I read an old Sport magazine the other day that covered his fight with John Tate. Interesting article in that it detailed his new training regimen after the Knoetze fight. He underwent a physical overhaul, working with a fitness trainer on assorted machines to lose body fat and gain muscle and flexibility. He came into the Tate fight at 207, which was the lightest he'd been as a professional. We all know what happened in that fight, basically a rehash of the Norton fight. In the article, Bobick said that sometimes he just couldn't relax in the ring and couldn't "let go," probably a reference to freezing up. In any case, despite being a former Olympian and an excellent amateur with over 30 professional fights under his belt, he looked like a rank amateur in the 3 biggest fights of his life. Although he probably didn't have the talent to be a top heavyweight, why did he look so bad in the aforementioned fights? He had size and some decent skills. Were his problems more physical or mental? Were there any top heavys of the day he could have beaten?
I always felt Bobick was simply a slow starter, which was amazing in itself, because, as you mentioned, he was an amateur star. But those early blowouts within 3 rounds does make one look with concern. I also always remembered watching his fight with Young Sanford and seeing Sanford take the first three rounds before Duane got his engine running and taking the remaining 7 rounds. It seemed very clear to me anyway. He had a number of good wins on his record but all of the 'grade B' variety such as Mike Weaver (when he was a 'B' fighter early in his career), Scott LeDoux, Bunny Johnson, Larry Middleton, Chuck Wepner, Randy Neumann, etc. And I did like his fight schedule. He packed a lot of fights into the couple of years he was active.
slow starter, easy to hit, not a tremendous puncher - He did have a good win over Larry Holmes in the Amateur's and he and Nick Wells fought many wars, but Teo Stevenson got revenge in the rematch to get the gold.
Didn’t Norton punch him in the throat? Lol. Anyways about Bobick… “95% of this game is relaxation” - James Toney
Some guys are just much better in the gymnasium than they ever appear in the ring. If you're around boxing long enough you'll see it - guys who are amazing in training and sparring but, when the event comes, freeze up or give a lesser performance for one reason or another. Handling 'the event' is in itself a skill / talent.
Jack Johnson developed such a skill and fed off the energy of his opponents tension like a vampire - Lil Arthur’s style did him a lot of favours to.
He was wide open defensively to right hands. Not very quick in the footwork and mobility departments at a time when they were important characteristics to have in the toolshed. Just another guy that did far better against the C grade guys. B graders were a big step up and by the time he got to the A graders the skills just were not there. Futch tried with the guy and he did have his backing & opportunities. But those results were on he club circuit and the guy fought a ton of small regional fights. Not the undercard bout of a big fightcard but headliner in small regional shows.
Both? It looked like there was a hard line when it came to Bobick's skills and that there was not a sloped drop off when he hit that line but a chasm. He did not even look competitive in his losses and even fragile and intimidated to the point of being overmatched. The next level below, he looked fine. The drop off was gigantic and seemed to point to something mentally lacking when confronted with adversity. The buildup to the Tate fight was strange hearing about all his drastic training changes and he sounded completely lost in retrospect.
Slow starter, prone to being hit with big right hands = recipe for limited success, especially as a heavyweight. Duane had his chin crushed a few times in the amateurs. Ron Lyle almost killed him, laying Bobick out for 5 minutes. Granted Lyle was a full grown man in his late 20's at the time, while Bobick was a young man who had not reach his full "man" strength. I think he actually beat Stevenson the year before the Olympics, but had a really rough fight with the Russian the fight before the Stevenson fight. I always thought Futch turned him into too much of a plodder. Duane could actually move around the ring fairly well as an amateur. As in most cases, once a fighters chin gets cracked too hard it is never really the same.
Were there any top fighters of his heyday he could have fought and not looked so bad? I'm thinking Jimmy Young, who was such a powderpuff puncher. What about Ali? Let's say, Bobick had fought Ali instead of Norton in 1977. Ali really wanted this fight. It would have been a natural for him to hype. Can you imagine Ali against the new Great White Hope? If it happened, I guess Ali would have been doing his clowning, rope-a-dope shtick for the early rounds. At some point, he would have opened up and laid a series of combos that would have had Duane reeling. Would have been an interesting fight just for the hype alone.