doubt that Roy - while looking at his fights - was overly concerned about anything, outside of the issue of getting a decision in Germany if He had to travel.
Dariusz had some good qualities with his jab, ability to cut the ring off, durability, conditioning and power - but He was also very hittable and basic in some ways.

One thing I'll say, I think Dariusz was past his prime for significan part of his title reign, including two Hall fights. It's well known in Poland that He was a party guy and while his work-ethic in preparation was excellent, He wasn't living very clean outside of trainig camps.