Fighters who fell in love with their power

Nonito Donaire fell victim of falling too in love with his power to the point of his boxing skills eroding.
Gerald McClellan was always aware of his punching power that he was really confident in finishing his opponents within a round.

 

I'm surprised no one has said Tyson yet, when he might be the biggest example.

After King poisoned Tyson's mind, and Tyson split with Rooney, who was replaced by a slew of hack trainers, he stopped utilizing his great skills and footwork and became purely a straight ahead puncher.

I would say Julian Jackson also belongs here. Early on Jackson utilized a lot more boxing and movement to set up his power shots, as he did brilliantly in the Baek fight. But at some point he utilized his skills less and less, and became a guy looking for the home run with every punch.

Other good examples like Rosario, Gomez, and Donaire have already been mentioned.

 

Matthew Saad Muhammed is a prime example, so did Wilfredo Gomez. T.Hearns when he fought Hagler got pulled into a war.

 

Felix Trinidad
Nadeem Hamed
Shane Mosley
Nonito Donaire
Wilfredo Gomez
Edwin Rosario

All those guys stopped developing their skills and didnt evolve their styles once they hit a certain point. All showed far more all around ability on their rise to the levels they hit in their primes.

 

yeah but he was not humble at all at the time and thought he could stop Tommy. He thought because he hurt Lalonde and stopped him he could stop a great like Hearns. And Hearns had more experience than Ray at that point, and Ray found that out. Fighting the whole decade made Hearns a different guy as far as experience than in 1981 and Ray was the one who had trouble surviving.

 

Balance was always a big problem for Hamed anyway.

 

McClellan made the mistake of not using fundamentals to set up his power punches v Benn.

 

Foreman didn't try to do anything but back Ali into a corner and utterly nuke him. He tried for 8 straight rounds believing his power would eventually fell Ali like it did everybody else. He blew his entire gas tank trying to do just that and exhausted himself.Foreman fought a great fight but it was clear in that ring it was KO or get Ko'ed in Georges mind.

 

Terrible Terry Norris. Prime he had wicked boxing skills and went on a tear winning 7 fights in a row within 4 rds with seek and destroy strategy. Cost him dearly with first Simon Brown first fight.

 

Hamed doesn't really fit in with those other guys because he never had traditional skills to begin with.

Hamed's problems actually started when he tried to box, believe it or not. Hamed was never intended to box like a traditional fighter. He was purely instinctual, which was cool, when all his speed and reflexes were in tact.

Trinidad is a good example, but Tito utilized his boxing ability through most of the 90s, and up until the Vargas fight.

After he beat Vargas, he was totally just a guy looking to purely hit homers against Joppy. And it worked, against Joppy. But that one dimensional approach came back to bite him against Hopkins.

 

If he hasn't been mentioned... Donovan Razor Ruddock.

 

Trinidad started to devolve skillwise prior to the Vargas fight imo. Well before in fact. He faced soft opposition at welter from about 95/96 onwards and was winning on power and size alone too easily and went backwards as an overall package as a result.

Chacon was a better boxer during his earlier featherweight days. More varied and layered in terms of his approach than the guy who was in so many wars at 130.

Pat Barrett, the monstrous punching English light-welter contender of the 90s quickly became a one-note banger when it became apparent how hurtful and discombobulating a hitter he was. Very disappointing.

Tszyu is another who I always thought went slightly backwards as his career went on, becoming more of a straight-up stalker than during his amateur and earlier professional days. Quite ironic as he was actually accruing the belts as he did and becoming undisputed champ in the process.

 

Excellent post!

 

Shannon Briggs. He was one of the top ams in the US at one point. He preferred operation bumrush as a pro.

 

Barkley after the Hearns fight. Might have beaten Duran too if he had jumped on him, but kept thinking that he would fall after one punch.

Ruddock after Dokes. Abandoned the jab that gave him his name.