The"Stare Down"

Brutu · Post by **Brutu** » 01 May 2010, 19:04

When did the stare down in boxing begin?
and what are examples of the more classic pre-fight stare downs?

yancey · Post by **yancey** » 01 May 2010, 19:31

Don't know when it began. (Liston, perhaps?)

Leonard-Benitez was a damn good stare down.

Goodnight, Irene · Post by **Goodnight, Irene** » 01 May 2010, 19:33

yancey wrote:Don't know when it began. (Liston, perhaps?)

Leonard-Benitez was a damn good stare down.

The first to come to mind, for me.

I think Lyle surprised Foreman a little & maybe rattled him a bit with the intensity of his staredown.

Brutu · Post by **Brutu** » 01 May 2010, 19:39

A good one was Joe Frazier-Jerry Quarry I in 1969.

Brutu · Post by **Brutu** » 01 May 2010, 19:41

George Foreman almost looked like he was going to bust a blood vessel in his head he was so angry when he tried to stare down Ali in the ring in Zaire in 1974.

yancey · Post by **yancey** » 01 May 2010, 19:54

Brutu wrote:A good one was Joe Frazier-Jerry Quarry I in 1969.

Never have seen that one, though I've seen the fight itself multiple times.

Brutu · Post by **Brutu** » 01 May 2010, 19:57

Bernard Mercado and Tex Cobb was another classic stare down.

Goodnight, Irene · Post by **Goodnight, Irene** » 01 May 2010, 23:56

Brutu wrote:George Foreman almost looked like he was going to bust a blood vessel in his head he was so angry when he tried to stare down Ali in the ring in Zaire in 1974.

When he looked at Frazier, he appeared utterly cold. Indifferent completely. An act on Foreman's part, in his words. Against Norton, he looked every bit the destroyer. Norton's eyes quickly hit the deck, with his back soon to follow. Probably Foreman's most intimidating staredown in a high-profile bout.

Against Ali, well...you surmised it right.

ThatOne · Post by **ThatOne** » 01 May 2010, 23:57

Brutu wrote:George Foreman almost looked like he was going to bust a blood vessel in his head he was so angry when he tried to stare down Ali in the ring in Zaire in 1974.

That's because Ali was yapping at him the whole time.

Goodnight, Irene · Post by **Goodnight, Irene** » 02 May 2010, 00:17

ThatOne wrote:
Brutu wrote:George Foreman almost looked like he was going to bust a blood vessel in his head he was so angry when he tried to stare down Ali in the ring in Zaire in 1974.
That's because Ali was yapping at him the whole time.

Impossible to be sure, but I always got the feeling Ali was talking scared (or at least, jittery) when you see his face side-on at that staredown. I wonder sometimes if they each got under each other's skin, for different reasons. Foreman angered, Ali frightened.

yancey · Post by **yancey** » 02 May 2010, 00:32

How 'bout the Ali behavior at the stare down with Larry Holmes?

Kinda pitiful, wasn't it?

Goodnight, Irene · Post by **Goodnight, Irene** » 02 May 2010, 00:35

yancey wrote:How 'bout the Ali behavior at the stare down with Larry Holmes?

Kinda pitiful, wasn't it?

Only because he lost, though. Would've been labelled, "Genius, artistic thinking & psychology," had he won it.

jaclem2 · Post by **jaclem2** » 02 May 2010, 01:35

....i have no idea what the first stare down was....but the greatest non-stare down was that of joe louis....he just stood there deadpan, almost sleepy eyed......and scared the hell out of most of his opponents and damn near won the fight right there. for those that didn't spoil their trunks the way he stalked with that same expression made so many guys wish they had listened to their mothers when they told them not to take up boxing.

elmersalsa · Post by **elmersalsa** » 02 May 2010, 03:37

Hearns vs Benitez was also a classic staredown a la Leonard vs Benitez

Goodnight, Irene · Post by **Goodnight, Irene** » 02 May 2010, 09:33

I love the Hearns-Duran staredown. If you could assign words to their expressions that night, IMO...

Hearns: "You can't stand in my way. I'm going to plough through you."

Duran: "Pffft. What are you gonna do? Have a go, ya mug."

Hearns looked demonic. Duran, smug & self-assured.

Brutu · Post by **Brutu** » 02 May 2010, 14:18

You couldnt really call it a stare down but one of the earliest and oddest pre-fight instructions,was when the referee was giving the instructions to both
Joe Louis and Tony Galento
right before the title fight in 1939,Galento started to rub the top of Joe Louis's head,(for luck presumably as well as some type of insult).

Diamond WEAPON · Post by **Diamond WEAPON** » 02 May 2010, 15:06

The Tarver-Jones staredown was a fun one. Antonio looked like he had seen the future just before arrogantly speaking into the mic those famous words, and Jones had appeared his smug self until Tarver said them, upon which he seemed surprised.

Guzman-Barrios was a good one I remember, they looked like they wanted to rip each other's hearts out.

granberry · Post by **granberry** » 02 May 2010, 15:50

jaclem2 wrote:....i have no idea what the first stare down was....but the greatest non-stare down was that of joe louis....he just stood there deadpan, almost sleepy eyed......and scared the hell out of most of his opponents and damn near won the fight right there. for those that didn't spoil their trunks the way he stalked with that same expression made so many guys wish they had listened to their mothers when they told them not to take up boxing.

jaclem2 · Post by **jaclem2** » 03 May 2010, 01:17

..brutu...yeah..at that time a white person rubbing a black persons head was supposed to give the white guy good luck. galento had also called louis at his training camp insulting him and his wife. his strategy was to lure louis into a slugging match, which galento thought was his only chance against louis the boxer/puncher. it damn near worked. joe said he was going into that fight and punish tony instead of knocking him out right away. galento's tactic had some sucess. everyone remembers galento's knocking louis down with that left hook, but in the first round he staggered louis with punches from both hands and made louis look vulnerable. joe's corner went nuts. i don't remember if it was manny seamon or blackburn who got on the bomber's case, but they yelled at him and said "do you want to let a guy like this become the heavyweight champion of the world?" louis settled down and gave the human beer barrel a bad beating. galento had a lot of courage and he gave the crowd some excitement. he did get up from a knockdown, and i haven't looked at the film of this fight for years, but i think galento was on his feet and kind of sliding along the top rope when the referee stopped it. i think this was the first time (maybe only) that galento had ever been knocked down.

mrshot · Post by **mrshot** » 09 Sep 2010, 17:51

benitez was good at the stare down,one of the best is benitez/hearns

Brutu · Post by **Brutu** » 10 Sep 2010, 01:24

I think the start of the modern day "stare down" may have been actually perhaps Muhammad Ali
in the first fight with Liston.
Ali was trying to out psyche Liston who was staring back to counter it.
I cant recall Liston staring down an opponent like that before .
IMOP Liston seemed to have an impassive look during introductions in earlier fights.

Cutman Scabbers · Post by **Cutman Scabbers** » 10 Sep 2010, 19:05

My favorite ever: Bonecrusher Smith vs. Larry Holmes.

SUGARRAYSMELEE · Post by **SUGARRAYSMELEE** » 08 Feb 2011, 14:15

Tyson vs Holyfield 1 was intense.

Hagler vs Hearns was also classic.

orbtastic · Post by **orbtastic** » 08 Feb 2011, 16:02

Pryor vs Dujuan Johnson

Classic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtcCtN64Us4

Goodnight, Irene · Post by **Goodnight, Irene** » 08 Feb 2011, 18:31

I guess no one knows when staredowns began.

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