Max Baer vs. Oscar Bonavena

bonavena for sure,i would bet for him

 

I think, as much as I love Max Baer, that Oscar would have an excellent chance of pulling an upset if he fought Max the way he did George Chuvalo. Move around, relying on footwork, and attacking from unexpected angles.....never presenting a stationary target if he could help it,....jabbing (though OB has a reach disadvantage), throw the occasional odd combination, reset, rinse and repeat. A sloppy, unorthodox type of match that Oscar would have a chance of winning by a narrow points victory. Oscar would be in profoundly more danger with Baer than he was at any time vs Chuvalo, so at the very least, it would be a bizarre, but IMO, a highly entertaining match. More advantageous to Ringo if it were for 10 rounds, rather than 15,...reason being, Baer had a stamina advantage, and 10 rounds would be 5 rounds less for Oscar's risk of getting clocked by Baer's might right hand.

 

Who did Oscar beat again?

 

This actually does sound very appealing even though it could easily be a complete mess.

 

the question is how good did he look against elite guys like frazier(miles better than baer).

 

Baer stopped Schmeling ,where is Bonavena's equivalent victory?

 

Not sure who wins but I'm thinking it might be a pretty good fight.

 

the point is that baer fought in a much weaker era,to me fighting a war and dropping smokin joe twice is much better than beating schmeling, schmeling would be worse than quarry in the 60s-70s, oscar did beat good guys like zora foley,peralta,leotis martin(knocked liston the **** out),mildenberger,a peak chuvalo, plus he did pretty well against anyone except maybe ali... but ali would play with max as well,i can't see max being more than another ko victim in the record of frazier

 

He did well even against Ali....gave him one hell of an evening..and up until March 8th 1971, probably gave Ali his toughest fight...and it was as much exhaustion and sloppiness brought on by exhaustion that caused the 15th round stoppage,...oh, and a referee who let Ali hover over Oscar after the knockdowns...following the same ring rules that worked against Dempsey may have bought Bonavena a little bit of time.

 

Sounds like kind of a Leon Spinks vs. Donovan Ruddock sort of scenario to me.

 

Not really, because Baer’s second, third, and fourth best wins would also be better than anything Bonavena did.

He was just a much better fighter.

Even if use the better era argument for Bonavena, you have to have something to bring to the table.

 

Ellis dropped Oscar twice, Folley dropped him in their first fight and only lost a majority decision in their second fight, when he was washed up. Bonavena was a solid contender, never anything more.

 

Baer at his best absolutely beats Oscar. Baer by 15 round unanimous decision. Baer had too many tools.

 

Exactly! Ironically, Oscar's claim to fame hinges on three Loses, two to Frazier and one to Ali. Baer, though, was an undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Max by tko, similar to the Carnera carnage.