History Lesson: Kid Gavilan

Hearns
Burley
Robinson (obvioulsy)
Williams
Leonard
Walker

Should all be favoured over him in my view.

I think that

Britton
McLarnin
Loi
Napoles
Duran
Ross

Are close to 50/50 fights, though I favour Kid in all of these with a gun to my head.

Griffith
Rodriguez
Bassilo
Benitez
DeLaHoya
Trinidad
Walcott
Whitaker
Lewis

Are very great fighters who he should be favoured over.

One of the greatest chins of all time, unquestionably.

Are

 

I think he was a stinging puncher. Nobody would be walking through him at WW. But you could see why he is not to be considered alongside MW greats like some of these other great WW's, perhaps primarily because of the power issue.

 

I have the Oakland Billy Smith fight. And that is it! Splendid stuff though. Smith was seen as a real banger at 175, but Burley is the puncher in that fight.

Last time I checked, which was some time ago, the whole fight was on YouTube, in two parts?

 

Holman. Think about it now. Quick, slick, not interested in a stoppage or in bullying his man (which is not possible) beautiful positioning and world class punch resistance has kept him out of trouble against punchers all his career.

Murderous body puncher, extremely busy, impossible to discourage...what I've looked for in picking out fighters are guys who do what they do better than anyone ever did it at the weight. If there is a "kryptonite" it is probably incredible speed, but even that is not to be counted upon entirely when you are considering a fighter of such variety.

How do you see Kid dealing with Walker's brand of violence?

Burley is to be favoured because of his evasivness, but also becuase of his enormous strength. Plus, I won't rule out power. A guy who can stop a HW 220lb HW, however limited, whilst weighing 150, is special enough in this regard to trouble even Kid at the WW limit. This is a fight where Burley's reach is also a very, very serious advantage. He was a wonderful timer of a man, and Kid is going to have to find some way of closing the distance without getting hurt. Don't bet on it.

Do you see any similairities between Gavilan's style and Loi's? I only say so because I think they are both anathema to brawlers, which seems interesting to me. You would need a near perfect brawler to trouble either of them. In fact, at the weight, maybe only Walker could do it.

Whitaker is obviously of most interest to you. I think that he could, actually, keep Kid off with genius for big chunks of a match for the ages, BUT, he would tend to lose rounds where he failed to do so, without neccesarily winning the rounds where the opposite is true. Aggression should be scored.

Griffith - interesting. You think Emile has a better chance to out muscle/punch Kid than Walker does? You SEEN the Scmeling fight (yes I know he wasn't a WW for that one)?

 

I love this. Lead left uppercuts, lead rights, lead left hooks, no guard against one of the biggest punchers at 175 - and the man's best weight is 147.