Straight Up & Down, No Special Effects

Good call on both. Mikkel was a guy that basically threw his jab and straight hand with very few hooks or uppercuts. He was a very solid fighter that was great at dictating the distance and pace of a fight. Solid footwork and defensively sound.

Glen Johnson to me was not great at any one thing but was as solid and consistent as anyone. Always strong is his stance and rarely off balance. He was a truth machine. If you weren't in shape, you were going to lose to him.

 

Mikey Garcia
Errol Spence Jr
Canelo Alvarez
Anthony Joshua

 

Vitali was very awkward.

 

Wouldn’t any orthodox style fighter fit into this category?

 

1988, eventually saw Abdul peak at # 1 in early 1989.

1988 being the same year Iron Mikey reached his peak with several “hits”’of his own - including the groovy track: “The Night the lights went out on Holmes”.

 

That’s how I see it. Framed as if “straight up” is a bad thing.

I like nothing better than a boxer, superfluous in his fancy moves being settled up by a straight up fighter.

Although brief, even an aged Zora Folley had his “straight up”, left jab, right hand moments and successes against the King of Extravagance Muhammad Ali.

Suffice to say, Joe Louis was “straight up” devastating.

 

Zora actually or was it Machen? Used his right to set up a left hook to Muhammad’s back to stop him from circling to escape.

 

Ali only fought Zora, so that would be who you observed - Joe Frazier did fight Machen though. Folley had a very nice skill set - as I’ve read, Zora idolised and modelled himself on Joe Louis.

 

I always thought Vitali was like that. A much bigger version of GGG. There’s a lot to be said for this style…hit hard, great chin, no fancy frills. These guys are hardly ever put on their ass, rarely stopped and they KO a large percentage of their opponents.

They don’t dance, feint, moonwalk, shuffle and backtrack thank goodness…I mean who seriously wants to see Big Vitali moonwalking and dancing his way through a fight. It would burn my eyeballs!

 

No Mayweather Jr. wouldn't beat Monzon, but
neither would Triple G. Triple G, is NOT
Carlos Monzon.... May Jr. is correct in
his analysis on Triple G.

 

I’ve always confused them two to be honest. I don’t know why, they don’t fight particularly similar or look alike.

 

Historically, they were of course contemporaries and well entwined - including being a shut out from a title shot during Patterson’s dark reign.

# 1 and # 2 contenders Machen and Folley respectively fight to a draw - which D’Amato equated to neither getting a shot. Nice work if you can get it.

There’s a degree of sorting/subsequent rating between the contenders themselves that is reasonable and acceptable - but D’Amato took that concept to the nth degree.

For all intents and purposes, Liston was the real/proxy champ for several years before the actual fact of his annexing the title.

This should always be taken into consideration when discussing the brevity of Liston’s official tenure as Champion - and the fact that he had to face none other than Ali in only his second defence.