Jimmy Young's Defensive style

Seeing how his biggest succes was against strong, powerful punchers he could have some succes against some of the big HWs of today. He'd never beat the Klits, of course, and I can see Chisora moving right through him. But he could make life a bit difficult for most other top HWs today. A guy like Ruiz would be his bread and butter.

 

he got robbed one to many times, he is like chris byrd, with a better jab. he would cause alot of problems and could easily be a top 4 or 5, but a 250lb man is still that.

 

Actually, he fought well after Foreman, beating Norten, though didn't get the dec. I thought he also beat Dokes and Ocasio, but didn't get those dec either. Then some good wins over Gardner, Racette, Stinson, Sims, Fisher, Thomas, Sekorski twice. He did well agaist A young Greg Page too. And that was after the Norten fight, aafter that, he was never the same. I think he lost interest, maybe alcohale and drugs at that time too? I don't know how he lost to some of those guys after that period. He was doing well against Cooney till the cut, had the balls to go out for rd4 blind. Chisora go through him? Nobody went through Young. Easy win for Jimmy. Ruiz a more difficult fight for him, Ruiz a good boxer, just not in Jimmy's league

 

Young would have made the untalented Chisora look plain stupid.

 

Young beats George Foreman...should have gotten the nods vs Ali and Norton and Chisora "walks through him"? That's general forum malarkey.

 

I was a big fan of Young back in the 70's. His total lack of power was his downfall. He just could not do much damage with his blows. Defencivly he covered up well and was a slippery target to connect solidly. Not an easy guy to fight in his prime for sure. The story I heard was that Young spent too much time partying especially in the Philly brothels even during his prime.

 

Young relied on his cleverness more so than anything, he was definitely one of the most crafty heavyweights boxers.

Boxing was never about punching power for him, he'd be one move ahead of his opponents and shut down anything they tried to do, while always managing to sneak one of his jabs, counters or flurries. Not overly damaging but extremely frustrating.

I feel one of his best attributes was his clinch game, the way he shut down and maneuvered a physically stronger Ron Lyle in the clinches was almost an art, if not an overly exciting one. It allowed him to deal with strong, hard-hitting fighters like Foreman and Lyle better than other movers and spoilers who were overwhelmed by their strength.

His style never required much physicality from him, which allowed for a less demanding training regimen. I agree with the Young "fanbase" that he largely stopped caring after the Norton loss. Spoilers like Young just have to keep plodding along until they are given the win in a big one, as their style goes largely unappreciated by the judges, sometimes justly.

The slip in Young's mentality was enough to turn him from a boxer who tried to survive and win to a boxer who merely wanted to survive. If his physique had not been impressive in his prime, it surely did not get any better as he started turning up in woeful shape, looking as if he had not trained a single day for his fights. Even then he did enough to make the likes of Dokes and Page look bad by their standards but without giving an effort you cannot hope to win a contest.

As far as physical attributes, even if he did possess decent handspeed in comparison to most heavyweights, he offers nothing threatening on paper, but he was smarter than most which again indicates that boxing is as much mental as it is physical. It is not that he even had great, all-around technical skills, he just had the style and smarts to be a pain to deal with.

Today's heavies, outside of Wladimir who deals well with the type due to his rather rare patience and methodical style for such a physically imposing fighter, would not look forward to facing him regardless of their size. Chisora would be absolutely humiliated to the point where he would never look forward to getting into the ring again. I don't want to praise Jimmy Young too much, just giving him his due credit here. Chisora is awful and has the worst style to go up against Young, much like a Sam Peter.

 

Young was exactly what I would call a smart boxer.....

 

Agree with most of what has been said, particularly A's point.

Don't think he beat Norton, though, had Ken winning that fight by a point or two.

 

Young always had 4 opponents to deal with whenever he fought..the guy in the other corner, the ref and the two judges.

 

All good points, though I do think Jimmy had good power, you could see guys stunned pretty often in his fights. That quick sneak right hand counter was a stunner, it was a hard shot. I think more his problem was he didn't follow it up when he had his man stunned. I think in his mind, he thought hey! I'm winning, this guy aint touching me, and I've been countering him all night. Why take a chance and mix it up. If he only did what he did just a little more, punch just a little more than he did, I wonder if he may have got some of those dec. he deserved. And his fights were close, so I can see poeple thinking he lost them, but I don't. But, how the hell did guys like phil brown and vic valentino beat him? Was he drunk in the ring?

 

Jimmy Young didn't need a big, hulking, muscled up build, huge punching power or anything like that..he could just outwit and make to look stupid and clumsy the guys that he fought...Ali and Norton included.

 

His power was deceptive..he rattled Ali and Norton in those fights. His punches were of the sneaky, sudden variety that you couldn't prepare yourself for.