Named the best/worst Spoilers.........

I am just rewatching the highlights of Loughran's fight with Jim Braddock, and I going by that fight I think there is a good case for calling Tommy Loughran a spoiler. I am by no means saying that he wasn't a great boxer, but even if he did fight beautifully at times he did use clinch and hold quite a bit, to good effect.

 

Well, Bernard Hopkins is by many thought to be a great example of a spoiler, and his style, while not necessarilly pleasing to the casual fan, is not what I would define as ugly.

 

Jack Johnson, obviously.

 

Man, I don't know what to think about Geraldo. Like most American fight fans, my introduction to Geraldo was through SRL. He took Ray's best shots without flinching at a time when Leonard was gaining a reputation as a lethal two fisted puncher, and actually taunted him at one point by really sticking his chin out there. Between SRL and Hagler, he takes the murderous punching John LoCicero out in ten, then gives Marv hell. (Have you had an opportunity to check out Hagler-Geraldo for yourself?) The consensus was that he'd have been absolutely awesome if he knew how to punch with leverage.

Because of SRL-Geraldo, I wasn't surprised that Hagler-Geraldo went the distance. Concerning what happened next between Marcos and Kronk stablemates Lee and Hearns, your guess is as good as mine. Lee took him out in one by going to the body, but Hagler also pummeled him downstairs with relatively minor damage being done.

Geraldo may have been the most crooked middleweight to come out of Mexico during the 1970s. View SRL-Geraldo, then Hagler-Geraldo, then look at his overall resume, and you have one of the weirdest records of any contender in the last 40 years.

 

emmanuel augustus ?

 

John Ruiz

 

good stuff so far.

i thought/think hopkins is a great spoiler. another one is my fellow floridian winky wright.

i see a post above about spoilers tending to fight ugly...i guess that could be the case but if you can spoil the entire gameplan of your opponent and completely dictate the pace, tempo and way the fight is fought...thats why i thought of bernard and winky.

 

damn right. the question was posed earlier if hopkins is consider ugly as a fighter. i have to say yes he is: i like watching him but it's ugly and at times more anti fighting than anything. he's content to take away his opponents tools and impose his will but there are many unspectacular hopkins fights and he can use a very negative style at times

 

good points :good

 

Jersey Joe Walcott for the Heavyweight division....Jimmy Young was a spoiler with a lot less power

Michael Spinks had an awkward style to upset rhytym guys

B-Hop

Fritzie Zivic...one of the best

Sweet Pea

Saol Mamby...watch Dejesus/Mamby

E.Pedroza...to a degree

Salvatore Sanchez to a degree

 

My thoughts exactly!

 

I have not. Didn't a lot of fight fans feel Hagler lost that fight?

By crooked do you mean you believe he threw many fights?

 

Reviewing it on youtube is definitely on my "to do" list.

Russ, I don't recall anybody at the time anywhere suggesting that Geraldo deserved the decision, but my subjective impression watching it on television was that on neutral turf with neutral judges it could have been scored in his favor. I was not at ringside though, and first hand observation is a very different experience. Of course there would never be any question of Geraldo winning a decision in that situation, with all that money on the line. Marcos would have needed to stop him to win.

Yeah, that's the conclusion I draw after watching him take everything two lethal up and coming ATGs could throw at him with no signs whatsoever of any kind of distress in response.

Professional boxing is a super sleazy racket, and I suspect Geraldo played it to the hilt. If I remember correctly, he was accused of **** south of the border at some point, and I believe this caused a delay in the scheduling of Hagler-Geraldo. He may have been in other trouble with the law in Mexico as well, but it's been a few decades now, and all I read at the time were snippets.

This is all anecdotal supposition on my part, and I was not reading the underground "Tonight's Boxing Program" newsletter at the time (although I would love to know what Malcolm "Flash" Gordon had to say about Lee-Geraldo and Hearns-Geraldo, as he took no prisoners and spared no words when it came to questionable outcomes).

 

sanderline williams
emanuel augustus
mounir guebbas