Most frustrating boxing performances?

Clinton Woods against Antonio Tarver.

 

Wlad vs Fury was a head scratcher and frustrating. But at 39 looking back maybe age just caught up to him.

 

But didn't Wlad do the same thing he always does ?

He's always been critcized for his caution, throwing very few punches, and taking rounds and rounds to open up with right hands and left hooks off the jab.
Old perhaps, but he was fighting his same old style.

 

* To be fair, I was surprised the judges didn't give it to Wladimir too.

* Yes, the rematch is an intriguing fight. I expect an improved Wlad versus an improved Fury. I'd like to see Fury stop him, but the reverse is just as likely. Huge credit to whoever wins this.

 

Tua vs Lewis.

 

Hugo Corro, a fighter who I am in the minority here in this forum of liking, frustrated and perplexed me no end by just shutting down all offense in the last 5 rounds vs Vito Antuofermo. It was the same as just quitting. Corro was very capable of beating Vito, and would have done so with his clever,....boring, but deceptively clever and effective boxing, but elected to just go defensive and largely just gave away the last 5 rounds, the fight and the title to Vito. Inexcuseable and pathetic...and it disgusted his Argentine fan base no end,...especially following up on the heels of their great recent champion like Monzon and Galindez.

 

Red, I don't know if it was a case of Corro shutting down as much as it was being stomped down. Vito just went crazy those last five rounds, never giving Hugo a chance to breathe. It was an incredible amount of very rough leather Vito threw at him that last third of the fight. Now, having said that, I've only seen Corro fight 3 times. The two fights with Valdez and the Vito fight. Valdez did nothing IMO and let Corro pick away at his title. He never mounted an attack. So basically I'm saying, I don't know if Corro would always go into a shell when someone was throwing leather or if he did just elect to do so as you mentioned against Vito.

 

A couple of more performances that had me saying 'WTF were you thinking?'

DeLaHoya-Mayweather - Oscar won 3 rounds in a row in the middle rounds with his jab and then inexplicably stopped using it and Mayweather takes over. Afterwards when asked why he stopped, he said, "It wasn't the night for the jab." Huh?!!!

Monroe Brooks-Adolfo Viruet - here is an old one but just like Oscar and Floyd. Brooks always thought he was a puncher. And he had pop, but I always thought he was a better boxer and felt he would have gone further had he boxed and sharp-shooted instead of going crazy for a KO. In this fight in the middle rounds he started boxing and won three rounds straight before going back for a KO and losing the decision.

Billy Conn-Joe Louis - we know the story on this one.

Alfonso Zamora-Alberto Sandoval - same story as Louis - Conn. Sandoval started a ram-rod jab and had Zamora all at sea in the 7th before trying to slug with him in the fateful 8th.

 

Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Both of them. WTF ?

 

Well, as the resident Corro "expert" here,..I know that he was a part of the not widely known, outside of Argentine boxing circles, of the "Mendoza School", which was a regional school of boxing which emphasized a rather conservative, defense first, counterpunching style of boxing, which also tends to be a bit boring for the average fight fan, Argentine or otherwise. Hugo was lucky to have met Rodrigo Valdez at the time that he did, as the Colombian was rather depleted, let us say, after being beaten twice by the great Carlos Monzon, and having won a routine, run of the mill decision over Bennie Briscoe just afterwards to finally win the unified world middleweight title. Valdez was basically shot when he first defended against Corro, and Hugo employed a classic Mendoza strategy vs Valdez of retreating, though effectively and counterpunching & remaining defensive for the first 12 rounds, and then opening up aggressively on Valdez in the final 3 rounds. It worked like a charm for him, and in the rematch Hugo virtually shut out an even more shot Valdez over 15 rounds, putting on an impressive, yet at the same time, boring performance that frustrated Argentine fans no end because their guy failed to "take Valdez out". I guess Hugo was a bit "uninspired" vs Vito, and lost those last five rounds not because Vito landed anything at all, but because he at least TRIED to make a fight out of it and Corro's true Mendoza mind set took over and he went total defensive on the Italian, thereby giving away those rounds to Vito. A huge paragraph, I know, about a negative non-entity around these parts, but that kinda explained Hugo Corro some, I guess. This and I'm sure that he didn't want any part of the oncoming Marvin Hagler, who had been referring to Corro as a "sissy" among other things.:bbb

 

Hector Camacho after beating bazooka Limon was always frustrating watching him hold back

 

I never knew that about the Mendoza school. Thanks very much. It would remind you of any school or trainer who had one way of training/teaching. Jesus Rivero comes to mind who trained Miguel Canto. He took over Oscar DeLaHoya but always emphasized boxing and Oscar eventully dumped him to become more offensive. Also, Brendan Ingle, who churned out very similar styles in Herol Graham, Prince Naz and Johnny Nelson. For those emphasizing punching I would think of Yank Durham who handled Joe Frazier. I recall he took over Len Hutchins and laughed reading how Len complained that 'he was trying to get me to bob and weave, work the body and pound him with a left hook. I'm a boxer!'