"Finishing skills": mostly a myth?

I would define a finisher, as a fighter who could create or exploit an opening, to stop another fighter in a quick and surgical manner.

I would say that Dempsey, Louis and Tyson fit the description more than Marciano.

 

There are some that catch their opponent, but their opponent can hang on and recovery, others generally can get the KO, I'd consider that finishing skill.

 

I always put it down to how fighters react when they have their man hurt and how clinical they are when they do that. Someone who is a good finisher doesn't start rushing in throwing hail Mary's as soon as he has a sniff of a stoppage and calculates his attack without exerting. to much energy. A good example is Joshua, when he had Klitschko down early. He ended up spending way to much energy trying to finish Wlad off and got a bit sloppy, leaving himself with little left in the tank for the rest of the fight, rather than using educated pressure to create the right punch or opening. At the same time Wlad could also be criticised for not pressing Joshua enough when he had him down in the 5th, giving him a chance to recuperate when he was pretty much out in his feet from rounds 5-10 with almost no energy left.

 

More the way he was schooled and ended up developing as a fighter, yet he was still one of the biggest punchers we've ever seen in a ring. If a fighter gets seriously hurt more often than not their trying to find that get out of jail free card punch rather than survive. Wlad was never the sort of guy to take them kinds of risks. It was never in his nature ever since he learned his lesson from the Brewster fight.

 

Nailed it bro, imagine the adrenaline going through Joshua's system when he had the former heavyweight champ of the last 11 years on the deck in front of 90,000 people in Wembeley in something like his 20th pro fight!

 

I don't know if it's 'finishing skills' of fighter's mentality, but Jameel McCline failed to stop many opponents after he knocked them down or hurt them.

Al Cole, Shannon Briggs, Calvin Brock, Chris Byrd, Sam Peter (3 times) all were dropped but finished the fight, the last 3 eventually won.

 

I didnt realize this was even a debate.

Earnie shavers is the perfect example of a guy who had ridiculous power but lacked ring iq, didnt pace himself well, and wasnt a good finisher.

Holmes and ali didnt hit nearly as hard but they knew how to take a guy out when they had em hurt.

Tyson had both great power and knew how to break a guy down fast before he recovered. Theres a reason he was the only guy to stop holmes and spinx, and had sensational early stoppages against big strong guys like berbick, stewart, bruno, etc. Its a skill set all on its own to smell blood and go for the kill without getting yourself koed in the process.

At the lower weights you have guys like pacquiao and david lemiux who dropped many of their opponents but either A) end up letting them off the hook or B) didnt have the instinct and timing to follow up and take them out. Sugar Ray Leanard probably didnt hit as hard as them, but he was a great, great finisher and never let a badly hurt opponent off the hook to my knowledge.

 

To be a good finisher you have to know what a situation is worth. Just because you stun a guy or hurt him momentarily doesn't mean he is ready to go, or that it is time to try and finish him. It is a waste of time, effort and opportunity to go crazy swinging for the fences. You end up "punched out" because excited people forget to breath.

In that situation the important punch is the one after you hurt him; you stun him with a right to the chin and he'll shake that off in seconds but the right uppercut to the ribs- the next punch- will be felt for days. You learn to build a fight to its conclusion, to do your work, to pay attention and to be purposeful in every thing you do.

That's why Leonard, Hagler, Duran, Chavez were such good finishers. Or why Buddy McGirt, who wasn't a huge puncher, had so many stoppages. They weren't opportunistic; when opportunity presented itself they were expecting it because they had put in the work to create it.

 

Wladwas always a calculating boxer. Even in his pre-Steward days he did not just flail away but used orthodox pressure to finish a guy. He should have thrown all the chips in the pot against AJ though. Joshua was dead on his feet and imho a sustained attack would have gotten him outta there.

 

IMO Sanders was a good finisher. When he got a guy hurt he used to jump on them. It usually paid off but sometimes not. Against Rahman he thought he had Rahman rocked but instead got countered himself when he ran in recklessly.