Fighters getting prime beat out of them.

Tapia just registered his best win and Kirkland went on to beat Angulo. I think you are a bit off there.

 

Trinidad over Vargas

 

Oh the irony :roflatsch

 

Even though he lost the decision, Vassily Jirov vs Joe Mesi.
Andrew Golota vs Rid**** Bowe.
Michael Moorer vs Vassiliy Jirov.

 

Jeff Lacy was 28 when he fought Calzage ( Prime for boxing ) He had won all of his fights till then. The man had good skills and was a champion. After the Calzage fight he lost five out of his last ten fights. I watched that fight and I saw a man get destroyed on the inside.

 

He wasn't as good as he was hyped to be. Lots of guys are titlists. K9 Bundrage.

Lacy was never all that great. It was a combination of him being hyped to hell despite being untested, Calzaghe being in his own prime (more or less, though he already had the hand issues by then) and putting on a masterclass, the styles match-up strongly favoring the Italian-Welshman, and just the gulf in class.

 

I have not seen Tapia since Kirkland KO'd him. I just know Tapia was already out on his feet when Smoger F'ed up big time when he stepped in without pulling Kirkland off Tapia, so Kirkland got in a huge sucker punch. That has lasting effects.

As to Kirkland, if you recall, you could see something was definitely wrong with him when he got KO'd against Ishida. In other fights since then you can see he is damaged goods. He was seriously hurt even against Tapia before he rallied and caught Tapia. I think it is going to be an easy night for Canelo. They know how damaged Kirkland is. He is heading down the Alex Ramos path.

 

Lacy and Bundrage are two different people and two totally different fighters. Never said Lacy was great but he was an excellent fighter. His record attested to that. Whether you believe he was hyped or untested is totally irrelevant to the question that was put forth by the TS. He got destroyed by Calzage in his prime and I believe that fight took his heart because he wasn't the same after that.

 

He wasn't really "excellent" before. He was okay. He beat a shot Reid, nothing more.

 

Do you have any idea of how bad Joe Calzaghes "hand issues" actually were? It's brought up a lot, and seems like a convenient thing to point at in order to excuse Joes average power.

 

Again, your opinion.

 

True, but not an uncommon one.

 

As bad as the loss was to Chavez, both physically and mentally, I don't see Taylor's career going all that different even if he hadn't fought him, or if he had managed to take only a moderate amount of punishment. Too much talent around 147, where he immediately moved up in weight after fighting Chavez, won a title against Aaron Davis, and then had those bad losses a year later to Norris (at 150.5) & Espana.

Chavez just sped up what was gonna be a short peak/prime anyway.

In a different, less stacked era, with less reckless management, he would've had more time at the top level.

Trinidad-Vargas is comparable to Chavez-Taylor 1.

-Classic unification fights that ended in 12th round stoppages
-The hard-hitting, experienced, champ who is a boxing god in his country/island (Mexico/PR) defeats the undefeated American who had the decorated amateur career (more so in Taylor)
-Both the Americans probably should have boxed more cautiously, but it's kind of hard when the guy is stalking you down
-Both Taylor and Vargas had some success afterwards (Taylor had a better win post-Chavez than Vargas did post-Tito) but never fully recovered.

It wasn't solely these fights that did it, but they definitely hurt. Taylor most likely took a lot of punishment in Philly gym wars, and he was too quick to trade in fights anyway. Vargas also had those back injuries. He looked like **** in his next fight against Rivera, and so-so against Rivera. He raised his game against DLH, maybe the PEDs or maybe just more motivated and trained harder, but still ultimately lost. Then the back injuries got even worse.

 

Roberto Duran-Davey Moore