Fighters That Surprised You With Their Success

Billy Costello
Dwight Braxton(Muhammad Qawi).

 

ABSOLUTELY "Hurricane" Jackson. Lou Stillman wanted to chase him outta the gym as an embarrassment.

To watch that guy -- with the coordination of a one-string marionette -- become a top heavyweight contender still boggles my mind.

 

Jim watt. He was always in shape, was not at all smooth or slick to watch but beat and held his own with some good fighters during a very strong era. Just kept it simple and made it work. Who else went that far with a full repertoire of "jab, jab left cross"?

 

I read jackson used a double upercut using both hands at the same time or something. Its sounds crazy, i cant imagine what it looked like did you ever see him do it JG?

 

Not only two-handed uppercuts, c, but two-handed hammer blows to the face, 'n repeatedly cuffing his opponent's ears with both hands, likes hitting cymbals.

This was a guy who came to the gym wearing a horse's bridle

 

What was the reason for that ?

He sounds like a character

 

Ricky Hatton

 

A character, M? All he would say to anybody was: "Wanna shoot rats?"

You looked in his eyes 'n saw bluebirds.

 

I was impressed by Weaver also. I thought he clearly beat Dokes in 1983 and the fight against Coetzee is my favorite heavyweight fight. Odd, I know, but I love Weaver's great left hook work in it. Crushing body punches. A rematch in early 1981 with Larry Holmes would have been very exciting! In his prime, except for Larry, I think he was better than all the other heavies of the decade but Tyson naturally, and even that would be some fight.

 

I remember the first time seeing Gene Fullmer in training too. No way I thought he could do what he did.

 

I had limited expectations of Hatton.

I certainly never never expected him to establish himself as the top fighter in his weight class for a definable period.

 

Interestingly, he was praised for his subtle skills by Tommy Loughran of all people!

What do you think of that?

 

He certainly doesn't sound like he was all there.

Maybe his success had something to do with his odd style, there's a good thread going at the moment about following the text book, I'm sure you'll have some interesting things to say about it JG.

 

With all respect to Loughran, who meant well, extolling Jackson's "subtle skills" is like the blind man grasping 'n elephants tail 'n sayin' it was a snake.

 

"Not all there" woulda been a CHARITABLE way to describe Jackson.