Moorer (HW champion, blown up LHW, chinny, overconfident, starched by 45 year old Foreman) Mercer (hot and cold, overconfident, outboxed by 42 year old Holmes) Whyte (vulnerable to uppercuts, one-shotted by a twice-dropped 40 year old Povetkin) Chisora (outboxed by 40 year old Vitali) Joyce 2 (slow, defensively open, 38 years old, lacking confidence, obliterated by 40 year old Zhang) [url]https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/agit-kabayels-pro-career.742725/[/url]
Moorer was not a blown up lhw. dude was naturally 200 lbs plus and had to boil himself down to make 175. He was strong. Moorer fell for Foreman’s tricks. And while Foreman was old, I guarantee you he hit harder than Kabayel. I doubt Moorer would make the same mistakes vs Kabayel than he did vs Foreman.
It seems the consensus is that Kabayel is better than Moorer (Foreman), Mercer (Holmes), Whyte (Povetkin), Chisora (Vitali) and Joyce (Zhang 2). Kabayel beat Chisora, who beat Joyce, and did a better job on Chisora than Whyte, who many thought lost the first Chisora fight. Kabayel also wrecked Zhang, who twice destroyed Joyce. So I don't see a good case for undefeated Kabayel not being better than them.
Sure. He was a solid cruiser size though. 6’2 with a stocky built. A natural 200-210 lb guy. He could not have stayed at 175 lb much longer due to the insane cut. A natural cruiser/ smallish heavy. Certainly not a blown up lhw
If you can cut down to 175 lbs at 23 years old in 1990 with more primitive weight cutting methods, I think it's fair to call that fighter a blown up LHW. Big LHW's these days enter the ring weighing 190-200 lbs, and they could do more than that if they had substantially more than 24 hours. I believe big cruisers can enter the ring at 220+, maybe even 230 for Okolie.
Well I have been advocating for kabayel to get his shot since his three glorious wins. But I am not sure usyk's win against him would be better than zhang's win against joyce the first time. it would depend on the fashion of the win and how strong kabayels showing would be. If usyk was able to negate kabayel mostly by footwork, it wouldn't look as impressive. Joyce was pretty much unstoppable until zhang came along. Parker hit him with his full bodyweight behind the punch and parker is not a good puncher, but that was a heavy punch and joyce hardly stopped punching, didn't blink, nothing. He also had that win over dubois. Zhang stopped that monster. The argument with kabayel beat chisora and chisora beat joyce is not enough for me. Kabayel beat chisora an eternity ago and chisora beat joyce after joyce was damaged from zhang. The zhang win makes kabayel look better than joyce though, but I think it was partly a good style matchup for kabayel and he wasn't the youngest anymore. Still, noone dealt with zhang like that. Not waiting for him to be exhausted like parker, but fighting him in the first rounds when he is still dangerous. Kabayel's win streak was awesome. As a german who only watches international boxing or amateur boxing, I was surprised back then when i saw him win against chisora and then have his three win streak against makhmudov, sanchhez and zhang. and I am looking forward to hopefully see him against usyk.
Technically Zhang's first win over Joyce does not count here because Zhang was 39. Zhang's rematch win counts but Joyce was compromised then. He wanted to duck the rematch but his handlers pressured him into it. Chisora was older than Joyce and very worn himself when he beat him and Kabayel semi-dominated a prime age Chisora. Throw in destroying Zhang and he looks better than Joyce, at least in retrospect. I agree that Joyce did look like a monster after he flattened Parker, but Parker lost to Joshua, Whyte and Wardley (and arguably Chisora 1st time)
Blown up means he had to add unnatural weight to get to over 200. He did not. Beterbiev and Bivol both weigh in the mid to high 180’s. Moorer is way bigger than them
I dont think a natural HW can make 175 at 23 years old in 1990. Byrd was as much as a stone over 200 lbs in the ring but he was blown up, and after he retired he looked deflated. Moorer was clearly the smallest man among Kabayel, Mercer, Whyte, Chisora and Joyce.
