No, i think you're missing the point on what i'm trying to say switch hitter.I'm not advocating changing the main aspects of his style-which was basically copying Ali defensively and footwork-wise, but with emphasis on combinations and counterpunching rather than jabbing-i'm saying he could have ben...

[/quote]It was a totally different Graham against Kalambay than the other fights you mentioned. Also how can you polish a style like Graham's.....the rough diamond as you put it is why we still talk about him today[/quote] A better trainer could have sharpened things up without interfering with the ...

Then dropped Kalambay 2 twice in the rematch to get robbed.... I remember reading the Boxing News report and they made it clear Herol boxed very well and deserved the decision. Sumbu was a top class boxer but Herol was better. Damn Eastwood and all the managerial arguments that ruined all that pati...

I do think Graham is overated on these forums. It's always about how he should have beaten one fighter or almost beat another. Look at his record and tell me his best win? Rod Douglas? Mark Kaylor? British and european level guys. He never beat one top quality, world champion level fighter. Yes he ...

Kalambay was past it and had become very inconsistent from fight to fight by that rematch.He had become a really slow starter, was starting to unravel in terms of offensive sharpness and was losing his reflexes.His only good performance around this time was the Collins fight, where he rolled back th...

Benn wouldn't have beat McCallum or Kalambay either, and would have been no better than even money with jackson. in all honesty Graham had much tougher opponents than Benn did when it came to his world title challenges.Benn took on a past prime Doug Dewitt for his WBO belt and the mediocre Galvano a...

No not based on how long he was a pro.And i have nothing to do with Merseyside.But i can see a greatly gifted technician when i watch one. Conteh was a great talent that eventually squandered his career with a partyboy lifestyle and a lot of bad luck with injuries.One of the smoothest boxer-punchers...

Conteh looked great against Finnegan.Boxed his ears off in that fight while showing great skills.You don't think that looks like a world class fighter in there? look at the footwork, the advanced head-slips and upper body movement, the accuracy and punch picking, top-notch hand and foot speed.Smooth...

Galindez would have beat Monzon too regardless of what he says about sparring or anything like that imo.With national pride on the line like it would have been, no way a physical beast like Victor loses to a smaller man without a good style for moving up and taking on bigger fighters. monzon's defen...

Conteh was a beast circa 75 before his hand injuries and partying lifestyle saw him decline too soon.A ruthless Napoles-esque two handed boxer-puncher. With Monzon not at all having a suitable style for excelling at higher weights, i see this as a fight that would have made Conteh's name in a Gomez ...

Gutteridge and Carpenter were both very biased.

Hope vs Benitez and Graham vs Kalambay(first fight) are another two good examples.

Ebihara was by far the best of that original group.

The only one that had great ability and fought excellent competition.

John and Pong fought a load of chumps, other than the debatable fight against Marquez for John.

yes, Chang was robbed, but Laciar wasn't anywhere near as effective as him.He was hitting air all night and both fighters probably landed at a similar rate.

That Zapata Laciar card is dubious imo.Very close fight imo, but also a huge let down considering the talent on show.Have to blame Zapata for that i guess as laciar tried his best to make a fight, but hit air all night, while Zapata was going through a tough time in his career after blowing up in we...

Sterling's stamina was not good.It was poor and a huge flaw for him.

He was a skillful boxer, but he lost most of his fights against other contenders in his early 70s prime because he always seriously faded late.If he'd had good 15 round stamina he would have beat bouttier, Mundine etc

elmersalsa wrote:Duran was superior. End of story. Marcel was a very good fighter. He should be in the HOF. Did you see the fight with the great Explosive Thin Man?

No, not end of story.Him being superior has nothing to do with it being a pathetic stoppage.

Rapid fire speed is not something that should ever be associated with Cervantes.

Poor peformance from Buchanan, and he looked a lot less sharp than he had in the couple of years previously.Made no effort to try and change his style to accomodate the southpaw angles. maybe looked past the inexperienced Watt, as the fight was hardly expected to be a big challenge at the time, but ...

Narvaez was always a pretty tepid stylist.Not anywhere near Zapata's class if the Panamanian comes in near his best. Narvaez quickly becomes accustomed to swiping air all night and lacks the pressuring ability or offensive output to change his game up.He sure as hell isn't going to outbox and outcou...

Corro was average and this was a terrible fight.

It's about time to start placing bets when Small will suicide bomb a big boxing bill.

Of course, when McCallum finally did move up he was on the end of a glorious display of pure boxing from a more genuinely underestimated fighter who had paid his dues at middleweight without being able to just walk into a title fight.

Gamez was a good fighter at junior Fly in the late 80s, afterwards he became rather ordinary and undersized. His winning titles at multiple weights is comparable to someone like Duke McKenzie, another decent fighter who was never the best in his weightclass, or really all that close in talent to the...

Froch, Calzaghe etc are small light-heavyweights, not middleweights.

The middleweight limit is 160.Amazing that so many boxing fans don't seem to realise that.Joe Calzaghe was never a proper middleweight.

Lewis Calzaghe Eubank Benn Sibson Graham Watson Honeyghan Those are the fighters from that period who i think in their prime were great to very good, well only Lewis arguably great really, but the rest talented champions or contenders.Add in past prime Minter too if he counts.The 80s middles were be...