Impressive conservative displays from generally non-conservative fighters?

Frazier turned really conservative and careful in his second fight with Forman

 

I thought Roberto Duran fought somewhat conservatively in his rubber match with DeJesus..he avoided getting decked early again and fought a somewhat more disciplined, purposeful fight and thoroughly proved his point..

 

Julian Jackson versus Thomas Tate put him in a different light.

 

Much of Hearns - Leonard, both ways to some degree.

 

Hearns - Benitez, Hearns had to reign himself in greatly, especially when it came to firstly following Benitez to the ropes, and wailing away there.

Spinks largely shelved the big right hand vs Braxton/Qawi due to his superb countering.

 

Great call JT1..:thumbsup

 

Nice post. I watched Ali-Folley the other day having not seen it for quite some time and it's a good choice to kick things off.

Cobra mentioned Duran-DeJesus III, but the respect that Duran showed to Hector Thompson was particularly unusual for him and probably a more efficient way of gaining the stoppage than going nuts to the wall would've been. Hector was like an articulated lorry at lightweight in terms of his size and strength, so Duran broke him down on the back foot and only really started to snarl a bit once he had Thompson hurt.

I like Ortiz' performance against Old Bones in winning the title, he was very tempered and inversely clever in the way he went about it, outfoxing the fox rather than banking too much on his youth and physical advantages. His jab, timing and subtle shifts of movement were all top notch and he still kept up a good workrate without deviating too much from what he set out to do.

Conservative might not be the most exclusively appropriate term, but Harada was warier than usual in the rematch against Medel with the title at stake - unsurprising when you look at how Medel timed and trapped him first time around just when Harada thought he was starting to have it all his own way. Great fight from both men this one with Harada showing his versatility and the quality of his jab in particular. Medel was a very good trapsmith and a crafty ******* off of the ropes as well as having knockout power in both fists, but Harada didn't bite nearly as much. He sometimes did similar stuff against Jofre actually; that knockout loss to Medel really helped in making him a better, more multi-faceted fighter when all was said and done.

I have to mention Morales-Pacquiao too, final round aside. It's become a bit of an irritating cliche that Morales had underrated boxing skills, but he really took note of what Marquez had done and reigned himself in superbly here despite not giving an inch of ground in the exchanges; it was actually Pac who was forced to do that most of the time, though usually from being off balance. He went toe to toe just enough to let Pacquaio know that he wasn't going to take any **** but was generally disciplined and never let Pacquaio get fully set when the latter was in the phase of transitioning himself; his timing and straight punching at mid to long range were spot on. And he was past his peak too, by this point.

Oh, and yeah. Hatton against Tackie and Malignaggi

 

Barrera vs Hamed. At the time, no-one expected MAB to be able to box in such a disciplined and effective fashion.

 

One of my all time favorite displays of disciplined and effective skill.:good

 

Would Froch-Abraham fall into this category? I never expected Frochy to be so disciplined.

 

Just remembered Walker-Hudkins II. Great role reversal for Mickey, that one.