Hey I didn't get a chance to watch this guy live, but he's great to view in retrospect. The stories of him knocking Nigel Benn's headgear loose in sparring is some of my favorite boxing apocrypha as well. I guess I'm just curious if anyone can tell me how he accomplished such a major career turnaround, going from being a .500 fighter when he beat Uncle Roger to holding a major world title. Did Freddie ever publicly state how he enjoyed such a vast improvement in form? Or is it just a matter of active speculation by fans? If so, what do you guys think?
Facing Jerome Coffee, Hilmer Kenty, Tyrone Trice and Anthony Fletcher in your first 18 or so fights doesn't speak of taking it lightly. He was thrown to the wolves a lot earlier in his career and took fights on super short notice... like the same day. He had a pretty thoughtless manager as I remember.
I saw tons of Pendleton. Early on he was very defensive just looking to survive. Moved to Florida and with new trainers started being successful. Heres the funny thing- when he actually stopped trying to just survive and actually win it turned out he had HUGE power in his righthand. Took out Roger Mayweather. Gave a PRIME Whitaker a decent fight. His bout with Ruleas was BS- dropped him three times only to get credit for 2 knockdowns. At the time they were trying to match the winner vs De La Hoya and Ruelas was more marketable. He also dropped Paez a couple of times when Paez could still fight. Latter in his career he fought Tony Lopez. Both were past it which made it a fun fight with both men hitting the canvas.
Fought Frankie Randall to a draw, I thought at the time Frankie shouldn't be fighting this guy, it's an all all risk no reward type fight
I thought he beat Randall. And this was I think prime Randall. He also gave Jimmy Paul fits when Paul was champion. Gave Joe Manley fits as well. Also beat Bramble. Pendleton could fight.
