Front runner/late fader or slow starter/momentum builder?

Is it better at a high level of competition to be able to make a large bank deposit of early rounds, or to be able to "come on strong" in the second half after taking a while to warm up?

Or, is it better to not have one's efforts highly concentrated - neither front-loaded or rear-loaded, but rather just consistent without intensity all the way through for 12 rounds?

Example of the three types above would be Zab Judah & Jermain Taylor (front runners); Felix Trinidad & Antonio Margarito (slow starters); and Glen Johnson & Juan Diaz (consistent bell to bell, with no spurts of intensity at any period).

 

So it sounds like you'd go with option #4 above...probably my pick as well. :think You're right, having poor stamina in deep water wouldn't matter much if you have the KO power and accuracy to get to everybody and hurt them early on. Of course, guys who have that ability at lower levels don't always find that it translates to the bigger stage when they step up. Late starters like Pavlik need to make sure they come on at the right time or they could run out of time and lose on points. Something like a point deduction or flash knockdown can screw up their whole gameplan. And never having any moments of high intensity, like the rock-steady Johnson and Diaz, can lead to losing a lot of rounds they maybe shouldn't because the judges are impressed by the other person's energy and underwhelmed by theirs.

 

ODLH/Tito is one of the very fights I had in mind, great example of a clash of types A and B. Oscar let himself fade in the same manner against Floyd, too (who's more of a cross of somewhere between a B and a C).

And I definitely agree with Winky being a C type, and your assessment of both those fights. He probably lost rounds to Jermain on the basis of looking exactly the same round after round, with the judges sort of taking his consistent but repetitive work for granted and looking for something different to sort of snap them awake. Meanwhile, Tito was expecting to gain his usual foothold and it just never came that night.

 

Yeah, this topic seems to be very much as complex as styles.

(some might argue that this characteristic is a part of overall "styles", but the specificity of stamina and energy budgeting interests me a great deal)

It could well be that at the top level of the sport, as illustrated in dbouziane's examples above with Winky (and throwing in Pavlik-Taylor), that when dealing with top-level talent, something like distribution of effort (how much & when) - like styles themselves - can have a major impact on splitting boxers otherwise on the same tier.

It may be that we have a pattern roughly like the classic styles-making-fights rudimentary hierarchy that is often cited to debunk A beats B beats C so A beats C logic.

Much like:

Infighter > boxer/mover > swarmer > infighter

it could be that

Slow starter > Front runner > Rock steady > Slow starter.

:think

 

Interesting, so far not one vote for bagging 6-7 rounds and then taking it easy. It sure is a popular choice among boxers when matched tough!

 

Well, Lopez-Mtagwa is a good example of the strong starter investing enough to "just hang on" and still get the nod over the strong closer (albeit controversial...and the end was dangerous...still, at the end of the day he got the W).

 

So that would be C type, then, right? No spurts, just an even flow?

My assumption is that you mean the highest level one is capable of maintaining for a full 12 rounds. The absolute highest level someone can perform at, "kicking into overdrive" so to speak, is the level at which front runners perform early and strong closers perform late. To perform reasonably well throughout, one would have to hold back a little (but still not slack off) and not quite kick into overdrive as very few are physically able to sustain this for too long - but to perform at a nice, moderate pace and energy level.

Curiously, one of the only fighters with the conditioning and natural ability to do as you say literally is Pacquiao. He is in overdrive in the 1st round, and still in the 12th. Most people don't have that option, however, and have to compromise in some sense (with A, B, and C each being a sort of compromise).