Best Ever Short Fights

This content is protected

 

Great minds Clint!!!!

 

Some great fights mentioned.

I’m going to cheat a little with a TKO round 5 - Tszyu v Hurtado, which includes a great opening round with 3 KDs.

Kostya, like some other great punchers, too preoccupied with his power in this one - looking to land single, isolated shots to end it asap, forgetting the patient set ups that usually allowed him to deliver the money shots. After copping some himself, KT eventually settles down to a focused, brutal body attack which ultimately takes all the fight out of Hurtado. Nice little burner overall.

This content is protected

 

I liked this fight a lot. The Cuban was fragile though, he boxed Tszyu good, Tszyu was a creeping death sort of fighter like Joe Louis never overly busy and the lengthy, speedy guys made him look a bit plodding at times.

About why he looked off here- he was in transition he was changing things since the Vince Phillips fight and I reckon here he got a bit reckless because the Cuban hurt him. Old habits and all that, just unpolished old habits.

 

Must have the talent to go along with "Standing up".

 

EDIT

 

The Hurtado fight was Tszyu’s 4th since the loss to Phillips which was nearly 1 1/2 yrs prior.

Tbh, I thought Kostya was simply a bit reckless from the get go - trying to force the KO before the opps legitimately presented, thus increasing the risk for himself - the approach almost worked but then it didn’t - and it took some wake up shots from Hurtado to track Tszyu into a more methodical dismantling, particularly by way of some fearsome body punching.

Tszyu was never a defensive whiz but as his career progressed, I felt the defensive skills that he did have that had served him earlier in his career slowly dissipated.

I was a fan but it was hard to watch him sometimes given the gaps in his D, particularly how open he left himself to counters at times - but for the most part his general boxing skills and power were more than enough to win the day.

I like the Louis comparison - there were general similarities - puncher/boxers, not the busiest hands at times but each and every punch was specifically intended, committed and loaded with power. Naturally, as accented punchers, their D wasn’t as air tight as fighters geared more toward pure boxing.

Louis was of course was far more technically proficient and his defence superior to Tszyu’s.

Interesting that Kostya’s first defeat was similar to Joe’s also - by way of a fatal susceptibility to the right hand counter - and like Joe he soaked plenty before finally succumbing. And their respective opponents, Schmeling and Phillips, were willing enough and tough enough to soak up their share of punishment in order to execute the master plan.

And finally, like Joe again, Kostya came back BIG after such a devastating TKO loss.
That’s a huge career tick in my book - suffice to say there are so many streaking careers that came to an abrupt end after similarly emphatic, first time defeats - it’s definitely no mean feat to come back from same.