In a head-to-head matchup, I think Walcott gets battered. It's not that the styles matchup disfavors him, were Walcott the size of David Haye, I can see him twisting and turning Wlad into a left hook. It's boring to talk about size again with Klitschko, but Walcott is just too damn small for the quality of heavyweight that Wlad is. He'll be in no-mans land at the end of Wlad's jab until medium-rare and then skewered with big punches.
I would disagree somewhat. LaStarza--Dempsey went 12 with Bill Brennan, and went the full 15 with Gibbons, who was quite a bit smaller than LaStarza. I certainly think he beats LaStarza, and he might catch him early, but he also could have about as much trouble as Marciano did. Don C--He isn't going to beat Dempsey, and Marciano's performance was certainly one of his worst. However, Marciano fought Don C in the year he turned 32, so that would be 1927 for Dempsey. I think Dempsey stops him, and probably quicker than Marciano did. Moore--this is the one I would really disagree with. Marciano fought Moore when he was 32. Dempsey at 32? I think this is a very dangerous fight for him, and if he can't take Moore out early, and I think the odds would be he couldn't, he might be in for a very long and difficult night. Moore is certainly a live underdog here, and I could see an upset. *Even though Dempsey was my childhood boxing hero, and I still like the guy's image and what he brought to boxing, I have to respect what happened in the ring. His record as now stated on boxrec is 59-6-11 with 45 KO's. Much is made of his first-round KO's (currently listed by boxrec as 20), but that means he only scored 25 KO's in 56 fights which went beyond the 1st round. Bottom line--I would reverse the "you would have to see boxing evolving to a higher plane in the fifties" with my take being to judge Dempsey the better fighter you have be willing to say the white wing of the heavyweight division in the 1920's was better than the whole heavyweight division of the early 1950's, and in fact much better. That argument doesn't wash with me.
Lennox was lucky that Vitali got cut severely. It's part of the game and it was done on a punch so clearly legal (even in a clinch) so his win is legitimate. However had he not cut Vitali he likely loses. The momentum of the fight swung with that injury. Before it occurred I saw nothing from Lennox that indicated he would turn it around. He pulled one out of the fire. Good win both fighters improved their legacy in that fight.
Apparently the thread starter for some reason changed the title of the thread. I commented without reading previous posts. This thread is obviously about Dempsey against several of Marciano's opponents.
I Like both fighters very much. Before i always tought that Lennox got lucky to cut Vitali, but later i read a good point on the heavyweightblog.com that Vitali's main advantage over his opponents was his height and reflexes while leaning back with the punches, it worked against almost everyone, but Lewis was of another kind... big, tall fighter with very long reach and a great jab. And Lewis landed that jab to often on Vitali. It's more the problem of styles actually. And Lewis had the right tools to expose it - prime or not. It wouldn't be naturally for Vitali to box with a high guard due to his unique and long programmed stance/style. And i also think there are very few boxer historically who could expose that little flaw in an otherwise perfect and dominating style. The others I spontaneously think of: Wladimir Klitschko, Tyson Fury, and maybe Larry Holmes - even if his jab is the best of them, he may lack a few inches in height for it to be effective enough.
Can somebody remove this TKO6 garbage from the classic thread? This is going to spiral out of control between Lewis****s/Klit****s.
There's at least 3 different thread topics being discussed what's going on? Re: Lennox v Vitali Was Lennox Lucky? Re: Dempsey v ****ell,,Lastarza,Moore? Re: Jersey Joe v Wlad?
lennox was definitely lucky the ref stopped him from ripping vitalis eye out, or klitaards would have hated him even more for cutting short vits career, and also stopping wlads career at corrie sanders.