Interesting successful strategies ...

Good move. Very imaginative.

I'll also add in a couple more unique strategies. Sammy Fuentes, a decent 140 lber back in the '90s, when an opponent was clinching with him, Fuentes would start bouncing on the ***** of his feet. One fighter was laying all over him, laying his face on his shoulder and when Fuentes started his jarring motion, he actually dislocated the fighter's jaw when his shoulder was bouncing off of him.

Also, I would add in the Jimmy Young head-outside-the ropes tactic when he fought Ali. He was chastised at the time, but I recognised it as an old wrestling move. When in a bit of distress, the wrestler would stick his head outside the ropes, which would instigate an immediate break.

 

I remember Fuentes doing that....smart move.

 

Interesting tactic.

 

Read what Kid McCoy did.

A master of cuts with his corkscrew punch and hand wraps. McCoy had a way of twisting his fist upon impact to create cuts. This was legal, much of his other antics were not.

Throwing tacks down in the ring before the start of a fight with a barefoot fighter, then knocking him out when he stepped on one.

In a key fight, McCoy corner once sprayed ammonia into his opponents face.
Or faking an illness vs. Tommy Ryan who didn't train hard because of it, then coming into the ring fit as can be.

Or fighting a man in the bar who said he wasn't who he claimed to be. After being thrashed the patron said something like “ Oh my, that was the real McCoy "

 

Diego Corrales and the mouthpiece

 

I never thought Young should have been penalized for that,...it was imaginative. If Ali had done it , it would have been just one more thing that his legion of idolizers would be praising him for today.

 

A few more to think of:

1) Young Corbett when facing Terry McGovern, did everything in his ****nal to **** off McGovern before the fight so that he had an absolutely seething animal across the ring from him. It worked of course. McGovern knew nothing about counter-punching and he was an open target for Corbett.

2) Max Schmeling executed the perfect plan against Joe Louis in their first fight when he watched Louis on film dropping his jab on its return. He laid in the weeds until he timed it perfect and boom!

3) Chiquita Gonzalez turning boxer in the 2nd and 3rd fights with Carbajal. I recall a magazine article stating, "Could Rocky Marciano fight like Willie Pep?"

 

1. It's good that Gonzales had that Willie Pep thing going for him, like Gene Fullmer being able to box...cause Chiquita sure as hell didn't have a chin like Rocky's.
2. Fight #3 with DeJesus was Duran at his best IMO.

 

Both Willie Pastrano and Carlos Ortiz had similar strategies vs their respective opponents Harold Johnson and Joe Old Bones Brown....they both boxed, refused to lead, and concentrated of the jab at the almost total expense of their right hands.

 

I swear Gene Tunney or another ATG said something about McCoy to illustrate the type of man he is...i.e he just wants to enjoy to see you lose money or something.

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Anyway, the most famous strategy was Ali-Foreman. Foreman is punched out.

Salido against Lomachenko - taking FULL advantage of a fighter who had no pro experience. Used low blows to set up other punches as well as effective aggression, as he knew he wouldn't win the fight on a pure boxing match (even though Lomachenko was pacing himself excessively).

 

He broke the weigh in rules horribly and had an incompetent ref on his side. Not sure if that quite fits in the thread.

 

I agree, and it wasn't something he came in the ring with as he didn't start the rope-a-dope until the 3rd when he said there was no way he could've maintained the pace of the first two rounds. It was an Ad-Hoc plan that was performed in the field. Quite brilliant. There were two more similar let-the-bruiser-punch-himself-out plans I remember. The Marlon Starling-Lloyd Honeyghan match. Starling fought with that high peek-a-boo style and let Honeyghan spend himself while making him pay with subtle counters. Also, the Michael Watson-Nigel Benn fight. Same thing. Both plans let the puncher bang away at their high guard and then taken out.

 

Actually Ali started his ropeadope in round 2. Round one Ali discovered a number of troubling issues:

1. Heavily padded ring canvas. Nearly impossible to move side to side without exhausting yourself.

2. Foreman much faster than anticipated.

3. Foreman cutting the ring superbly.

At the end of round one Ali realized it was a matter of time before he runs into a Foreman bomb. So he let George come to him, controlled the action, and won the fight.