Boxing Thread

[ColinBollocks]

How do we rate his Mayweather performance? IIRC, there was a lot of talk about the referee effectively ruining his chances by refusing to let Hatton get on the inside. I'll need to watch it again because not sure if my memory of it has faded and replaced with something mudded by that narrative.

The Pacman fight was an absolute battering. Like the Mayweather fight, I watched it with my old man (in fact, thinking about it, it was the last fight I've watched with him) and I remember us being too impressed with Pacman to  be upset at how short it was. Proper ugly KO though.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah no shame in it. He had an amazing career. I don’t look at the Senchenko loss as a loss really. I mean, it goes down as a L on his record obviously but to get back in shape and back in the ring after all the shit he’d battled with depression, addiction, falling out with his parents etc. It was quite an achievement. And from what I recall he wasn’t even looking bad in the fight until later on when it became clear it just wasn’t there anymore.

I think the Senchenko fight was one of the best choices he ever made in an odd way. If he’d packed it in after the Pacquiao knockout I think he’d have struggled dealing with that mentally for years on end and might’ve never got out of that rut. The Senchenko fight got him back mentally and physically and he went out more on his terms, in front of his home crowd and got closure. It’s genuinely great to see how content and happy he seems these days. 

@ColinBollocks I don’t think the ref helped matters but truthfully, I don’t think Hatton had much of a prayer anyway. Mayweather was just too slick and crafty to get into Hatton’s tearup style of fight. The ref just made Floyd’s job a little bit easier. 

Edited April 14, 2020 by wandshogun09

[David]

 

[jimufctna24]

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

I don’t think the ref helped matters but truthfully, I don’t think Hatton had much of a prayer anyway. Mayweather was just too slick and crafty to get into Hatton’s tearup style of fight. The ref just made Floyd’s job a little bit easier. 

Mayweather often had the deck stacked in his favour. The referee in the Hatton fight was just the beginning. 

Later on in his career, Kenny Bayless made Floyd's job much easier for him. When Mayweather was hurt in the Mosley bout, he allowed Floyd to clinch as long as he needed to fully recover. By contrast, when Hatton was stunned by Pacquiao, and the former attempted to hold, Bayless broke up the clinch immediately.

Most boxing rule books consider frequent holding a foul, yet in fights that Bayless officiated, Mayweather repeatedly clinched and occasionally even drove his elbow into the back of opponents head while doing so. Bayless did warn Mayweather on occasion, but he never deducted any points from him. 

Mayweather was also often helped by the oversized ring he insisted be used for his bouts. Queensbury rules stipulate a 20ft upper limit for the rings used by heavyweights. By comparison, Floyd fought Hatton in a 23ft ring. For his rematch with Maidana, the ring was apparently around 26ft. This made it difficult for his opponents to cut the ring off against him

Edited April 14, 2020 by jimufctna24

[SuperBacon]

Think I've mentioned it before but I was at the Hatton-Tszyu fight.

One of, if not the, greatest sporting moment I've seen live (not hard considering I've seen Spurs win fuck all but still).

[Gooner]

35 years ago, probably the most entertaining three rounds of a fight ever witnessed!!!

Still amazing fight to watch to this day, crazy to believe it's been 35 years since it took place.

 

[wandshogun09]

Hagler’s one of my favourite boxers ever. He was before my time, I wasn’t even 2 years old when he had his last fight, but he’s probably the old school boxer I’ve always been most drawn to. My uncle was big into Boxing, proper obsessed he was. He must’ve had hundreds of fights on VHS tapes in his house and he used to go and see fights whenever he could. Mostly small local show but he was also in attendance for a few big fights that were televised. I know he was at the first Benn vs Eubank fight at the NEC in Birmingham. He had Sky so he used to tape the WWF PPVs for me sometimes and if he used a 4 hour tape, he’d record in long play so it’d be 8 hours and he’d ram the remainder of the tape with whatever other wrestling would be on before he next saw me. WWF Superstars, NJPW on Eurosport or whatever. Used to love that because you’d never know what was going to be on there. 

