Up until recently I had only ever watched Salvador Sanchez's fight with Azumah Nelson and watched a round here or there of his other fights and for years I had been aware of reputation as an ATG and possibly the best FW of all time but over the last week I watched his fights with Lopez, Gomez, Laporte and others from start to finish I only began to truly appreciate his talent and started to wonder if he was the most complete fighter in history. His balance, speed, power, accuracy, variety of punches, chin in fact can't think of a single flaw So.... Do anyone else on these forums have a similar story ?? Are there ATG's that while you've been aware of, knew their rep and had watched some footage of but only recently have sat down watched full fights and truly began to appreciate their talent and greatness ??
I have also been appreciating Sanchez more and more as well as Napoles and prime Braxton or I should say Qwai as I seem to offend some posters.
Used to think very little of Liston before coming into this Forum. Upon further research and reading what others have written of him, he ranks very highly for me, top ten for sure HW sometimes in my top 5.
For most of his career I didn't particularly like him, both his fighting style and slightly pompous personality I thought he had (not now) but after he avenged the loss to Rahman, beat Tyson and then stopped Vitali I only began to appreciate what a special fighter he was, even more so now although I'm not blind to his flaws, certainly not unbeatable.
I started appreciating Iron Mike a lot more since coming here a short while ago. I had always thought he was without a heart until talking to knowledgeable members here and watching the Ruddock and Lewis fights. Mike didn't have the heart of a Frazier, Holmes, or Ali, but he most certainly didn't let himself go down in a fight that looked like borderline torture after the 3rd or 4th round (Lewis). He kept trying, even though he was beat at least three rounds before the stoppage. Mike was a great fighter.
Paul Berlenbach. One of the most impressive title runs at LHW, and was probably the 2nd best LHW around (at least) between O'Brian and Loughran. I went from not knowing he existed to having him at #17 on my LHW list.
Bobo Olson. Not sure what qualifies as an ATG on this thread, but I have recently come to appreciate him. Ike Williams, too, has recently come within my radar more than in the past.
