Which fighter had the best psychological game ?

Vic Darchinyan as of now. Arce is great at pissing people off too.

 

I enjoyed reading about the mind games played by Young Corbett going into the first Terry Mcgovern fight.

http://coxscorner.tripod.com/mcgovern.html

Below is a newspaper article about the fight.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9403E2DF153FE433A2575AC2A9679D946097D6CF

 

Steve Collins.

The way he promoted his "hypnosis" before the first Eubank fight was hilarious, cunning, and effective.

A simple ploy which left Eubank rife with doubt and trepidation. It definitely had a severe effect him on fight night.

 

Remember it like it was yesterday, i was only young, everyone was talking about it.

Duran and Ali, though Ali's was thought through, Duran's was just demented.

 

Someone who quits when being bullied shouldn't be mentioned as having the best psychological game.

There's different flavors of course. I don't think anyone can top Ali in this respect. He had the entire country of Zaire rooting against Foreman before he threw a punch.

Then there's boxers who like Marciano, Frazier, Monzon, Louis, etc, who will do anything to obtain their goal of winning. They may not be as intimidating on first sight as the Liston's, Tyson's and Duran's, but unlike those, they have zero quit in them.

Then there's Holyfield who defines being determined.

 

I understand, i just meant that Duran could get under a man's skin. If you want to dismiss Duran's psychological prowess, then that makes his win over Ray Leonard even greater.

 

I won't deny that how he made Leonard over-aggressive in their first about and Hagler over-cautious, but i think his quit job dismisses him from the top of this category.

 

Good one. I agree that Ali was a master of psychological warfare. Against Foreman, Ali was brilliant outside and inside the ring taunting and pushing Big George's buttons

However, the psychological game can backfire and then the mindgamer gets into deep fudge....

Just ask Ali ... in my opinion his psychological warfare against Frazier backfired badly and had the totally opposite effect. Watching the Thrilla in Manilla it is clear that Smoking Joe became a man with a mission: to destroy Ali :!:

I suspect that Ali regretted pushing Joe so far. He picked the wrong guy to mess with.

So, psychological warfare is a two edge sword, because even the best mindgamer can screw himself :think

 

I think B-hop is a very cerebral fighter. Both inside and out of the ring.
He really got under Tito's skin by disrespecting the Puerto Rican flag. I suppose his 'never lose to a white boy' comment didn't have the desired effect on Calzaghe but you can appreciate the effort.
I also think that his recent schooling of Pavlik had a lot to do with the gameplan he and Naz Richardson devised to take him out of his stride.

 

Corbett famously got under Sullivan's skin. So did Charley Mitchell. But Mitchell pissed off Corbett in Jacksonville, and paid for it, big time!

 

I know what you mean, it was just the one incident of a vast amount of bouts, but i understand your standpoint because of the severity of that incident.

PS- Do you mean he is dismissed because on this occasion he lost a psychological game? I just see it as he got beat fairly personally. Just asking so i know where you are coming from properly.

 

Sugar Ray usualy seemed to find an angle to get at a given opponent.

 

Didn't work against Basilio. He laughed at him