When fighters stink out the joint is it always because they are that good at eluding? Case in point Castillo & Maidana found a way to close the distance on PBF, 1st fight. Another reason I think why a fight can grow dull is choosing a ring size beyond 16-18 feet to 22 & I think 24 max? Ray Leonard vs Haglar comes to mind- a larger ring chosen by Ray (Haglar chose 12 rd over 15) as a result, there were times where Ray literally did run, hell he had the room to do so, yet by the 9th round Haglar eventually (closed) the distance and forced Ray to fight. And that he did. So the fastest runners, if facing a ring general, will eventually get cornered. As a result, I give credit to fighters like Andrade who can do that for the whole fight. The best I've ever seen at closing the distance is Hank Armstrong. He constantly Burroughs into his opponent. Often looking as if his foe took a quick side step, Armstrong could lose his balance and fall forward, but it never happened. As a result, I think if Henry fought today, there is no fighter who can run for 12 rounds against him, no stinkeroo against Homicidal Hank! Since he won 3 weight classes at the same time, had he fought at Andrade's weight, he would've closed the distance and kept it at close quarters.
Sulecki had a lot of trouble because he wanted to box from the outside. If Sulecki was a Porter type fighter that wanted to get in his face 24/7 he wouldn't have had nearly as much success keeping him away. You don't need to go back to Armstrongs days to find fighters that could push Andrade...
Manny Pacquiao is a phenomenal distance closer thanks to his ultra quick feet. People with a lack of understanding of boxing say that Pacquiao is incapable of cutting off the ring, but fail to realize that ring-cutting requires being flat-footed, which negates Pacquiao's bread and butter of ambushing attacks.
Two of the best ever are Chávez Sr and Roberto Durán. Durán was actually capable of cutting the ring only by fainting, a master of faints too. They are both amazing. I agree with gg being one of the best at that today too. I give no props to andrade for running. Being able to run is not the runner's merit, but the stalker's fault. Sorry.
LOL, ok no props, as is a relevant point: 'it's the stalkers fault, not to the credit of the runner, I concede, spot on!
Fighting Harada is one of the best examples. Extreme aggression, combined with legendary skill, allowed him to twice beat the great Eder Jofre and rampage through 3 divisions. This content is protected
Wilder is a master at controlling the distance and then closing the distance in a second. He was six feet away from Dominic Breazeale, Two seconds later, Wilder had closed the gap, thrown a jab followed by a right hand (so lightning quick most didn't see the jab), and Breazeale was flat on his back. This content is protected
Breazeale wasn't coming forward. Frazier would be. Wilder's punch would get there long before Joe Frazier's left hook ever did. Frazier's short hook would finally be coming around while Joe was laying flat on his back .... Joe would be throwing punches at ghosts like Simon Brown. Wilder would be six feet away from Joe - way out of Frazier's range -- and then Wilder would be turning and walking to a neutral corner before Joe knew what hit him.