Anyway, when I started getting into Boxing he was chuffed. He had 5 daughters and none of them gave a fuck about it. So when he’d tape a WWF PPV for me, he’d start putting old Boxing on there. I don’t remember much from those tapes but I vividly recall seeing this guy for the first time; 

And thinking he must be the hardest bastard on the planet. My favourite was Nigel Benn at the time and when I heard this guy was also a Middleweight, I feared for The Dark Destroyer’s safety when I saw old Marvelous Marv smashing fuckers about. I was relieved when my uncle told me Hagler had been retired for years by that point. I went back and must’ve watched pretty much every fight of his that there’s footage of over the next 20-odd years and he’s one of my all time favourites along with Roberto Duran and Arturo Gatti. 

But yeah, Hagler was a bad man. One of the best Middleweights ever. Maybe the best. The combination of technique, speed, power, toughness and relentless aggression must’ve been a horrifying ordeal to be faced with. One of the best chins ever as well. Think he only touched the canvas once in 67 fights. He was an animal. You’d always hear about his training camps as well where he’d shut himself away in isolation and train like an absolute demon. Whenever I see the opening bit of Rocky 3 where Clubber Lang is training in a dark basement with an intense scowl on his face, I think they were probably inspired by the stories of Hagler’s self imposed ‘lockdown’ training camps. 

This highlight is pretty great; 

And if you’ve never seen it, I’d highly recommend watching his fight with John ‘The Beast’ Mugabi from 1986. 

One of the all time greats. Even the blemishes on his record are either questionable decisions or losses he avenged. The first loss of his career was a majority decision to Bobby Watts, he stopped Watts in 2 rounds in the rematch. He lost on points to Willie Monroe but went on to stop him twice, winning the trilogy convincingly. And of course, the Leonard loss is one of the most debated in Boxing history. 

The draw in the first Vito Antuofermo fight was dodgy as well. Pretty much everyone had Hagler winning and Vito’s face was cut to ribbons. With referee Mills Lane even being heard saying to Hagler before the verdict was announced, ”Congratulations. Now stay facing this way as they announce the decision and I raise your arm.” It was called a draw and Hagler battered him in 4 rounds in the rematch.

Destruct and Destroy. 

[jimufctna24]

On 4/15/2020 at 12:32 PM, wandshogun09 said:

And of course, the Leonard loss is one of the most debated in Boxing history. 

I watched that fight back last year. I had Hagler nicking it 115-113. 

Guerra's 118-110 scorecard for Leonard was a disgrace. Leonard was also fortunate that Moretti scored rounds 3, 4 and 10 in his favour. All three of those rounds could easily have been scored to Hagler, and if just one had been, the fight would have been declared a draw. 

[Rossman]

The Mexican judge was brought in as a last minute stand-in, as Hagler sent the original British judge home. Hagler had an aversion to the British, due to his treatment when he beat Alan Minter in Wembley for the world title and got bottled out of the building. And I think the British judge, scored it at home as a win to Hagler as well.

I think I also remember reading that Hagler would do his training camp runs in military boots. His ability to take a punch was because of a large layer of muscle separating his skull from his scalp.

 

[Lord-Mountevans]

1 hour ago, Rossman said:

His ability to take a punch was because of a large layer of muscle separating his skull from his scalp.

So "a total meathead" in every sense of the word?

[Egg Shen]

I think i need to bust out the Fabulous Four DVD. I got it at a charity shop for like 50p a few years ago and never actually watched it.

[wandshogun09]

Love Big George. 

 

[wandshogun09]

Sorry for the double post but just seen that there’s a Michael Dokes documentary on Amazon Prime. Probably be a good watch as his story hasn’t been told to death and he had quite a rollercoaster career/life. His fight with Evander Holyfield in 1989 is one of the best forgotten Heavyweight fights of the 80s, IMO. If you’re not on Prime, I think you can get a 30 day free trial. Might be worth a look. 

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by wandshogun09

[jimufctna24]

Nice little video from The Modern Martial Artist:

 

[Egg Shen]

highlights and old fights are the way to go, the lack of news and everyone clutching at any kind of newsworthy story is getting abit boring now 😔