I recently rewatched Mike Tyson vs Marvis Fraizer and I noticed the commentator explaining how Marvis was truly a good fighter but he was stylistically the worst possible matchup for iron mike. Got any other examples like this?
He was probably never the same after The Fight of the Century, a brutal fight in which he almost died, but he was still the undefeated champ at the time. He fought Terry Daniels and Ron Stander, who were pretty overmatched opponents, and then Joe fought George Foreman in Jamaica. A little tough to say how much he slipped. I don’t think it would have mattered which Joe showed up. Foreman was all wrong for him.
Sounds about right. Pressure cant really be applied on both an unstoppable force and immovable object which was Big George.
Teofimo Lopez vs George Kambosos to an extent, Kambosos offset him with feints and movement, and defeated his philly shell with the lead left hook, Lopez prefers it when someone comes at him.
Thomas Hearn vs Iran Barkley, Hearns was levels above, people would say he would school him had they never fought, obviously Barkley’s size helped him, but that just evened it out, Hearns wasn’t a small man himself, even at middleweight, Hearns would trade when he shouldn’t, and that’s Barkley’s style.
He could have beaten quite a few still. Number of defenses and length of the championship would contribute to his all-time standing I reckon. Foreman was just stunning in that fight. Archie Moore, Sandy Saddler; the grappling control game drilled into was otherworldly.
Hearns vs Hagler. Hearns should’ve tried to outbox Hagler early on instead of going for broke. The right hand bomb that resulted in a broken hand got Hagler’s attention and it was all downhill from there. Not saying Hagler loses, but it definitely goes longer than 3 rounds.
