Stylistic nightmares: Fighters who guaranteed a bad night for anyone

Straight off, no I’m not talking about guys who would likely beat up their opponent and knock them out because they were so good or so powerful. Sure, most heavyweight in with a prime Foreman are going to have a bad night because he’s going to smash them like the Hulk smashes supervillains.

I’m talking about fighters who, based on their styles (and yes, of course to some degree their ability — a guy with a difficult style who isn’t very good isn’t going to give anyone nightmares) are going to make their opponent’s look bad even if they win … and could also pull off the win.

These are the guy you’d dread to fight even if you figured you’d beat them, and certainly wouldn’t want to face them again win or lose.

Some examples:

Sammy Angott: The Clutch was never going to be an easy out for anyone, but regardless of outcome it was just going to be a miserable night all around. His spoiling tactics and roughhousing are hard to prepare for, and even if the opponent has an antidote they’re going to have a hard time looking good. After 10, 12 or 15 rounds with Angott, most would say no thanks to another go.

Jimmy Young: Awkward and a defensive whiz. Hard to hit clean and even if his offense isn’t all that, there’s no fun in the kind of chess match most heavyweights would find themselves in vs. Young. Probably more fun to spend an afternoon on hold waiting for a customer service rep than to try to go 10 or more with Jimmy.

Vilomar Fernandez: Better bring your track shoes, because this guy is a perpetual motion machine who’s probably going to be on his bicycle the whole time and good luck tracking him down to make a fight of it. And he could not only make top fighters look bad, he was more than capable of frustrating them on his way to a decision win

Who else comes to mind?

 

I’ll add Mysterious Billy Smith.

He got DQ’d something like 14 times. So fighting him was going to probably entail getting hit low, head-butted and having every dirty trick in the book thrown at you.

Even allegedly was into ear biting a long, long time before noted boxing historian Mike Tyson chose the second Holyfield fight to pay tribute to Mysterious Billy.

 

Apart from his last couple of years when he was declining, did anyone other than Ezzard Charles really look good against Joey Maxim?

You were darned sure guaranteed to buckle up for a long night because he wasn’t going anywhere. Looks kind of ordinary but even with a 10-pound weight deficit fighting at heavyweight, he seemed to give Joe Walcott fits (lost by split and majority decisions).

I know Archie Moore completely outclassed him in their last fight but I think Joey was starting to slip by this point and Encyclopedia Archie had him all figured out (at least one judge had it close in their previous two encounters iirc) — and still Joey beat Floyd Patterson right after the third Moore go.