Fighters who would have done really well in the twenty-five round era. NO HEAVYWEIGHTS.

Hello!

I was just discussing in the Hopkins/Taylor thread what a fine 25-round fighter Bernard Hopkins would have made. Sublime control of pace; a fighter who made his opponent's opposition his strict business; dirty infighter, clever about it; elite stamina (we're talking Trindad era and a bit after, here). A good sense of where he was in a fight (Generally). Great jaw, so when the inevitable happens over the longer distance, he'll be fine.

Who else? Who else impresses you as a fighter who would have done well at more than double the modern rate of rounds, fighting back in the early 1900s and late 1800s?

 

This answer is uninspiring to me.

But you know what, it might be the right kind of thinking. Elbows McFadden, the lightweight, was dangerous and deadly over the longer distance but he struggled desperately over six. He couldn't find the pacing and he couldn't feel out his man in time to get his best work across. He needed to be warm, and needed to see his guy fighting. So maybe Nelson would indeed have benefited greatly from fighting slow and made a difference late. Not sure I can see him beating a higher class of man for the change though?

 

Including a habit of good, late finishes over 15.

 

All three good picks, all very different too.

GGG, economical deployment, mastery of the least physically demanding punch, good late in twelve round fights, a hard worker who was nevertheless in control of his output; Charley Burley, a genius punch-picker, a fighter who favoured single shots and 1-2 punches over layered combination punching at distance but put them together in close; MSM, impossible to kill, which is terrifying when you are 17 rounds deep and starting to really feel sad you didn't go to work at that bakery.

 

I missed Arguello! He's a fighter that underlines one common denominator so far: very good chins.

You get that a lot though tbf, no matter what you ask. Unless you ask "glass jawed fighters from the forties?" or something.

 

Floyd's hands would have troubled him in that era IMO. I'm not saying he couldn't have overcome it, but it would have been very, very difficult for him I think. He would certainly have to win fights one-handed.