Pugilatu Confessionis: For Your Favorite Fighters, Who Are The Opponents You Most Fear?

My favorite fighter is Saline Jr. and I pray that he never has to face a guy like VADA.

 

Few more.

Bivol/Gvozdyk. I think these two have the talent to be the brightest lights of an already good generation of LHWs, and the prospect of those two possibly having a trilogy for the ages is mouthwatering. I'd hate for that to be derailed and set back by a highlight reel KO from Kovalev, Adonis or Beterbiev whilst they are still a bit green.

Ryan Burnett. Lad seems like the nicest bloke you could meet, he has an entertaining and intelligent approach to his work and a boatload of ambition too (already talking about having another unification). But Nery and Tete will be very tough tests. Nery is on a streak of stoppages (courtesy of "tainted meat" according to Sulaiman ) and Tete is an awkward AF southpaw with 6"0 reach .

 

UK one:
Liam Williams - Liam Smith: I'm nervous Williams will lose again in the rematch. He was on his way to winning in the first fight before Smith's headbutt. Smith has been unbearable leading up to the rematch saying he won fairly and broke Williams.

 

Please leave the Latin to the experts.

 

I'm a PBF fan and honestly never felt any fear while he was fighting. I never thought anyone 154 and down could beat him because he was a H2H terror and a once in a generation talent. The only guy who might have had a shot of beating him was Winky back when he first moved up to 147. Past fighters now you're talking guys like Hearns SRL and Pea Whitaker SRR yes I think they can beat him.

 

It was Williams' headbutt, not Smith's. Williams clearly headbutted Smith and in my estimation it was intentional, out of what was appeared to be frustration when it became apparent that Smith was coming on in the middle rounds.

 

Loma think he needs to avoid Mikey Garcia like the plague
Mikey Garcia think he needs to avoid Terrence Crawford like the plague
Crawford think he needs to avoid Errol Spence like the plague

 

Most people would say Smith was leaning in with his head. Either way. Smith missed weight and has acted like a gobshite the whole time since then. Hope Williams puts a beating on him.

 

Kazuto Ioka; the big boys up at 115
Roman Gonzalez; Srisaket
Nonito Donaire; lots of guys
Alexander Povetkin; no one
Diablo Wlod; not retiring, anybody in the top 25

Just realized I don't call myself a fan of very many fighters. No more Mayweathers, Wladimirs, Wonjongkams, Malignaggis, Johns, Takayamas, Shumenovs, etc... Next up would be like Moruti Mthalane, Akira Yaegashi, Canelo, Victor Ortiz, and Naoya Inoue while their most recent fights (perhaps from my lack of caring for very many fighters) have turned my head and I'm on board looking at and rooting for Gassiev, Dorticos, Spence, and Murata.

 

Take another look. Smith wasn't doing anything with his head, while Williams launched his head into Smith's in an upward forward motion. Williams has been known for leading with his head and Smith's camp had concerns about headbutts going into the bout.

Yes Smith missed weight but only just, and how he acted since had nothing to do with who initiated the headbutt.

 

Think you need to rewatch it.

The fight should have been stopped due to a clash off heads regardless. Smith acts like he beat Williams convincingly.

 

Wrong, you need to rewatch it, particularly the slow-mo replays following the bout showing precisely what happened.

What you are referring to is the retaliation "headbutt" by Smith after the cut was already opened. What happened was that Liam Williams, after getting frustrated, decided to intentionally headbutt Smith, leading with his head, clearly and appeared to be intentional. What happened was that Liam Williams while headbutting Smith scratched his eyelid on the wrist part of Liam Smith's glove which opened up a cut. Then after the blood starts flowing out of Williams eyelid, after Williams is already blinking out the blood, Smith retaliates with an attempted headbutt head. (which is what you must be referring to) Williams initial headbutt not only cuts his own eyelid on the wrist part of Smith's glove, but the headbutt connects hard on Smith's head.

Some of the replays are very misleading in that they either only show the Smith headbutt and not what caused the Williams Cut, or show it from the wrong angle. But there's one replay in particular that shows what happened perfectly.

I will show you the best replay from the youtube video showing the bout:

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The best replay showing the whole sequence starts at 42:50. Out of nowhere Williams headbutts Smith at 42:54.

At 42:57 of the video you see Williams blinking from the cut caused by him scratching his eye on Smith's glove in the process of his own headbutt which occurred 42:55 in the video. Then Smith retaliates with a headbutt at 43:00 after Williams had already cut himself on Smith's glove. (Smith's retaliatory headbutt barely connected and did zero damage)

Fact : Williams headbutted Smith hard and cut his eyelid on Smith's glove while he was headbutting Smith. The replay from 42:50-43:00 leaves no doubt about it. It's as clear as day.

 

Dunno what you're watching. Smith headbutts Williams.

 

Uh I'm watching Liam Williams headbutt Smith at 42:54 in the video. At 42:57 you can clearly see blood spurting out of Williams' eye as he blinks. Then, at 43:00 Smith headbutts Williams.

You can clearly see that Williams' eyelid was cut when he headbutted Smith, by scraping his eyelid on the wrist part of Smith's glove at precisely 42:55 in the video, which was before Smith headbutted him in retaliation, which occurred at 43:00 in the video.