Ruben Olivares was notorious for looking like **** more often than not in sparring, he just didn`t take it all that seriously. Thats why Bobby Chacon thought he didn`t have to train as hard as he usually did going into their first meeting as he had seen Ruben look like crap in sparring sessions beforehand and had seen his two losses to Rafael Herrera shortly before they fought. Big mistake that was though as Ruben knew it was his career on the line the night he met Bobby and trained like a man possessed for the fight. Joe Ponce who was Chacons trainer saw this and tried to warn Bobby but he paid him no heed and well the result was a foregone conclusion really by those in the know. Carlos Monzon also didn`t usually look that great in sparring apparently, but he didn`t care to and instead practiced different facets of his game instead of focusing on all out sparring. Come fight night though he was all business and took care of it in that oh so calm and collected way he went about his fighting.
Calzaghe hardly ever sparred at all and didn't even take a fight plan into the ring half of the time; he preferred to just work opponents out to a certain extent, a facet of his game that remains very underrated IMO.
As RB said, Monzon wasn't a gym performer, in fact he thought it was "crazy" to use up so much energy beating up on a sparring partner, or vice versa. He said in an interview that he told young fighters "not to do that".
when it comes down to it monzon was right no one remembers a great gym fighter, it one you do in the ring.
Oh I get experimental sometimes, like the one I had a couple of weeks ago..the old ad for "Roma Wine"...it's time to change now, as a matter of fact.
Dick Tiger never looked like much sparring. I remember he sparred a lot with a middleweight named Rocky Halliday ( 12 wins 20 losses) and unless you knew better, you would think Halliday was the better fighter.
