HOF?: Vinnie Pazienza

Not even close imo.A relatively ordinary fighter even at his very best.

 

I don't think I'd place him in the hall either, but I wouldn't label him as ordinary. He twice defeated Greg Haugen in a three fight series that many fans deem as a classic rivalry. He also has the claim to being a two time world champion at both lightweight and middleweight. In 1991, he suffered a near fatal car accident that was supposed to render him as permanantely disabled. He returned a year later to put together an impressive winning streak and reestablished himself as a top contender before losing to a peak Roy Jones.. He was very active in the ring, had a very high workrate, could punch, box, go the distance, and was usually a crowd pleasing fighter...

A hall of fame candidate he may not be, but nor was he in the least bit ordinary..

 

I was never impressed with him Magoo.Just didn't do it for me.

Tough guy, but sloppy and generally more style over substance.

 

Fair enough,

I myself enjoyed his fights and thought that he was exciting to watch. Not to mention loaded with personality. At least two of his three meetings with Haugen were some of the most action packed fights of my youth. I remember when he defeated Gilbert Dele for a portion of the Jr. Middleweight title. Dele was the much larger of the two, and Pazienza was all over him from round 1, overwhelming Dele with barage after barage of big shots. Vinnie's footwork and combinations were sharp that evening. He stopped Dele in the 12th round just moments before the very end..

 

No

 

Right. I'd say he was a good fighter who may not have been a HOF but was a worthy addition to his era and had some great fights. He was clearly out of his element going up so high in weight against RJJ.

Very awkward guy to fight at times with some decent subtle movement.

 

No. Fun enough fighter to watch, and he deserves a lot of credit for coming back from breaking his neck, but even if I wanted to I couldn't justify a place for him in the HOF.

I also thought he was one of the more obvious examples of roiders, but that's another story.

 

Yeah i think vinny should be in the hof, he beat duran twice, was a two weight world champion and was a true warrior who over came alot

 

I agree but don't roids normally cause a decline in speed? I mean he was still really quick at 168 despite being about 10-15 lbs over where he should've been.

 

I would vote for no.

 

No, not at all.

This is really for another thread though...it's purely (strong) speculation on my part anyway, nothing concrete.

 

I dunno it might just be the way baseball works on my mind. Most of the time when guys bulk up through various...means, they become 1000x slower. Obviously more mass=less speed but it always seems increasingly apparent in baseball.

That's what makes Paz' great speed at a higher weight such a strange deal.

 

I find it hard to believe that barry mcguigan and jessie wilard are in, i really cant believe barry made it! when kalambay, donald curry, michael nunn, iran barkley naseem hamed have yet been voted in