Velez was clearly the better boxer in his fight against Gradovich, but because Velez couldn't hurt a fly, he took a beating. Expect him to continue to take beatings throughout his career. Look at Zou Shimming, flashy, nice style, has some defensive lapses, but can transition from Southpaw to Orthdox smoothly, and won a Gold Medal. But at the end of the day, he has no power. This means guys will eventually walk him down and stop him and every single fight is going to be a life or death struggle. If you can't get your opponents respect, you can have all the boxing skills in the world, but every fight you're in is going to be a life or death struggle. If you have a single lapse in conditioning, you will take a beating. This is why I think it may be a mistake for Crawford to move up to 140. I'm not sure this kid has much power. I can't exactly tell because of the way he demolished Gamboa, but in every single one of his other fights, he looked like an arm puncher. And people can point things out and say, but what about Mayweather. Well, Mayweather has enough power to gain his opponents respect or at least he used to. If something happened to Mayweather recently where he can no longer hurt his opponents, guys like Kirkland will probably beat the hell outta him and guys like Provo will give him a life or death struggle. In the past though, Mayweather could make people respect him. And if they didn't respect him initially, Mayweather had the conditioning to keep moving around the ring at first and then sit down on his shots later on in the fight, to make them respect him. Now, Mayweather doesn't appear to be able to move the duration of the fight. Sure he did against Guerrero, but keep in mind Guerrero is a guy who was incredibly weak before his fight with Mayweather. Not only that, but Mayweather still had to clinch whenever he got close. Ultimately, my point is, people underrate power on this site. Imagine if Pacquaio had no power. He would be average. You think Pacquaio could have beaten Margarito with no power? Why do you think Floyd avoided Margarito? Floyd didn't trust his power and neither did his handlers. Nobody wants to be in the type of fight where your opponent just laughs at your shots.
Gradovich really isn't a power puncher either. Styles make fights. Velez was has a more classic boxer's style, but it was a step up in class, he lacked experience and Gradovich was able to come on late becuase Velez was not used to that kind of consistent pressure. He's a good boxer, Valez......but he just was in with a more experienced fighter with a style that offset his.
Stylistically, I wasn't very impressed with Gradovich. Gradovich wouldn't have been able to use his style with much effectiveness if Velez had power because Gradovich would respect him more. While Gradovich landed some solid counterpunches, a lot of that was due to Velez giving him so many opportunities, because Velez knew Gradovich didn't respect his power and had to throw everything he could at Gradovich, including the kitchen sink just to try to make Gradovich respect him. If Velez had power, we would see a different fight. Those bodyshots Velez landed on Gradovich would surely have an effect, and those shots right down the middle would slow Gradovich down and allow Velez to dictate the pace. Gradovich's lack of respect for Velez' power made Velez fight Gradovich's fight because Velez had no choice.
Who said Gradovich had power? Nobody said that. I said Gradovich did not respect Velez because Velez had no power. Reading compression isn't your strong point, is it?
My point is, power is often what separates the elite from the rest. And that doesn't mean you need knockout power, but you need at least enough power to make your opponent respect you. If your opponent doesn't respect you, then you can't control the pace. If you can't control the pace, expect to be in a war every single fight. And a war doesn't necessarily mean you'll take a hell of a lot of punishment, assuming your in amazing condition and have excellent defense, but it's a war with yourself trying to maintain that conditioning and pacing yourself just enough to win the fight. But if you get into a fight with another guy that has great conditioning and doesn't respect your power not one bit, expect to be involved in a war of attrition, no matter how good your defense is.
If Valez had power it could have turned out differently but that's a different fighter and Gradovich most likely would have fought a different fight. Most world champions like Gradovich got to that level by being able to fight differently based on the qualities and attributes their opponents have. Gradovich has beaten fighters with more power which is almost every time he fights. A lot of his opponents have a more classic boxers style as well. But he's able to come out on top in a division that's decent..... He's not a great fighter but he's very good and proven. He's beatable but it will take someone who has more than just power to beat this kid.
Clearly the better boxer? Idk about that, all he really had going for him vs Gradovich was his jab and an occasional power shot. He was lacking in many things to be outboxing Grado. Velez does pack some power, but Gradovich showed he has a very good chin. It was Velez that was withering under Gradovich's pressure and constant assault. Way I saw it, if Gradovich pressed alittle bit more as Garcia was asking him too, Velez would of gotten stopped. Had Velez boxed circles, fight behind the jab, landed those bodyshots earlier, and clinched more often, not getting lured into toe to toe exchanges with Gradovich, he might of earned the victory. Alot of times it's not an opponent's power you have to be wary of or respect, it can be his ability to pressure or outwork you. Velez got extremely lucky with a draw, but he should take this as a learning experience.
I agree, I thought Gradovich was going to stop him. I agreed with Jones right away when he said Velez had no snap and no power. But Velez TRIED to box, but he found out quickly that Gradovich didn't respect him. Gradovich is a guy that pressures, comes forward, and he's hittable. He's always been like that. The way you stop a guy like that is, you hit him hard. You hit the guy hard enough, he starts thinking twice about coming in, and he allows you to slow the pace down, take your time, and start placing your shots. Gradovich took away Velez' ability to do that because Gradovich simply did not respect Velez' power. Gradovich was basically laughing at his shots. Just like Roy said, Velez was like a gnat. An annoying little thing that just won't go away. You're damn right, Velez was lucky though. Stylistically, that match up completely favored Gradovich, who I thought did enough to win the fight.
:yep Best way to beat a pressure fighter with a good chin is slowing him down to the body. I do give Velez credit for that, just that he executed that strategy alil too late in the fight.
Yeah I agree, power is very important, I think a lot of fighters overvalue speed as well, sacrificing a lot of power for it, sometimes to the point where they are just featherfisted.
