Career Hinges - Fights that caused fighters to change styles ..

2nd Marciano-LaStarza fight. Marciano targeted LaStarza's arms and pounded on them through the fight, doing permanent damage. From then LaStarza had trouble keeping his guard up properly.

 

Joe Louis after the first Schmeling fight. Schmeling saw a different fighter in their rematch.

After the Bonavena fight, I think Ali realized his 15 rounds dancing abilities were severely diminished, and became an entirely different fighter thereafter. I'm not sure he fully realized that in the previous fight with Quarry.

 

Duran-DeJesus III: Up to this point, Duran had been a savage who just walked through people and beat them down toe to toe.

He got knocked down in the first round of the fight by an Esteban left hook and lost a decision. He got knocked down in the first round of the second fight with DeJesus and beat Esteban down to prevail.

Ray Arcel told him if he went out and tried to steamroll DeJesus the same away again, Esteban would be waiting with that left hook. So they worked on a different plan of attack, boxing and feinting and setting up shots. It was the birth of the ATG Duran we came to know, unveiling the skill set he would use to stymie Marvin Hagler for much of their fight and negotiate the heavier weights. When he combined this newfound boxing skill with his old savage in-fighting, he became a machine.

Another one, and maybe someone else can pinpoint the fight, but Donovan Ruddock was a jab-and-move guy apparently earlier in his career. Somewhere along the way he developed that ‘smash’ hybrid left hook/uppercut punch and became a pure slugger. I assume there’s some fight where the shift is evident for those who saw his development, but I couldn’t tell you which one.

 

Lewis - McCall is a poster child. It saw Lewis employ Steward and refine his game a helluva lot. Better technique, better training, better sparring, better mindset etc. It was game changing.

 

Not the same manner of defeat and although he held to break up play pre-exile, post FOTC Ali was a lot more intentional with his clinch work. The use of neck manipulation and functional strength to move fighters off him was more apparent in the 72 - 75 version of Ali.

 

Solid points......as usual!!! One could say age adjusted his style somewhat, worked in new skills.

 

Some of the more textbook defensive moves, IMO, were deffo borne out of the necessity brought about by the realisation that he wasn't the same fighter and had to adapt. Some factions suggest that he got stronger and some would even say better. I would sit on the side that suggests that his diminished footspeed, reflexes and leg stamina necessitated him standing his ground more and showing things that he never had to show as consistently in the 60s. I do temper that with the fact that he generally faced a higher calibre of fighter in the 70s.

Hagler was changed by the first Antu fight - not necessarily his style, but his mindset and approach to, during and after a fight was elevated.

 

Veerapol Sahaprom most likely learnt something from being splattered by Nana Yaw Konadu.

 

I think Hagler knew deep down that he didn’t beat Antuofermo … or at least didn’t do it convincingly enough to argue. The network folks who saw that fight and the boxing world at large were expecting the hyped ‘uncrowned champ’ to really show something against Vito and Marvin was far from marvelous — he was downright timid through a lot of it. Fought very carefully and allowed Vito to rough him up and simply outhustle him in enough rounds to keep his title.

Hagler definitely did change after that. He looked in the mirror and decided he was going to lay it all on the line and not be passive if he got another shot. But at times that passivity would return — against Duran, against Leonard, we saw it earlier in his career against Marcos Geraldo — it was always lurking.

 

In regards to Wlad - I would say the 1st Brewster fight is where the change really began. The Sanders fight was wipe out from a hard hitting southpaw. Yes he employed Stewart and was beginning to change his style but the Brewster fight showed Wlad fighting at way to fast a clip for a man his size. Was the second time Wlad burnt himself out by throwing and moving too much as it had happened against purrity. Was after the Brewster fight (a really exciting fight by the way) that Wlad became the Jab and clinch master. Totally controlling range and only throwing when it was 100 percent to his benefit. Wlad became boring as hell but began one of the most dominant runs in the division’s history

 

Need to think more on substantive stylistic changes. -

At the moment can only offer Frazier’s one off change in style customised for the Foreman rematch. No other fighter but Young George gave Joe cause to alter his approach (and somewhat drastically so).

Applied to any other opponents, Joe’s primary and preferred style was not “broke”’and needed no fixing.

Foreman was simply an entirely different beast to be reckoned with and Joe gave a more counterintuitive, defensive style his best shot but alas it wasn’t sufficient to overcome Foreman.

 

Nice points mate and good to see you with a bit of free time.....as i say every time you have a spell of posting!

 

It was really weird how he could be lulled into being passive. He should have stepped on the gas with Duran and come out southpaw versus Leonard.

In a way, it's the psychological aspects of his in-fight decision-making that are in intriguing to me. Even the most Spartan of warriors has human moments where he questions himself somewhat and is vulnerable.

 

Abra cadabra