This has been turned into a veritable science in boxing. Historically successful, strategies range, from the intimidating, to the comical, to the downright bizarre. Our current lineal heavyweight champion, is one of the best that there has ever been at it. Opponents are actually scared of press conferences with him! I always saw Jack Johnson as being very good at this. He had that smile tinged with sarcasm and insincerity, that he could turn on at a moment's notice. He just constantly made his opponents and potential opponents think that he saw them as a joke!
Groves infuriating Eubank by doing nothing but referring to him as Jr. was one I always found funny. He enraged Froch and Degale, too. He had that Fury-esque charm about him as he did it, though. I always thought he was excellent at getting under people's skin and quite a likable guy.
Eddie, these were the first two I thought of as well. Ali was totally annoyed with Oscar. Also with the Chavez-Haugen bout, I recall Haugen citing that Chavez actually had a fighter named Jerry Lewis on his record and laughing to the media, "Look, he fought the Nutty Professor!" Man, Chavez just burned with that one. Probably the first one I ever heard about occurred between Terrible Terry McGovern and Young Corbett II. Apparently, when passing McGovern's dressing room on his way out to the ring, Corbett banged on the door and yelled "Come on out you Irish son-of-a-b**** and take your beating!" It was said to have infuriated McGovern, who left himself wide open for Corbett's counters. And ultimately costing him his title by KO.
I like when an opponent tries to get under their opponents skin but come off worse. Benvenuti suggesting to Monzon at the public weigh in that Monzons sexuality was open to question, finishing off with touching Monzons ass, Monzons response "Tonight i kill you". Monzon wouldn't murder some one would he......?
Steve Collins freaked Eubank out saying he had been hypnotized so he wouldn’t feel his punches. It’s the silliest circus trick in the book but he fell for it. I also think Wlad was confounded by Tyson Fury. Guy shows up in a full 6-foot-9 Batman costume and chases ‘the Joker’ around and then sits down to have a press conference. Wlad thought he was facing a madman.
Kid Paret managed to leave Emille Griffith, who was a habitually very restrained guy, literally going crazy. Apparently, it all started with Paret calling Griffith "maricón" at weigh-in on the eve of the fight. The way Griffith punched Paret in that tragic fight leaves no doubt.
It can work lots of different ways. Carlos Palomino told the story of being all geared up to go at it with Roberto Duran at their weigh-in. He knew of the stories of Duran’s pre-fight tactics, how he might push someone or have to be restrained from going at them and name-calling. Carlos figured he was going to turn the tables. If Duran tried anything or even said anything, he planned to cold-**** him and show Roberto he was willing to get in the gutter with him. So he was tensed up and ready to strike at the least provocation. After they weigh in, Duran comes over to him and Palomino is ready for anything. And Roberto asks Carlos for an autograph for his son, telling him Palomino is his son’s favorite fighter. Palomino signs for him and Duran thanks him profusely, saying how it is really going to make his kid’s day. Carlos said it completely deflated him. All that pent-up anger and now the guy is being super nice and respectful and exactly the opposite of what he prepared for.
There have been several mentions of Duran and Leonard here, but one aspect of their psychological battles I don't see talked about often, is just how unaffected Leonard was by anything Duran said in before the New Orleans fight. Duran hated everything Leonard represented instead of Ray himself, he hated how this media darling got so much attention and several other things associated with Ray's image. So he just started to act cruel towards him, cursing his wife and family, saying to the press that he was not a real man etc. Leonard clearly was affected by it and Duran knew it, and that made him have more self confidence and pride in himself. But after Montreal, Leonard realized Duran's intent, and everything Duran said before the second fight just didn't faze Leonard at all, Leonard was confident, calm, mannered, with no malevolence towards Duran at all, at one point he even said "I think Duran is a very good guy, and I want my son to be just like him", just imagine a guy you hate saying that towards you. Duran just had no control over Leonard like before, add the amount of weight loss he had to endure due to Leonard's immidiate rematch request, and then the clowing during the fight, and it's just not really a wonder why Duran quit. It wasn't just that Leonard was clowning during the fight that hurt his pride, he lost control over Leonard psychologically
The main problem here was that Oscar could speak a few words in English but Muhammad could speak no Spanish !
I can only see Ali getting the better of Tyson in any verbal skirmish even with the "Girlfriend" comment. I can just hear Muhammad - "The only reason why you wanna make me your girlfriend is because I'm not only prettier than you,Kong,but prettier than any woman you've been with,Sucker"
Foreman did a great psyche job on Moorer. He riled up Teddy Atlas who I think was reacting as a proxy for Moorer. I remember George telling MM to take his sunglasses off pre-fight so he could see the fear in his eyes and Moorer removed his glasses (probably to show his lack of fear but it came across as subservient). George really dropped his nice guy persona that fight.
took the words outta my mouth. Oscar seriously riled Ali to the point you could see Ali near losing his cool
Not convinced Stevie. If Bonavena's '******' reference had the effect it di, I don't think Ali would take too kindly to the kind of filth Tyson would bring.
