As far as heavy weights go, I always enjoyed the Wladimar Klitschko vs Ray Mercer fight. Wlad was spot on that night with a beautiful array of shots.
Id give Orlando Canizales a mention to, he had unreal footwork, good body punching, a great selection of shots and a very sound defense. Even though I wouldn't consider him to have a classical boxers style.
A great shout and I thought more people would've discussed him when he was mentioned earlier,because he was a wonderfully precise fighter who picked his shots beautifully. Like with Finito, it seems some people don't realise how important it was for those small fighters to fight at their optimum weight,because they lose sting at just a few pounds heavier,and Canizales is another good example of someone who could've done with better opposition at his optimum weight.
That was a phenomenal performance. Much is made about Mike's lack of discipline, but Buster still had to execute the perfect fight to pull that off. Round after round he broke Mike down.
Even though it's regarded as the greatest upset,the brilliance of Buster that night doesn't get enough credit. As Bogo said,nothing was wasted and everything Buster did had a purpose.Nothing was wasted and it was as perfect a performance as I'll ever see. You can rank it right up with Floyd-Chico in terms of tactical perfection. I have a book about that fight, but since I got my Kindle for Xmas,I've neglected "real" books,but I should read that one.
Yea I agree about Douglas too. Even if it was for one night and Tyson wasn't at his best, Douglas was a force that night and with that one performance he'll be immortalized. He had that Riddick Bowe like jab, but responded to Mike's aggression with Holyfield like combinations also. He knew he probably couldn't match Tyson in power and in alot of ways, but that didn't matter to him and executed a helluva gameplan. Unlike what Mike says Once you get hit the gameplan goes out the window, well Buster got hit, but he stuck with the gameplan. He had to have tremendous grit and mental focus to carry out his gameplan no matter what especially against a powerhouse like Tyson.
Hi mate, hope everything is well with your family. Did you read Sugar Ray Leonard's autobiography? If you haven't it's also a great read, I highly recommend it
Canizales is a highlight reel kind of fighter...beautiful to watch. Did have some flaws though, his reign wasn't exactly the most dominant nor choc full of noteworthy fighters.
Hmmm. I know very little about Napoles, but I just watched his fight with the great Carlos Monzone. Napoles looks to have been a tough little guy, with good offensive skils (great combos, as you say) and a terrific inside game. However, he didn't seem to be worrying much about defense in that fight. Once Monzone came alive, in the middle rounds, he was tagging Napoles almost at will. This wasn't a case of letting weak shots land, in order to stay focused on your offense (as Golovkin does) it was just iffy defense. The other thing I must critique, although I'm being picky, is Napoles balance. Not bad at all, but he kept his back foot just a tad too close, IMO, which costs him power. (So did Monzone, BTW. In fact Monzone had possibly the worst balance of any top fighter that I can think of.) Contrast his stance with Joe Frasier's, a fighter that I think had a pretty similar style (based only on this one fight that I've seen.) Watch Frasier's back leg. You'll see where he got that crushing power. Still, I'm definitely digging Napoles style, and looking forward to watching more of his fights. Glad you brought him up
Thanks mate. I had the book on pre-order with Amazon and had it read within about 3 days of release. ****'s sake.I really am one of the worst nuthuggers on the forum!atsch You should check out Giudice's book on Arguello mate.
Napoles similar to Frazier?? Keep watching bra...that is an old Napoles 20 pounds over his best weight against a guy who dwarfed him physically. His earlier stuff is what you need to hunt down..he is a silky smoooth boxer-puncher.
fair play! Arguello led a very interesting life in and out of the ring, I'll check it out :good. Last book I read was Hands of Stone
It's by the same guy, but it's a more rounded book mate. If you don't have Arguello in your favourite 10,you might reconsider when you head to YouTube after reading it.
[url]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beloved-Warrior-Rise-Alexis-Arguello/dp/1597977098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360885003&sr=8-1[/url] This is the book right? I know a bit about Arguello from his fights with Aaron Pryor and the HBO legendary nights episode on it, if it's anywhere near as good as Hands of Stone I'll have to read this
That's the one. Honestly mate,you want to see one guy who would've had a chance against Floyd at 130,he's it. Go to YouTube for Arguello v Rooney and you'll see that Kevin was best suited to training. The quality of opponents he faced in his prime is frightening.