Bugner does well for about 8 rounds, then in the 9th, Baer tags him....a right to the temple...Bugner sags against the ropes, legs turn to spaghetti, and Baer comes alive with renewed "vigah" and purpose,...and Bugner is transformed into a statue (his specialty) until he crumbles lifelessly over the middle section of ropes..dead to the world. Baer wins by tko, as the referee realizes that it would be a waste of time to count to "10".
I'm inclined to go with this. Joe could take a shot, which he'll have to do here. But I reckon he frustrate s max like hell and totally stops him doing anything to put Joe in danger. Bugner by decision. This is of course a Bugner that actually wants win the fight!
Good jabbers landed on Max's chops all night. Bugner has the ability to win this ,and the chin to survive rocky moments.If Baer does win it won't be an easy night for him !
Joe Bugner wasn't an east fight for anyone , I'm leaning towards Max having to earn his money with a UD. Joe will land some good shots but sooner or later Max will hit him with a bomb that wobbles or drops him. He probably won't stop Joe but Maxy takes it.
Can't see how Max wins this. Bugner did a combined 39 rounds with Ali and Frazier and only took one count from which he recovered brilliantly. He also went the distance with a peak Ron Lyle. Joe either gets on his toes and jabs his way to a verdict or Baer makes the mistake of hurting Bugner. We all know how brilliant he could look when he was rattled. If Baer tags him proper, I could see Joe stopping him. I always thought Bugner got a dreadfully raw deal from the British press.
If Baer were to tag Joe "proper", he's as good as gone from that point on. He wouldn't be just "rattled",...he'd just revert to being that big, muscled up, immobile statue we've all become so familiar with, and he'd be every bit as useless as a statue "whilst" Baer would continue to try to knock his head off his shoulders...and he would succeed as in the scenario I put forth in my previous post. We're talking about the actual Joe Bugner here, btw, and not a Bugner of your imagination who was "brilliant" when rattled. There's "rattled", and then there's being hit by Max Baer.
If Bugner was at his maximum motivation and up for this, then I think this is a relatively easy nights work. I think he’d jab Baer’s head off, and tie him up if he tries to get inside. Bugner also had a solid chin, whenever anyone managed to hit him clean, which wasn’t very often. Baer’s fundamentals simply weren’t very good. On the other hand if Bugner came in like he did against the likes of Bodell then he loses.
