Mairis Briedis at 200lbs, Evander Holyfield at 190lbs, David Haye at 200lbs, Jai Opetaia at 200lbs, Oleksandr Usyk at 200lbs, Murat Gassiev at 200lbs and Jean Marc Mormeck at 200lbs. He never campaigned at Crusierweight, but don’t see why he couldn’t do well considering he had success at heavyweight. Who wins these matchups?
Beats Mormeck, loses to the rest. He barely scraped by a past prime HW Holyfield, so I think it’s safe to assume a prime CW Holyfield would’ve beat him. The guy he has the best chance against apart from Mormeck is Gassiev but even then I don’t know if MM’s chin would hold up to Gassiev’s power.
Yeah the problem with Moorer isn't that he couldn't box or punch, he could, the problem is that I'm not at all confident his iffy chin can take the incoming too well. And there are some big hitters on that list.
I dunno man, Moorer's chin isn't too shabby. Slugged it out with Cooper, got off the deck against Holyfield, didn't get put down against Stewart or Jirov, Moorer only really struggled with Heavyweight power punchers. Is getting knocked out by Foreman, Tua, and roided out Holyfield that bad? Holyfield and Usyk are the ones that definitely beat him, but he's got decent chances against everyone else.
Usyk and Holyfield are a no, but I could see him beating the rest on a good night. At his best he was a well-schooled, clever lefty with a nuclear punch and great combinations.
That's how I see it as well. Breidis in his prime was really good and I could see him giving Moorer a hell of a fight. Breidis knew how to fight Southpaws, that's for sure.
I definitely think it was more than above average at Heavyweight. He shook Foreman, had Holyfield on deer legs, took out Cooper in five, turned the tides and got a TKO against Botha, and Alex Stewart, too. He had pretty good scalps in his prime.
Guys like Gassiev and Briedis pretty much are heavyweight power punchers. That said, you do make some good points. Cooper could really crack for instance.
Foreman was 45, Holy was having a heart attack and organ failure, and Cooper was dropped and stopped many time by many lesser fighters, as were Botha and Stewart. No "nuclear" power there.
Foreman still had a hell of a chin in the 90s, and I'm referring to the second Holyfield fight. Cooper was exclusively knocked out by Williams, Miller, Foreman, Bowe, and Moorer in his prime, and went a full 15 with Mercer, while only getting dropped in the opening round, and Ray had huge power. Botha was only stopped by Moorer, Tyson, Lewis, and Wlad in his prime, while only getting dropped once in his fight with the hard hitting Briggs (He won that fight, too). And finally, Stewart only got knocked out in his prime by Holyfield, Tyson, and Moorer, while not getting dropped in the match with Foreman, or his rematch with Holyfield. We're not talking about Tommy Morrison here.
There are athletes who gain more than they lose after moving up to a higher weight. For example, Toney reactivated his career in cruiserweight and HW without having to lose weight and he still had the skills and reflexes, the big guys were usually too slow for him. Usyk also seems to be as strong a HW as a cruiser, giving the HW its speed. But Moorer, in my opinion, had no predisposition to HW. Weighing too much, he was a bit lazy, quite static, and did not have the smoothness of movement that a small HW should have. He worked a lot with his front hand, blocked punches but didn't avoid them, could punch but often got into the distance of his rivals, which lost him against Foreman. In my opinion, the cruiser was perfect for him but... I never saw him there so it's very difficult to judge. However, I think it would be a better cruiser than the HW. As good as Usyk and Holy, but since this is speculation, I can't put him as a favorite over them. However, I am convinced that the lower the weight at which they would meet Evander, the greater the chances for MM, and let's remember that in HW he was 1-1 with him, although overall he turned out to be weaker.
We will agree to disagree. There are an awful lot of..."only stopped by" in those assessments. I simply disagree that it adds up to Moorer having nuclear power.