Duran and Hagler. For Duran he would normally slow down at some part of the fight and clinch. Dude's reach was very small, but I don't EVER remember him covering (not to say not protecting) his body. The second you threw to the body he'd counter straight to that ****ing head with some pretty wide but swift shots. Hagler had maybe one of the best chins and bodies in boxing ever. Not only that his head movement was just astounding. Very few boxers could cover like he did. He always knew where the counters were coming predicatively like they were muscle memoried into him and he covered accordingly. As a novice boxing fan I never understood what I thought was an easy decision for Leonard but after learning more about the sweet science you realize that Leonard landed very few clean shots and threw flurries that last minute of each round in the fight while Hagler covered, countered and comboed most of the fight away with the cleanier and heavier shots. A lot of Garcia fighters (including himself, Varagas) would also take some brutal body shots and be unphased on inside fighting. Garcia vs Corrales was a reminder of that LaMotta wasn't only bodyshots. That guy was ****ing crazy. What heart. You had to be as angry and fed up as he was with life to step to SRR of all boxers the way he did. Unerelenting pressure. Swarmer brawler boxer. Had it all
You can sort of prepare yourself for a livershot by flexing the muscles around it. Still a good shot isn't fun.
But his defense was god awful. He never had a poker face in any aspect of life, he was an intense, emotional man. In my humble opinion, many fighters would've been dropped for good.
Somebody mentioned Margarito earlier in the thread, i remember Pacquiao nearly cuttin him in half with a body shot.... sagged badly.
Yup he had a strong midsection. He did actually. Margarito had a weak body, I been saying that for a while. Mosley buckled him with a bodyshot, the first punch he landed lol and as you said Pac did the same.
Yeah Foreman said in an interview he knew guys would target his stomach so he did mountains of sit ups to prepare
If we're talking about pure heart, Gatti ranks up there no doubt. I wouldn't put him in the Ali/Mayweather/RJJ spectrum where they literally had little to no reaction to receiving horrendous body shots. I'm not sure I can think of another fighter who survives against Foreman by laying on the ropes like that, Ali managed to avoid or take away most of the shots to the head, but he took ridiculous amounts of body shots like it was nothing.
No, Ali was brilliant at maintaining a poker face, maintaining control of his facial muscles. When he first fought George Chuvalo, there's a moment where Ali grabs George behind the head and holds, and Chuvalo wacks away five or six times to Ali's body. Ali grins and shkes his head to the crowd. In Chuvalo's own words " Yeah Muhammad feigned to the crowd, but notice how he only held my in that position ONCE. After the fight he went to the hospital for kidney tests, and I went dancing with my wife.
to be honest both klitschkos, especially wlad. this **** like you have to go inside and go to their body. haha this will never work the only way to beat wlad is to land a big combo on his cheen. like a five or six punch combo. there is no other way someone gonna beat him