who was the most talented/skilled black fighter to come out of england

:yep

 

Tbooze I think you have had too much to drink it has clouded your judgement. You contradict yourself when you say Duran peaked 77/78 to the Leonard first fight ( Funny that! All Duran fans claim because he lost to Leonard that he was not the same Duran, but in reality Leonard did what he should have done in the first fight, Box, if he had done that in the first fight, you would not be saying it ) then you say what he did after turned him from a brilliiant fighter to a great, how can you be on the slide and become greater, a real contradiction there. How many times do you see a British fighter beat a legend in his prime away from home, easily ? Not many, and certainly not many when the legend has gone on to better things afterhttp://youtube.beWIKHfyczzjg.

http://yo.utu.be?oy_1intpb1e

 

I think you do not quite understand the intangibles of greatness. There were many fighters throughout history who were excellent or even brilliant, but when their powers waned that was it, it was game over. But for a special few, they can continue every now and again to put on a performance.

It is what separates the Duran's, Robinson's and Ali's from say the Frazier's, LaMotta's and Dejesus's...

Greatness can be an oxymoron. Fighters like Lil Floyd. Ricardo Lopez and Marciano, probably fall just short of greatness, because they did come back from adversary, because they never lost.

Greatness has to have an artistic value, or else greatness would just declared on the stats of a fighter, which would clearly be farcical.

Laing beat an uninterested, unmotivated Duran, kudos to him, he beat what was front of him when people had given up on Laing following the Jones bouts.

But Laing's long term rival, Lloyd Honeyghan, would be a much better tool to use, if you want to throw the Brit winning against the odds abroad.

He did it twice, not just upsetting Curry (which was a far bigger upset, than Laing/Duran), but what sometimes gets over looked, he went to Italy and upset Gianfranco Rosi, who turned out to be a pretty decent fighter. Also Honeyghan unlike Laing, actually had a bit of consistency to go with his ability, and was good enough to defend his World Championship three times successfully.

 

Laing is a myth for romantics who don't actually bother to watch the fights.

The guy had very fast hand/feet and a good variety of punches, but his defence was non-existent.

Even if dedicated he likely wouldn't have been much better than someone like Judah.

 

Kirkland Laing

 

What about Maurice Hope?

 

kirkland laing

 

John Conteh. By some distance as well.

 

Edit.

 

i dont know how i couldv overlooked honeygan, the man was a beast at 147 unlike any other

 

Durans powers did not wane, he simply went up in weight and got better because he had to, fighting biigger guys with a style that was not suited to fighting heavier people, that in anyone's book shows a fighter is improving with experience he was developing and not in decline, your argument is flawed because if you are correct then you can say the same for Leonard and Hearns, which would mean Hagler was not so great, because his greatness was measured on his fights with all these three. I am sorry but you are wrong. Lloyd Honeyghan was a great fighter( not the most talented/skilled fighter ) and his win over Curry was brilliant one, but Curry was already on the way down, in sparing before the fight he was terrible and he had major problems making the weight which drained him, Curry was very much overated, not on the same level as Duran, Leonard, Hagler, hearns or Benitez, what did Curry achieve after Honeyghan ? Can you emagine what Kirkland Laing would have achieved if he had not wasted his talent with Booze, Clubs, Party's, Gambling, Drugs and Women, if he had trained properly ?

 

I despise Leonard, but on that night he caught an aging Hagler with one them performances only a great can put together.

I have always said Hagler peaked pre Minter, and indeed by the time of Hearns, he clearly had even peaked in his reign (which would of been the Sibbo bout).

As for the Cobra, I am guessing you picked up on them odds, and paid off the mortgage with your brilliant foresight...

Because pre Honeyghan, I like many, figured Curry the best fighter (pound for pound) in the world, and a pick-em against even the Marvelous one...

Kirkland Laing as mentioned time and again on this thread, was an enigma, a fighter who gained public attention with his unique behavior, but he was more Stan Collymore than Georgie Best, good, a charactor, but not really worth all the press he got...

 

Tbooze you need help mate how can somebody peak 3 times how stupid. Hagler would destroy Curry as would Leonard, Hearns Duran and Benetez. You despise Leonard ! One of, if not the Greatest fighter to lace on a pair of gloves, Hagler was two weight divisions above him, you can't have ever had anything to do with boxing in your life to make statements liike you have. By the way Leonard peaked when he beat Duran, Peaked when he Beat Hearns, Peaked when he beat Benitez, Peaked when he beat Hagler, Peaked when he beat Kalule and peaked when he beat Lalond, Whenever he lost he was on the way down Loool Laing Beat a Peak Duran otherwise Duran would have lost to the much bigger Moore and Hagler :nono

 

That's laughable.

You're really misquoting the point that he's trying to make..... I don't recall anywhere within those series of posts where there's an argument that someone peaked on multiple occasions - more a point where a particular fighter in this case Hagler reaches his absolute peak before he wins a world title.... then goes on a run of form which peaks with a particular fight - probably Sibson I'd say.

Special fighters can come up with special performances..... Leonard realised that Hagler had slipped enough from his best form to enable him to beat him, and that he did -() whereas Duran came up with a couple of special performances to firstly take Hagler the distance and later beat Barkley.

It's worth pointing out that Hagler showed Duran too much respect and Barkley had just hit the jackpot by sparking Hearns - who probably ruined Barkley in those couple of rounds. In between those times Duran of course was flattened by Hearns, lost to Laing and also to Robbie Sims.... who wasn't exactly a special fighter, albeit better than the aforementioned Laing.

Hearns himself came back from a bad KO loss to Barkley to beat the undefeated Virgil Hill (I trust you've heard of him :hey) before going into semi-retirement.

-------------------------------------------------

Bottom line - Laing really wasn't that good. It's been explained multiple times within this thread that the only win he's got is over a disinterested Duran..... several losses to domestic level fighters too.

He's a poor man's Oliver McCall - who'd only beaten a faltering Lewis and old-ass Larry Holmes. Other than that it's just a who's who of journeymen and hypejobs that would have been chinned by pretty much any decent HW.

 

Boxen is some sort of ****ing mong.