Most skilled pressure / swarmer fighters of the last 20 years.

Good shout. It's a rather annoying and persistent misconception that he swarmed Mayweather in the first fight. He was much more economical than that and shepherded Floyd well with that jab you mentioned.

He was a poor man's version of El Gran Campeon Mexicano, but he learned plenty at the legend's feet nonetheless.

 

He was good, but come on please. He's not even half the fighter that Roman Gonzalez and Marco Antonio Barrera were. And both those guys were masters at putting on the pressure.

 

Tim Bradley and Holyfield are up there, even if a battering ram forehead was part of the package for each.

 

Chisora.

 

Gonzalez hadn't turned over when Castillo was at his peak, and Barrera was moving into his post-prime.

Castillo's lightweight run was very decent, sometimes underrated these days. He merits inclusion in the conversation.

 

The thread says the last 20 years. Barrera Morales I was 17 years ago. In that fight Marco Antonio Barrera put on one of the greatest exhibitions of pressure that you could possibly imagine and got criminally robbed. As I said JLC was good at applying pressure, but to do what Barrera did in the first Morales fight is far beyond his reach and depth.

 

Tyson, even if his skills were diminishing by the late 90's.

 

I thought of Barrera as more of a boxer/puncher rather than a pressure fighter.

 

Thread title also states plural. Discussion needn't stop at Golovkin, Gonzalez and Barrera. Besides, MAB had nuanced his style considerably post-Jones. There's an argument to be had as to how we stylistically define him at his best. He was better as a multi-faceted boxer puncher than he was in his pure pressure days. Barrera's a great fighter, and great fighters are often marked by their versatility. Floyd can pressure, too, but we don't define him as a pressure fighter.

The good fellow's statement was that Castillo was the best pressure guy around during the period he was at his peak. It might well be arguable, but I don't think it's a horrible statement.

 

Ha, beat me to it. There are trade pressure fighters, then there are guys who can apply the heat but don't always go that route. Same way there are trade counterpunchers and guys who can counterpunch.

 

Getting into the semantics of it I agree. Some guys are pressure fighters and that's their plan A, B, C, D, you name it. If we are just talking about guys like that then I wouldn't include Barrera, GGG and Gonzalez. To me I haven't seen more effective pressure from other fighters in the last 20 years. Neither one of them are "pressure fighters" though. Because they can all punch with some pop and all 3 are master boxers.

 

Julio Cezar Chavez Sr. was one of them certainly. He's the real brawler who had skills.

 

I would include Golovkin and Choco, because applying intense heat for the duration of a fight has been the dominant hallmark of their championship careers. Not to say they couldn't fight in other ways up to a certain level if they chose to, but the policy of pressure has very much defined their best years.

 

Trinidad never took a backwards step but he was too one dimensional....most considered him a boxer/puncher.

 

What him and Chico (not debarge) did to each other in close quarters was almost surreal. It’s a crying shame how rapidly they declined after that massacre. I also recall doing irreversible damage to my liver that night.....the records show Cognac TKO Caper round undisclosed.

RIP champ.