Not mythBuster Douglas or mythBuster Mathis (senior or junior) nor mythBuster Drayton, but things that are often cited as fact that simply are not. But they’ve become a narrative and are regarded by some as irrefutable. So let’s discuss this and bust some myths. I’ve got one to get us started. 1. Ray Leonard fleeced Marvin Hagler in the negotiations and gained some kind of insurmountable advantage for the fight. Exhibit A is the distance of 12 rounds rather than 15. The facts are: Marvin hadn’t fought a scheduled 15-rounder in 2 1/2 years, since his second fight with Mustafa Hamsho. His fights vs. Thomas Hearns and John Mugabi were scheduled for 12. Leonard or no Leonard, as long as Marvin fought he was probably going to be continuing at the 12-round distance — 15-rounders were well on their way to dinosaur status and becoming extinct. Fifteens were not going to come back again, and judging by how long it had been since he had fought a scheduled 15, Hagler was obviously fine with the 12-round distance being a new norm. Exhibit B is the gloves. Middleweight had long been a division where both 8-ounce and 10-ounce gloves were commonly used. Anything below middle required eights and anything above tens. Nothing was different about this fight. I’d have to see some evidence that Marvin had never fought in tens before to even begin to consider this a factor — look at his gloving in other fights and it seems pretty apparent that he had used 10-ounce gloves before (by the eyeball test, although you’ll find precious little reporting on glove sizes in his other fights so it’s an unknown at best). If fighting in tens means MMH was at a disadvantage, then that means he always had things his way before if this was different, so why not point out that he always had an edge? Exhibit C is the ring size, 24 feet. Again, look at a lot of Marvin’s other fights and you’ll see he wasn’t always fighting in a postage-stamp sized ring. This was an allowable ring size by every sanctioning body, so it’s hardly a deck being stacked against Marvin. Exhibit D is the purses. Marvin got what he wanted and what he negotiated for: bigger money than Ray and enough money to retire upon. When they negotiated, Hagler focused on money and Ray’s camp on conditions/rules for the bout. If Hagler was willing to give away the other things above, he got what was important to him for it. That’s why you negotiate, to get the deal you want. What are some others?
Muhammad Ali being dominated by George Foreman when using the rope-a-dope, until Foreman tired. Ali landed the great majority of clean head shots throughout. He landed a lot of shots in round 1 in the middle of the ring, then consistently landed straight shots to Foreman’s grill once he went to the ropes
Small Usyk beating up every superheavyweight he's ever been in a ring with from way back bashing up Joe Joyce in the WSB tournament and even bashing up Wladimir Klitshcko in sparring. Just a superheavyweight destroyer.
People often think the famous pic of Walcott’s face all scrunched up from Marciano’s right hand is the KO shot, but it’s not. You can tell from the angles and their locations in the ring. Not the knockout punch https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/p...0AAawuchOjzDiHSLGEIZmj-uQPmfEpTNc5DsVDzw_sglI The knockout punch https://www.thefightcity.com/wp-con...-one-punch-KO-of-Walcott-1024x795-KO-crop.jpg This content is protected
I’ve gone over the “Leonard ducking Pryor” myth many times. Toney-Nunn was far more competitive than what many people remember. The judges had Nunn far ahead going into the 11th because the fight was in Iowa. It wasn’t like Castro-Jackson 1 or Ward-Sanchez, where one guy is getting dominated and lands one punch. Toney was getting to the Nunn for the previous 3-4 rounds going into the 11th round. Some people think Taylor was beating Chavez for most of the fight because he was putting on a great display of technical boxing, movement, defense, etc…I remember Ferdie Pacheco saying “Whitaker is fighting just like Meldrick Taylor” during Pea-JCC. No he wasn’t!!! Taylor was winning because of his amazing workrate and handspeed. He was taking good shots throughout (getting cut inside his mouth in round 2), but outworking Chavez. I won’t say that Chavez ruining Taylor is a myth, but more of a simplification. There were other factors as well. Taylor still had the second best win of his career a year after the first Chavez fight, but the decline came fast once 92’ hit. Chavez probably just shortened what was always going to be a fairly short prime for Taylor.
