Ballsy but stupid moves by a fighter

Erik Morales going after Pac in round 12 as a southpaw in their first fight, that was crazy dumb. He was all man though.

Nathan Cleverly trying to walk down Kovalev (as intelligent as this man is outside the ring, wtf was he thinking)

 

Cheers Mike - I think Ray quickly realised the extent of Roberto's footspeed and skill and it's a bit of tomaytoes tomartoes in our opinions of it.

I genuinely believed that Ray was wobbled and couldn't move and box his way to clear his head as Roberto's footwork and footspeed left him having to try to fight his way back into the fight and to stop the onslaught. Ray was very good at reading how to sway the judges and like Ali, before him, was very mindful about the impression of a fight. I think he soon realised what it would look like if he tried to move after being tagged and trapped by Roberto - I agree with you about 80% here, but I think that by the time it had got there, Roberto's clearly ahead and Ray wanted to wrestle back the aura of the ring general back from Roberto.

In any prefight suggestion, nobody would expect Roberto to be making Ray miss with flurries up close and countering and moving Ray into position to be punished. At the same time, as you rightfully say, we found out that Ray was a beast in his own right, stood his ground and fought his way back into one of the greatest fights ever by my book.

I really do think that this is the fight that truly made Ray great - not in legacy per se, but in what it unlocked.

 

Give him his due, the nuts on him stepping up to fight Canelo

 

most of mayorga's career.

 

Hearns strategy against Hagler.

Joe Joyce's decision to rematch Zhang was questionable given how poorly he matched up in the first fight.

 

Surprised we’re at two pages so far & this will be the first mention of Nate Campbell vs Robbie Peden. Total lunacy in that ring.

Diobelys Hurtado going straight in on Kostya Tszyu was gutsy.

 

I know someone who had the fortune to sit down with Larry and Earnie Shavers some years ago, over lunch or something.

He said: “OK, let’s say I have $10M apiece for you two to fight each other in six weeks at the age you are now. What do you say?”

Earnie: “Let’s do it.”

Larry: “Why we got to wait six weeks. I’d do it right now!” Haha.

Larry knew he needed more than a month (or less) of training to even contemplate being ready for Tyson, but the money was on the offer and he had his eye on some more property he wanted to buy in Easton PA and that one payday would cover it and leave a tidy sum left over.

Holmes did get the better of one end of the situation: He knew Jacobs and Cayton were big fight collectors and had it in all of Mike’s contracts (at least up to that point) that they held video rights to his fights. Larry made them give him rights to the Tyson-Holmes fight or said he wouldn’t do it … I think he sold it to them right after for like another $1M or so because he knew they’d pay through the nose to have the complete collection and especialy an historically important ‘pass the torch’ fight like that one.

Larry was the original businessman boxer.

 

Meldrick Taylor fighting toe to toe with Julio Cesar Chavez in the last round. Could have gotten the win if he just boxed safely, instead ends up getting stopped. Also didn't help that he jumped up to 154 to face Terry Norris later on. Too brave for his own good.

 

Smart move on the video.

 

Cards were very close when Roberto quit. It was certainly ballsy for Leonard to try the tact he did in the first fight. But he really wasn't ever the better boxer, mover or not. Perhaps it was ballsy and stupid of Duran to take a rematch so quickly and so ill-prepared.

 

Meldrick Taylor vs Terry Norris was unhealthy, Zero doubt in my mind Taylor thought he could win but with no power… when you’re that much smaller and hittable, who made that call? That’s dangerous mismanagement. You’re right about beating JCC on the cards but scoring that fight I could never personally give it to Taylor.

 

What did he have to lose?

 

I guess Ali fighting Holmes at that point, also Ali going toe to toe with Frazier in the trilogy and Moorer fancying his chances later on in the fight against Foreman to take him out.

 

Campbell vs. Peden immediately came to mind when I saw the thread title. Lenny Lapaglia made a similar move vs. Art Jimmerson by dropping his hands, and got similar results.

 

And as a Patterson fan there's a part of me that wishes he'd have gotten it, because Floyd was a LOT better fighter later in his career than he was as champion, and Liston was not.