Rico vs the pre-90s giants

Because Jack Johnsons manager agreed to a 45 round fight. Willard got shut out 25-0 and almost any other fight Willard would be just a footnote. Willard won that title outside of the ring. He was the 3rd or 4th best giant at the time he was world champion.

Also WW1.

 

Bugner is wel beyond Rico’s reach reach. He was a legitimately skilled boxer.

and when exactly has Rico shown he can handle Cooney like power?


This reminds me when people were favouring Nnganou over top heavies.

Rico has shown nothing that would suggest he could beat top 10 heavies from other eras. Especially guys who are big hitters

 

I don't like Skip either but it's just so iconic lol. In the same way I don't really like Stephen A. Smith as a person but know the "He can't commit two post moves to memory!" rant by heart. These guys both unfortunately suck but they've also permanently engraved themselves into my way of speaking.

 

Wait. Are you telling me that Bugner never lost to no-name brand boxers?

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Head kicks are considerably harder than punches

 

I mean, as a rule, yeah for sure. But obviously it comes down to the individual fighter and what they're capable of, and then even further down to the individual punch and kick. As an example coz idk if I've worded it well - a head kick of Cro Cop or Aerts is harder than a left hook of Tua or Tyson - but a head kick off a noob isn't. Then, a punch you've walked onto vs a kick you've moved away from probably has to be considered and so on.

For me, kicks being harder than punches is one of those rules which sounds true because it is true, but there's a ton of instances where it's false.

 

Fair post. My entire point is that yes, Cooney hit damn hard, but Verhoeven would have seen that sort of power before. This is all hypothetical of course. I rate Usyk very highly but that was a poor version of Usyk we saw, and a particularly good version of Rico. Without more fights in boxing it is hard to properly evaluate the Dutch champion.

 

Yeah I agree, I also think the choices Rico made against Usyk were perfect and that kinda flatters him in the sense that he might not be able to do that to someone else, and without other fights, we don't know fully what's in his toolbox. It makes no sense for him to use a long guard against Carnera or Baer but it was a great choice against Usyk. I broadly agree, I'm looking forward to seeing if Rico has ambitions of sticking around and dealing with other top HWs.

 

This is the same sort of argument people were using to justify Nnganou beating top heavies - the idea he showed an iron jaw while being hit with 4 oz gloves. it didn't work so well when he ran into a guy who could punch

 

Little faith in what? Jess Willard's ability to compete with the best of the 1980s to today? Yeah sure I'm guilty of that.

 

Willard fought just like Wlad

 

I'm not even sure you believe that.

 

If you examine the film, you will find the evidence

 

Willard lost more rounds in the fight he became world champion than Wlad lost his entire career.

 

Rico's boxing career has done for boxing what Foo Fighters have done for the fight against AIDS.

 

This is the usual fantasy superhero nonsense that boxing fans invariably resort to when threatened with a dude from an adjacent sport who is obviously able to do 'their' thing at a high level.