Except for round four? five? It seemed Ali deliberately didn't do much. That was when Foreman really got gassed hitting Ali in the arms.
Speaking of Pryor, there’s another myth surrounding his winning the 140-pound title from Antonio Cervantes; that Pryor moved up to 140 to challenge for the title because he couldn’t get a shot at lightweight. While it’s true that he didn’t get a shot at lightweight, there’s a valid reason: He wasn’t a lightweight. He debuted at 137 and boxrec doesn’t have any weights for several of his early fights, but of the 15 bouts before Cervantes that have weights listed, only in three of them did Aaron weight a pound or less over that 135 limit. His normal weight was around 137-138. I think there’s only one recorded instance in his career where he made lightweight outright without being at least a tad over. The fight before his title shot, in fact, he came in at 143. It’s not like there’s a bevy of lightweight contenders on his ledger either, even for fights where he was only a couple of pounds over the limit.
That Billy Conn weighed 169 lbs in his first fight against Joe Louis. The truth is Conn last weighed below 170 lbs two years before he fought Louis, when he was a 21 year old fighting against middleweight Fred Apostoli. He weighed 180 lbs two weeks before his fight with Louis and was around 175-183 lbs during his heavyweight campaign in 1941. Conn's real weight in that fight is the official weight measured which was 174 lbs.
I agree with you - big time. It really annoys me when some claim that all Ali did was lie on the ropes for seven rounds then all of a sudden comes to life in the eighth. Muhammad was outboxing George from start to finish.
Myth: Ali was shot after his exile any win after his exile is a miracle and testament to how good he was Reality: While some his pure athletism did decline, he was still very fast and had great reflexes he struggled because of three main reasons imo 1. His level of opponents went up which made it so he couldn't look as good and get away with the things he could early on 2. He wasn't consistent with his training which made it so some fights he looked great and some he looked mediocre 3. He never fixed his technical issues which made him vulnerable to a good left hook and a good jab hence why Frazier and Norton gave him so much trouble When Ali really started to decline was after the Foreman fight that's when he blew up in weight and most likely stopped taking his training as seriously. But from his exile to the Foreman fight he wasn't that much worse then before his exile and still very much one of the greatest heavyweights ever, just inconsistent, but when he took his training serious he didn't look that much worse then his prime.
1) It's concerning the rules, not so much history. I hear it every now and then, even from commentators who are around the sport for decades, that referee has to give a fighter 5 minute to recover after low blow. What rule actually says is that fighter can get up to 5 minutes - and it's referee's discretion. If He decides that fighter has to continue after a minute or two, He has the right to make that call. 2) John Ruiz vs Evander Holyfield series is-or was the worst trilogy in Heavyweight boxing history. It was entertaining series of fights, very competitive, with some drama and changes of momentum. 3) I heard couple times that Wilfred Benitez only trained for a week, or two for Ray Leonard fight. I saw some old newspaper where someone from Benitez's camp was quoted saying it as well. I don't have a proof that it's not true - but well, I don't believe it.
Here's three. Dundee sliced Clay's glove in the first Henry Cooper fight and they had to go back to the dressing room and find another glove. Watch the fight. It didn't happen. When the ref asked Marvin Hagler if he could see through the blood when he was cut in the Hearns fight, Marv is famously said to have replied "Well, I ain't missing him, am I?" Pat Putnam said it apparently. Finally that Foremn lifted Frazier off the canvas with an uppercut. Clearly ludicrous and can be easily refuted by watching the fight. It was a great myth until youtube came along and made the footage available to all. Bit like the Kennedy assassination. Bit tricky arguing he was shot from behind when a video suddenly appears that shows half his head fall out the side.
