BEST JAB Lennox Lewis: He was tall and had a long reach. When you’re tall you can use that reach to your advantage. He had a good jab. BEST DEFENSE Rodolfo Marin: He had a good defense and was tough to land a clean shot on. Damiani was so awkward, he had a good defense. BEST HANDSPEED Mike Tyson: He would swing those hooks and you wouldn’t see them coming. He was very quick. BEST FOOTWORK Lewis: Boxing him was like boxing yourself. When I would maneuver to do things to him, he would maneuver to do the same thing back to me. That made it difficult when you had someone with good footwork. SMARTEST Tony Tubbs: He was one of the most scientific boxers that I ever fought. He was a smart fighter. STRONGEST Jeff Sims: I fought him early in my career, after about seven or eight fights. He was stronger than Tyson, Bowe and Lewis. BEST CHIN Marion Wilson: I hit that guy with a good hook and right hand he took it and didn’t flinch. Nobody knocked him out. BEST PUNCHER Sims: He was a big puncher and I never felt punches harder. Everywhere he would land it would kind of bother me. He hit me on my collarbone and broke it. If he caught me right, he’d probably have stopped me. I would say Tyson hit harder out of him, Lewis and Bowe. Stevenson was the biggest puncher I faced in my amateur career BEST BOXING SKILLS Lewis: Being tall he was able to be elusive and slip and slide. He was technically very good. Tillis was a really good boxer. BEST OVERALL Tyson: I’d have to go with Tyson. Tyson was in a different mindset in the 80s. No question, Stevenson was one of the best I faced in my amateur and professional career. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d won the title. He would have matched up well with Tyson, Lewis and Bowe. He was in that conversation. Tyson and Stevenson were great fighters. Thoughts?
This goes to show that power isn't everything. Sims hit like a truck and according to Biggs, had more raw power than Tyson, Lewis and Bowe. Yet Sims did not achieve a whole lot. Biggs is very honest in all his responses and isn't constantly picking guys he beat as the best in each category. He had bad blood with Tyson and yet doesn't hesitate to give him his props. Yet people continue to have cognitive dissonance and can't wrap their minds around the possibility that a guy who didn't become champion might have hit harder than some champions. It's because, (news flash), it takes more than raw power to be the best of the best. Earnie Shavers, Gerry Cooney, Shannon Briggs, and more recently Deontay Wilder have shown that raw power can only take you so far.
i wonder how Sims might have panned out had he ever had been matched to win? Who knows, maybe he was always that bit too crazy?
I know right? I really f*cking hate people who still wanna stay in their on beliefs on who is the harder puncher. For example, I've been watching the James Tilis interview how he talked about Shavers power and Tyson's nowhere near him, (quite emphatically) and some people on the comment section said something like this: "He's lying" "Tyson's is by far I've of the hardest punchers in boxing, it seems that his lost against Tyson scarred him" "Tyson smashed his brain so bad he can't remember anything"
Well that's because of the excellent marketing in the 80's. Don King was a terrible human being, but he was great at promoting and building up Tyson's aura of invincibility. I remember at my old job it was me and two other guys. We eventually got on the topic of boxing and martial arts in general and who was the best ever in a fight. This older guy who had seen all the Tyson PPVs just kept insisting emphatically that "pRiMe TySoN" was the best ever h2h and was literally unbeatable. There was no changing his mind at all. To some people even suggesting that Tyson wasn't the absolute best in every category (power, speed, defense, skill, etc) means you're either "hating" or you 'haven't done your research". It's a cult. The same thing applies to die hard Pacquiao fanboys, they are by far some of the most cancerous and narrow minded in discussions. Tim Bradley said in an interview Ruslan Provodnikov hit harder than Pacquiao and you saw dozens of horrific and racist comments making fun of Bradley, claiming he was biased and an idiot, trying to boost his ego mentioning a guy he beat, etc. The funny thing is Bradley is one of the most humble and honest guys in recent memory. I mean, the guy was so humble he even said he'd have to review the tapes of the first fight to see if the judges got the right verdict. When people say things like that, it tells me they clearly don't know much about boxing and probably never boxed themselves. One of the strongest guys I ever fought with was a fat 40 year old cop. Dude was like a brick wall and nothing I did made him budge. However, his weakness was horrible stamina and he didn't amount to much in the amateurs or pros. There are plenty of guys who weren't close to his level of strength who I know would easily beat him.
If he wasn't crazy he wouldn't be Jeff sims. Might have been the secret to his power. It's a bit like asking what would happen if Jon Jones was a stable, well adjusted drug free person. It's easy to suggest he'd be one of the greatest ever, but then again, he'd be a completely different fighter potentially and maybe not as good.
I remember watching a video on YouTube where Cotto speaks about the best fighter he ever faced and answered Floyd Mayweather. And a lot of people on the comment section talked about how Cotto doesn't know what he's saying.
I remember watching highlights of Biggs vs Sims and it’s not surprising that Biggs remembered what a puncher Sims was. That was the fight where Sims hit Biggs with a right hand around the shoulder area in the second round and it began hurting so much that he was unable to use his right hand for the rest of the fight. Tyrell then had to fend off Sims for the remaining eight rounds with just his left hand and he did this superbly with a great left jab, mixed with left hooks and uppercuts and good footwork. It was only after the fight that it was diagnosed that Sims had actually broken Biggs right collarbone with that one punch in the second round. That fight showed just what power Sims had as well as how much heart, willpower and underrated boxing skills Biggs showed to overcome such an injury and still win,
