Does Michael Moorer get the respect he deserves in classic matchup debates?

my view on moorer is that in classic forum fights if is matched against say an ezzard charles or a rocky marcianno or other top fighters of the past they all seem to be mentally much stronger than moorer which in my humble view puts him at a big disadvantage

 

Michael was an excellent fighter and people act like he was a glass-jawed phony. What are you gonna do? I think he's also one of the guy's that suffers a bit from his personality. If people liked him more outside the ring, they'd be more inclined to recognize his caliber inside the ring.

 

if he is in with a walcott , holmes ,liston marciano or even a schmeling any fighter that is going to push him, how long before his belief in his own mind starts to erode . i like moorer but i cant see him beating any of the above

 

Moorer too mentally weak and not that durably. Some good attributes, but nothing to make him especially formidable IMO

 

Are you serious?

Moorer was a good fighter with great punching power for a light heavyweight. However I don't think he should be compared with the all-time greats. He has too many glaring weaknesses for me to really be confident in picking him over any top 20 ATG light heavyweight or heavyweight.

 

Watch his fight with Bert Cooper, pre-Foreman.

Moorer would have no chance with Liston, Schmeling and Walcott

Riddick Bowe could beat Marciano no doubt, he has the in-fighting skills, toughness and size to get it done.

But Moorer against the guys you mentioned; no way IMO

 

Saying 6'5, 235 lbs Riddick Bowe would beat 5'10, 185 lbs Rocky Marciano is entirely different than saying former light heavy Michael Moorer would "wipe the floor" with Sonny Liston. I have to question just how much you've seen of Moorer and Liston to think this.

Moorer had impressive power for a light heavyweight but he relied on it far too much. He was losing just about every round to the very average title holder Leslie Stewart until catching him in the late rounds. He was stunned and made to do the dance by Frankie Swindell.

As a heavyweight he was not very impressive. Former super middleweight "Bigfoot" Martin knocked him down in a dreadfully boring 10 round decision win. Alex Stewart rocked him and was taking over the fight in the 4th when Moorer caught him. Bert Cooper knocked him down twice and had Moorer against the ropes when Moorer caught him. He got by because of his power but his power wasn't enough to win at elite level, thus he had to turn into a more of a boxer. However his chin and mental issues prevented him from being much of a force at heavyweight.

 

I would add, that I tend to think Moorer's weaknesses get blown out of proportion a bit. I mean he can go into lala land during a fight but I've heard him compared to Golota in terms of being called mentally weak. I just don't think that's true. Golota screwed himself out of his biggest two wins and never became a champion. Moorer was a four-time world champion. It's not like a tendency to zone out even on par with Jameel McCline's. And as for his chin, he was never stopped at 175 and look at the three guys that stopped him at HW. Two freakishly monstrous puncher's and Evander Holyfield. And he was years removed from his last title year when DAVID TUA stopped him. And how many forces from LHW have been HW champ? Let alone the linear champ?

 

I don't think he was comparable to Golota at all. Moorer had heart but he was lazy. You can see it in every fight of his. He'd try to do enough to win and if he knows he could catch his opponent, he often didn't do anything at all. He was confident that his power could bail him out and sometimes this translated to over-confidence.

He let Stewart outwork him for every round until the KO:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPoqK83n09o[/ame]


Against Cooper and Stewart he kept going back to the ropes against his trainer's instructions:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrs65JZzMIk[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS9TRbtlkhs[/ame]