Michalczewski would have stopped Roy, no doubt about it!

:good

 

he had an outstanding jab, he took opponents into deep water in the late rounds, had an accurate right hand, and evil body shots. similar to super bantam king israel vazquez. he could grind good fighters down, and did. he has one dominant win over a future hall of famer (hill), beat good fighters/titlists Barber and Rocchi in outstanding fights...at least in DM's lesser fights, he got on with it and battered the comp. he was a very exciting fighter, and a big commodity in germany - great live gates and TV figures.

all the current fuss about Ring mang champs - by their criteria, DM was a Ring mag champ, as he beat Hill (who had beaten Maske in a unification of #1 and #2 at 175). Ring didn't acknowledge this, but DM made 14 defences of the Lineal title. Some were vs poor opponents, some were vs credible ones such as Toney-beaters Thadzi and Grififn among others.

There are many hypocrites on these forums who talk up current Ring mag champs and totally dismiss the quality work Dariusz did.



There were many excellent fighters in Europe since the mid 90s - at the midlde/upper weights: Benn, Eubank, Collins, Maske, Calzaghe, Kessler, Adamek...who did some terrific work. DM is up there with the best of them and was an elite fighter.

 

I've never seen Calzaghe, Hopkins, Mayweather, Whittaker, or many other fighters look like Vasquez after a fight.

Vasquez is a good fighter with a huge heart, but he is levels blow the above mentioned fighters in terms of skill.

DM is very conventional, and while Roy's skillset isn't on the level of those above mentioned either, his tallent and athletic ability certainly were.

It's possible that DM would have a puncher's chance, but that's it, as it's more likely that Jones would cruise to a comfortable decision with DM continuously trying to catch up to him with no avail.

DM is what you would call "solid," but nothing special. You can't say the same about Roy even if his lack of technical ability finally caught up with him when he got old.

 

Oh I agree, Jones is too mobile for DM. However it's not an easy fight. My point is, DM is an excellent fighter who did some good things & was a worthy champ. If he'd lost to Jones, he'd have gone up and recaptured his cruiser belt, maybe have great fights with Carl Thompson or Jirov.

Well, Vazquez is a lower weight fighter. To get money, these guys have to go to war, have to fight guys their equal, are matched tougher. In the upper/middle weights, you get a lot of fighters - legend Jones included - who settle into comfy title reigns and get paid a lot for good opponents and bad opponents, because they either have enough fans or their promoters have a lucrative TV contract.

Vazquez is slow, like DM. But they make up for it with persistence, and have beaten fighters more talented & faster than themselves. They both have jabs that are offensive weapons, sneaky rights, heavy hooks. They're pressure fighters, 2 of the best ones in recent years, and pressure fighters are as valid as any other style. Both have put a lot into boxing, many memorable fights - but obviously more for Vazquez back-to-back-to-back: to get good paydays he had to have absolutely gruelling fights.

One of the points touched on in this thread - we ask more of our smaller men.

 

Gerald McClellan. (but not at LHW)

 

y'all must have forgot.