I think out of the guys listed only Uysk and maybe Briedis win. I almost got to train with Jirov at his gym in Scottsdale Az. a few years back. My friend went and said that the Jirov is still in phenomenal shape. He got to see him work out on a heavy bag and he said his rep for being heavy handed is well deserved. I do think he broke down as a pro early due to his long hard amauter career. They guy had a ton of fights by the time he went pro. He was simply to small to compete above 200 even though he performed well against Mesi and Moorer. I had heard he moved up mostly because Don King had most of the top Cruiserweights at that time like Mormeck, Bell, Davis and Braithwaite and wouldn't take the chance of letting his guys lose their belts to him. He would beaten everyone of those guys in my opinion. Shame we never got to see him and Toney fight each other again.
Toney put him down mostly because of that hellacious body shot he landed prior to the left hook. I agree Haye was a deadly puncher but he was nowhere near the puncher Moorer was. Jirov handled Moorer's power pretty well until he got caught on the temple. He still got up though from that shot but made the huge mistake of not taking a knee for 8 seconds to get his balance back. He could take a punch pretty well.
Talented fighter but his resume is thin. CW was so awful back then that he was fighting a host of former MWs, SMWs & LHWs..
Haye starched Chisora in 5 & was the only man to stop Ruiz except Tua.. old or not it was still a statement.. he also put the yeti Valuev on ***** Street To suggest he's NOWHERE near former LHW Moorer is nonsense
Yeah I will acknowledge that for me to say he was nowhere near the puncher that Moorer was a bit much. I still think Moorer was the harder puncher between the two but acknowledge that Haye was a hell of a puncher. I still would take a prime Jirov over Haye though. Haye hit harder than Jirov but I don't think he would be able to handle the pressure that Jirov would bring. Look at the Fragomeni fight for reference. Had Fragomeni had power I believe he would have beat Haye.
Yeah it was and there was no adjustment from his corner even though they could see how many clean shots he was taking.
I think Jirov's corner thought that James was a lazy fighter at that point in his career because of his loses at 175 and his rep for not training hard at that point. They kept waiting for James to slow down but he never did.
Everyone he fought in the Olympics on route to winning gold was quality. He stopped the late (RIP) Mexican future WBO LHW champ Julio Cesar Gonzalez in his first bout Outpointed European LHW amateur gold medalist and future 2 x CW world title challenger Pietro Aurino in his next bout. Outpointed quality amateur and future 2 x CW world title challenger Troy Ross in his next who many feel was robbed against IBF CW champ Yoan Pablo Hernandez who he dropped and had in real bad shape. And Ross was also stitched up for the same belt against Steve Cunninham who he also dropped before USS blatantly thumbed him in the eye causing a terrible cut. Outpointed reigning World Amateur champion Antonio Tarver in the semi-final. And then outpointed former Olympic bronze medalist Seung-Bae Lee in the final. The Korean had beaten future WBA LHW champ Stipe Drews and Olympic and World Amateur championships bronze medalist and future 3 x European pro LHW champion and 2 x LHW world title challenger Thomas Ulrich in the earlier rounds. Those fights are really hard to call. He could conceivably go 3-1 against them but just as easily go 1-3. They'd all be great fights though.
Yeah and obviously he'd come up from the lower weights too. Jirov could definitely have beaten Toney with a better game plan IMO.
To be fair, 200lbs, with such high water rehydration, is probably too high for Jirov as well. He'd beat fighting guys in the 215 area on fight night compared to his 195ish.
I wouldn't say to high for him. He was able to to deal with Mesi and Moorer's size and power for the most part up until Moorer caught him on the temple. I think he is just as effective at 200 as 190. Moorer was probably a good 30 pounds heavier than him in that fight.
Toney was a fat Middleweight who was so good a boxer and so solid a chin he was a legit top drawer Cruiserweight. The Heavyweight division was a bridge too far.
Jirov was one of those phonebooth type fighters who just threw non-stop junk punches and wore his opponents down through attrition and toughness. He was pretty sloppy and open, and couldn't really vary his speed much, which is why someone like Toney could read his shots so easily, but his workrate was so high and his smothering style so gruelling that even Toney struggled at times. I think fights with Adamek, Lebedev, Dorticos and Gassiev would have been barnburners. I can see Lebedev going to war with Jirov and either picking Jirov off down the stretch or getting ground down and stopped, perhaps by a body shot. Adamek would have given him a war as well, with Adamek's faster and crisper punches and good movement either picking off Jirov or Jirov again grinding down Adamek. I'd lean slightly towards Adamek in this one if he's on his game. I rate Adamek's short CW run pretty highly. Dorticos and Jirov would be like picking the same fighter and giving them a palette swap. This one would come down to who could soak up more punishment and dish it out. Probably the type of fight that would ruin both men. Gassiev I can see beating Jirov in a similar fashion to Dorticos, absording most of Jirov's shots on his gloves, slipping others and countering with short, sharp hooks and uppercuts when he sees an opening. I can see Jirov dropping in this one. Just a bit of a bad style matchup for him.
If Haye can time him and land a big haymaker on his grill I think he stops Jirov. If he can't handle Jirov's come forward pressure or get his timing down he gets ground out and stopped. I think it's slightly more likely that Haye catches the wide-open Jirov clean than Jirov lands enough shots to take Haye out, but like a lot of the previous matchups it's kind of a coin toss. Lebedev might struggle in the same way he struggled with Jones. I can see him taking the early rounds with his cute boxing and counter punching, but gradually getting worn down to the body and then starting to take more punishment leading to him taking a knee. Fight of two halves I think, and the winner is whoever can impose/maintain their momentum the longest.
