What are your fantasy match-ups between some of your favourite fighters & how do you see the fight playing out? Some of mine are: Joe Louis vs Joe Frazier Keys to victory Frazier - Constant bob & weave head movement (also side to side not just up & down), use the jab more often, stay on the inside (with your head on his chest like Frazier often did), have a high work-rate of volume punching & body attack. Louis - Establish a sharp jab, stay off the ropes, time Frazier's rhythm, use feints, head-movement & footwork for defense purposes & to set-up punches, throw powerful combinations to keep Frazier honest & to make him hesitant from coming in aggressively. Conclusion: After a gruelling affair with both men tasting the canvas, Joe Louis is the victor - scoring a devastating 11th TKO win over a tough & determined Frazier.
Julio Cesar Chavez vs Floyd Mayweather at 130lbs & 135lbs Keys to victory Mayweather - Sharp jab, keep your distance, get your timing right to effectively counter with right hands, keep off the ropes ( I don't see Mayweather's shoulder roll on the ropes being effective here), use a lot of faints to bait him to unnecessary lead for counterpunching opportunities. Chavez - Be effective & patiently aggressive, pick your shots well, relentless pressure & body attack, high work-rate & volume-punching, use a sharp jab often, use your straight right down the pipe with authority often, tight high guard, head movement & economical footwork for defensive purposes (as well as to catch Mayweather's punches in order to counter). Conclusion: Mayweather W UD12 at 130 Chavez W UD12 or TKO9 at 135
I don't really have any particular favourite fantasy match-ups, but I'll do a few which I found intriguing. This content is protected This content is protected ; Roman was a great light fly and flyweight fighter, but he'd lost some luster as he moved up another few pounds. By the time he reached 115, he was likely already on the slide, and now he was having to impose himself, violently, on better - and arguably better - fighters. Strengths For me, his strengths came in the form of his unbelievable workrate. He consistently throws around 1000 punches a fight. He was also incredibly fast, well-balanced, composed and equipped with unnatural timing and a full arsenal when it comes to punch selection. Brilliant footwork when it comes to make the ring a smaller place, and remaining in position to string off eight punch combinations which were like liquid. I feel like his last main strength is a great defence. He had very slight head-movement, to take sting out of shots or have them slip by his ears. He used a high-guard like an old pro, and was very comfortable switching hand slots upstairs and down when under fire. His back-hand parry seems to go unnoticed, and so does his almost Duran-esque ability to find that niche to work from up close. All augmented by an ATG sense of distance. Weaknesses He wasn't without any, though. Rungvisai managed to turn the trick, twice. He overpowered and out-muscled Chocolatito, and Cuadras held him to a draw on my card. Cuadras himself used speed and workrate, but combined with his height, weight and reach to out-score Gonzalez. I feel like his lack of stature is his only downfall at the weight, but it's a pretty big one. This content is protected ; Gerry is one of very best fighters in super-flyweight history IMO, and is the most skilled Philippine in boxing history. On my cards, he should've been undefeated in his first fifty, and beat some top names in the division at the time. Some who would always rank among the best ever at 115 on my list. Strengths He's one of boxing's true iron men. Having took literally thousands of punches, while smaller and past prime from three huge bangers in De Leon, Juanma and Jhonny Gonzalez, you just know he isn't getting KOed by anybody short of Wilfredo Gomez. His sense of composure was legendary. Completely unflappable in there. I don't think he'd have given the Fan Man from Bowe-Holy II more than a cursory glance had it been him in there. He was extraordinarily well schooled, with some of the most perfect fundamentals I've ever seen and showing a repertoire of feints which would so often get great fighters out of their rhythm. His footwork was brilliant, and his technique was flawless. One thing I always find undermentioned when talking about Fearless, is that he's an incredible ring general. He just always seemed to have control of what was going to happen. Even in rounds he may not necessarily have won, he was edging closer to set up his punches, or exploiting a weakness which was making the opponent fight the type of fight you want him to. Also, his defence is one of the very best ever. This content is protected Weaknesses His two main weaknesses would create a stylistic foil against two type of fighters, coincidentally two styles which are almost the antithesis of one another. The first, is that legendary composure, could translate into a lack of urgency, and an almost one-paced style of fighting. He simply threw what he saw as just enough. Overwhelming guys who throw tons of punches a round are going to create the type fight Penalosa was often in, a type of fight which comes down to who landed clean, or who landed more. He also didn't have the fastest feet. His great footwork meant he could close off the ring and get to fighters eventually, but he had issues with guys who did 'ran' from him. I know most fighters do, but it's quite a clear weakness in Gerry's case. Especially as a southpaw. Guys like Cho and Tokuyama (and I don't for one second think Penalosa lost any of the four fights) did anything and everything to avoid standing and trading. They won rounds by just being out of range, since they enjoyed the early rounds being able to circle to their left and out-working Penalosa. His lack of late-round urgency doesn't help him vs either type of fighter. This content is protected : To me, this'd be a great technical war, in which Gonzalez's workrate and skills win him a close, maybe contentious decision. He'd throw three to one, and it's not like Penalosa would land everything he throws. It'd be an awesome battle of wits up close, with both men exhibitinh great defence and showing great skills in setting the other up and getting the other in and out of position. The problem with this kinda fight is that while Penalosa would be winning the 'feint-game', and getting the better of technical, nerdy stuff, Chocolatito would be punching, and scoring. One thing which Penalosa's unbelievable sense of timing, and extremely underrated physical strength did to fighters, was put them on the back-foot. He did it to everybody in the end, I feel like that's his ticket to winning rounds as the fight goes on. It'd be very interesting to see his Gonzlalez fights a non-Rungvisai calibre puncher who's able to out-muscle him. Their natural habit of weighing their opponent up means we'd have a first round which rivals Zarate-Pintor for a lack of action. This content is protected I'll try and do some others through the week.
Archie Moore v Evander Holyfield keys to victory Archie- Change angles constantly and make him miss. Make sure he gets countered with those misses and slips. Enrage him with counter rights and make him brawl. Evander- Punch punch and punch some more. Overwhelm Archies cross arm defense with consistent and constant pressure. conclusion- Archie edges out a split decision victory with each scoring a knock down. Really nice thread idea btw
