Reading a couple of threads recently reminded me of a topic I always wondered about. How much stock do you put into what fighters say about an opponent or a fight they were involved in? It would seem perfectly obvious that what a fighter says about an opponent he fought would be beyond dispute. After all, he was in the fight! Who better to talk about it? And yet, sometimes I have to wonder. For instance, a fighter who has been knocked out claiming how hard that opponent hit. A knockout short-circuits the brain. Many fighters who have been knocked out can't recall a single thing about the round or even a fight. Heck, some even think for a while THEY scored the knockout. So can what is said by that fighter in any way reliable? Patterson said getting knocked out by Liston felt 'beautiful'... whatever that means. But how could he recall that? As for gauging who hit harder between opponents... I think to rely on this is a little risky. When he retired, Duran said Hagler was the strongest puncher he faced. Yet, it was Tommy Hearns who devastated Duran, not Marvin. Did Duran remember a single thing about the Hearns fight? Also, was he given time to really stop and think about the question, or just recalled what immediately came to mind? Perhaps he subsequently changed his mind. Who knows? All we as fans can go on is what we see. And in this instance, it seems illogical that he'd pick a fighter who he comfortably went the distance with, over a fighter who left him counting sheep on the canvas. Memories, as much as we think they're bulletproof, are actually quite fallible. They fail us more often than we'd like to admit. So how reliable can a fighter's recollection about a certain fight be, when it happened 10, 20, 30 years ago? Even longer sometimes? Also, fighters like anyone else, may embellish certain events to simply make the story more interesting. Some may have some kind of agenda and simply lie about something. But of course, as I said in the first paragraph, they were the ones in the ring, they were the ones taking punches. To dismiss what they say would (mostly) be foolhardy. So how much weight should we attach to what fighters, and also by extension trainers, managers etc. say about specific events?
Some are great some are shyte many are in between. You get a feel pretty quickly for the genuineness or lack thereof.
It's not as easy to answer the question "who hit you the hardest ?" as people think. Fighters, especially heavyweights, who say "they all hit hard" are the most honest. But people press them with a stupid question, they have to come up with some name or something.
Only George Foreman's are to be trusted. I do think fighters look back on their careers and tend to overrate a fighter that they beat while often dismissing one that they lost to.
That best ive faced segment in the ring mag site is a curious one and you can see who you can take serious and whos not. Some have an excuse for every loss they have and in the best categories they only pick guys that they beat as the best and give no credit to guys who beat them also theres guys that are so full of themselves that they pick themselves first in every category before naming someone usually someone who lefts you thinking who ?. Theres some that are believable but from what ive seen theres a lot who are full of **** when you read them you can see whos real and whos talking bs.
Yeah this is more or less what I was going to write. Ray Mercer seems very honest and actually gives guys who beat him their props. Other boxers seem incredibly bitter. Others seem to be very confused and have foggy memories. Leonard Bundu somehow thinks Thurman hits harder than Spence even though Spence knocked him out brutally while Thurman only dropped him.
Too many fighters have their own agenda's when rating past opponents, if they didn't personally like an opponent they tend to downplay their skill and power or if they lost to an opponent they quite often intentionally overrate their skills/power and that's of course not even getting into the plethora of excuses fighters come up with to explain a loss - I was sick, injured in training, mind wasn't there because of personal issues etc. etc.
Depends entirely upon the fighter. Some were very sincere and candid, some were shameless self promotors, and some were somewhere between. You usually get an idea where they sit, if you look at enough of their testimony.
Agreed. You can get hit in the sweet spot and it's lights out. You can also get hit, not go for a nap, and the pain can linger for ages.
Boxers are as full of **** as anybody. They will answer questions about their opponents in a manner as self-serving as possible. Almost invariably, for example, the best opponents are ones they beat. An enormous grain of salt should be taken reading or listening to them talk about stuff like that.
You are kidding right? When Foreman became a good guy, he was both overly gracious& prone to exaggeration & story telling. The one thing I trust him on is nameing Cleveland Williams, Cooney & Lyle as the hardest punchers he faced. Assuming Liston did not really open up on him in sparring.
Some are believable but others come down to possibly the fighter being bitter or backhanded towards that fighter for example: Duran said Hagler was the hardest hitter, so either Duran is being bitter due to unwillingly being apart of one of the greatest knockouts of all time OR he just had a concussion as soon as the first knockdown happened and couldn't feel anything, either way I don't find his judgement to be 100% honest. Archie Moore said Curtis Sheppard, Lloyd Marshall and Yvon Duerelle all but harder than Rocky Marciano, again this seems to be possibly a swipe at Marciano by Moore who claimed several times he should of won the Marciano fight (The old coulda woulda shoulda thing) Now here are some testimonies that are 100% believable: Francois Botha said Mike Tyson hit harder than Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko, all stopped him but Tyson was the only one of the three that could stop him with one shot. Carl Thompson said Ezra Sellers was the hardest hitter he fought and definitely hit harder than David Haye, why believable? While Haye was knocking him around the ring at certain points he managed to stay up, Ezra Sellers in the other hand sparked Thompson out cold with one shot.
