Michael Watson vs Tony Sibson At MW

Sorry i wasn't thinking

 

Lee was nothing more than the American equivalent of a good domestic/euro level banger.

 

I've a handful of Lee stoppages, his power was legit.Sure he didn't beat many worthwhile fighters...big deal, neither do most other flawed fighters that garner reps as big punchers post 60s.Especially not ones who fight much of their career during the reign of a dominant unified all-time great champion.


Generally though the raw power is a legit thing, easily seen in the kind of knockouts a fighter scores rather than the opposition level per se.Chin is not something directly related to fighter quality after all, plenty of fighters who were marginal talents and safe opposition can take as good a punch as the world class ones, they just don't have the tools to minimise the punishment.

Lee was inactive and for whatever reason never really looked nearly as sharp again as he did around the time of the sibson bout(where he was rocking a massive reach advantage and stylistic edge)Not really anything special as an overall fighter all things said(though i think he looked for a time like he had more potential than someone like, say Pavlik) and just a footnote, but could certainly punch.

 

Good analysis. I don't think anyone's denied he had power, it's the fact that atberry said he hit as hard or harder than Jackson, Hearns etc. Like i said he could bang, no question but to even suggest he was a Jackson, Hearns, Mcclellan, Foster level banger is rediculous imo because apart from obviously Sibbo, he was stopped himself against decent comp.

 

Whenever Lee was sparring at Kronk, he was known to flatten the fighters Hearns couldn't take down.

 

Manny paid Lee a lot of money for him to be Tommy's sparring partner for the Hagler fight and insisted on them wearing 18-20oz gloves, and Manny mentioned at the time that if he could take Lee's punches even with pillows and head guards, he could take Hagler's. (Don himself was still aggrieved at not getting a shot at Marvin himself, having been #1 contender.)

 

Yeah obviously he's not a name that should come instantly to mind if we're talking the best overall punchers or anything of the sort, or even most accomplished pure puncher sort of fighter at middle.

Stil his wins are hardly a million miles away from the stuff Gerald made his rep from.G-man only really has a half-blind faded jackson as a strong knockout victim.

It's the kind of knockouts and consistency that count as far as establishing world class punching power in and of itself imo.The level of fighter stopped tends to speak more of the overall quality of the powerpuncher in question.Though obviously we can often also say fighter A has more proven power than fighter B if he's stopped numerous top fighters with proven excellent chin's and B has largely failed at that level , but that's an additional layer.Usually it's quite obvious if someone can really punch in terms of raw power imo, as lon as you've seen enough fights.