Do You Respect Light-Hitting Punchers?

Any so called light-hitting punchers can still KTFO any of us posters here.

 

I do respect them quite a bit, because it's so much harder to make it to world level without power as with.

I do have an issue with completely ineffective punching being overvalued by judges. If one boxer, say his name is Billy Bob Bouncers from the US, who hardly has any power fights another one called Glenn Buteraux, a powerpuncher from Canada, outlands him on average 20 to 6 per round but has basically zero effect on him, while on his bike, getting marked up and visibly hurt back from the couple of punches he receives, boxing scoring should reflect that.
It's like losing the fight, but winning the game of boxing.

How do you know that for sure? If a flyweight can't KO even the lowest quality opponents in their division, you're sure they can KO every massive heavyweight who posts on this forum due to some magical "I'm a pro so I can KO anyone" power?

 

There's been a decent amount over the decades.

Willie Pep is probably considered the greatest "light hitting" fighter in the history of the sport, although he wasn't THAT soft of a puncher even though he only carried around a 25% KO percentage in his career of over 200 pro bouts.

Nicolino Locche was another one that didn't carry pop in his punches but he's considered an ATG as well (although no where near the level of Willie.)

Pea WHitaker wasn't the hardest puncher but he could command enough respect with his counterpunching to keep guys honest.

All 3 guys were elite defensively, so it makes sense when you think about it. Their best chance to stop a guy was usually to tire them out from missing too many punches before opening up on them.

Mayweather Jr straddles the line as well, but to be fair at the lighter weights he did carry a respectable level of power in both hands. I believe in his native class of 130 lbs, he accrued a 27-0 with 20 KO's record, so his power only really left him when he crossed into his 4th (147) and 5th (154) weight classes. For a guy that was never a one punch KO artist- even in the lighter weights- it makes obvious sense his power wouldn't be that effective at WW or JMW. So I don't really put him in this list compared to someone like Pep who fought his entire career exclusively at 126 lbs and never went up.

 

Easy to say using keyboard. Whatever....

 

You don't really believe everyone here is totally glass jawed do you? Pretty sure there are a lot of (former) amature boxers, and other combatants here on the board because that's a large part of the boxing fanbase. Some here probably fought much harder punchers (or kickers) already and didn't get stopped in every instance.

And then there's the thing that a granite jaw is NATURAL. You can't train it, so if you have it you just do.

 

Sorry bro, I am a Practitioner of kendo or kendōka so Boxing is just as a hobby to watch for me although I am boxing fan since childhood. Let's leave it at that.

 

If they're good boxers, then absolutely. If they have heart, then absolutely.

 

The flipside to that is that they don't commit to their punches as much as someone who puts more reliance on their punch power.

 

Sweat Pea put guys on the canvas at times.

 

Thats why you have the four pillars of judging: Effective aggression, Defense, Ring Geralship and Clean Punching.

And something that is rarely used these days is a draw round. There are often rounds that are extremely close and can easily be scored as a draw.

 

Lots of good posts here, particularly from the rational fans who can respect pugilistic greatness in all its forms.

I appreciate knockouts and concussive conclusions as much as the next man. However, I don’t see the need to disparage the so called pillow fisted fighters. Every fighter trains to maximize their natural strengths while minimizing their weaknesses. That said, it is up to the opponent of a feather fisted fighter to do what’s necessary to win the fight. Clearly there’s a reason why they are unable to do so. Perhaps guys like Malignaggi, Spadafora, Floyd, Sweet Pea and others are not as pillow fisted in the ring as they appear from the safety of our couches.

 

Respect is the wrong word to use.
But I respect light punchers even more. Most of the time if they're top fighters because theyre highly skilled ala Ivan Calderon, Tervin Farmer, etc.

 

Paulie and Bradley jump out for me from recent times. Cant be easy to stop a man just walking through you cuz everybody knows you are feather fisted.

 

There's a whole big chunk of the boxing fan population with this mentality, and they are the ones that need to have their scorecards confiscated.

You people have plenty of entertainment out there suiting your tastes. Kimbo Slice videos on YouTube, Toughman contests, schoolyard brawls on WorldStar, etc...

Boxing is boxing, sorry you don't like what it actually is.