What an enigma this guy was ! He was nicknamed 'The Gifted One' and when it came to ability,it was an appropriate tag. It's a pity that his lifestyle stopped him from reaching his full potential. I'll always remember his victory over Roberto Duran. A poorly trained and unfocused Duran,true but Roberto's victories over Cuevas,Moore and Barkley were still ahead of him. I also recall those two bizarre bouts wit Colin Jones :huh Doing what he liked for nine rounds in both,then literally fouling up !! Thoughts ?
He carried his hands too low, which is suicide when you've got an ordinary chin and you go up against good fighters who can punch a bit. He didn't like to train, liked to smoke weed and party and going AWOL for months on end. But even if he'd trained more and lived a cleaner more focused life, his style would still have needed to change. Those defensive flaws were ridiculous against good fighters.
Laing is a stoner legend. And unlike the poor versionAugustus he actually some good tools and physical ability as well.Unforgiven is right though, his defence was a joke.When you add that to a dodgy chin and zero dedication you have a seriously flawed fighter.
Here's a highlight someone made of Laing: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIKHfYCZZJg[/ame] He didn't train, didn't keep his hands up and didn't take a great punch. Laing did some improvements with the hands against Duran however but after winning the fight he didn't fight again for more than a year until coming back to get knocked out by Fred Hutchings. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSn3KoQhpBY[/ame]
to behonest with you boxes like lang **** me of they have that god given talent that not many fighters get, but yet he pisses it away parting and smokeing weed
I heard the sum ***** fell out an apartment window and damn near killed himself several yrs back...... Laing seemed kinda' flaky at any rate....... He had some talent, but no focus or self esteem..... He always had to be pushed... MR.BILL
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY_1iNtpb1E[/ame] This is a short film made by Steve Bunce about Laing :good
I have those fights on video ,and was ringside for the Jones fights,sitting next to a Welsh promoter who came down with COLIN for the fight ,he jumped into the ring after the ko.Laing did what he wanted with the slower ,more orthodox Jones ,but in both fights took his eye off the ball and Jones could really whack ,it was lights out both times . I spoke briefly to Mickey Duff, Laing's manager, he said Laing was ,"a nutcase", but that he had a rare natural talent based on great reflexes,he didnt like to train,and went walkabout after his great win over Duran.Duff couldn't capitalise on it because he couldn't find him!
He had some underrated power, or maybe it was a cause of the punches you don't see coming. Hamed hit fighters with similar shots outta left field. The Duran fight was 10 rounds for some reason, I think I actually had it a draw.
Russell, I kinda' agree there, too................ Sure, Duran was a pinch heavy at 155, while Laing was ready to go at 149 pounds, but Laing started off running like a rabbit from Duran........ Despite the fact that Duran was slower than normal up over 150 pounds, he still pressed the entire fight........ I too, felt that Duran could've gotten a draw......... Mickey Duff really had to light a fire under Laing's ass to get him to fight and punch.......... :thumbsup MR.BILL
Yes he did, Duff read the riot act to Laing in the early rounds,"you don't have to keep feinting and moving away ,you can beat him to the punch" ,without Duff in his corner Laing would proably have lost the dec.
:gooda beltin film and physically kirkland looked ok to me.he didn't blame anybody else either like a lot of former sportsmen/women do.
I remember watching him fight some guy whose nickname was 'The Iceman'. It was classic Laing. Hands by his knees, jerking his head forward to try to psych his opponent out, whipping in heavy shots when he had his opening. He clobbered the guy in two or three rounds, prompting the commentator to yell "The Iceman has melted!"
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIKHfYCZZJg[/ame]# Great knock-out of Rocky Kelly at 3:37 in full speed and slow-mo. Brilliant.