Best Heavyweight Dirty Boxing Traits

[keithmoonhangover]

How about a best ever in the following categories.

1. Low blows........
2. Hitting on the break......
3. Head butting......
4. Rabbit punching......
5. Thumbing.....
6. Pushing an opponent down in the clinch.....

[gilgamesh]

Whats the criteria here. Are we going for who used these tactics the best as in...doing it in a sneaky way, and getting away with it. Or simply the people that did it the best, and didn't give two f*cks whether or not they got caught?

[keithmoonhangover]

Whats the criteria here. Are we going for who used these tactics the best as in...doing it in a sneaky way, and getting away with it. Or simply the people that did it the best, and didn't give two f*cks whether or not they got caught?

Whichever you prefer mate. It'd be interesting if it threw up some names of 'clean' fighters.

[gilgamesh]

I'll just go with the fighter I associate with the most offensive fouls of that sort that I recall ever seeing or hearing about.

Low blows...Golota (obviously)

Hitting on the Break...off the top of my head I can't think of regular offenders of this at Heavy

Head Butting...Holyfield

Rabbit Punching...Probably some guys from the past eras, like in the Jack Johnson days.

Thumbing...Seemed like Sonny Liston was notorious for trying things like this. Wouldn't be possible for a lot of guys now, but I'm not sure exactly when they changed the design of gloves to cut back on this.

Pushing an opponent in a clinch...Lennox Lewis



And to throw in a few you didn't name.

Biting...Mike Tyson

Trying to break your opponent's arm...Mike Tyson

[BoxBuzz]

Can't recall Liston thumbing intentionally, thought of him as rather observant of the rules....Holmes and Duran had a fight or two when that tactic was called into question.

I guess Lewis utilized it in a winning effort.

I think Foreman liked to shove you back into his sweet zone so he could nail those home runs.

Holy did get a rep for butting.

I always thought of Frazier as following the rules....as Patterson.

Ruiz just luvved up on the opposition a bit too much for my liking.

[gilgamesh]

Can't recall Liston thumbing intentionally, thought of him as rather observant of the rules....Holmes and Duran had a fight or two when that tactic was called into question.

I guess Lewis utilized it in a winning effort.

I think Foreman liked to shove you back into his sweet zone so he could nail those home runs.

Holy did get a rep for butting.

I always thought of Frazier as following the rules....as Patterson.

Ruiz just luvved up on the opposition a bit too much for my liking.

Yes, Foreman definitely did a lot of pushing and shoving. Good call on that one.

[Kalan]

Ali set the Heavyweight record for clinching and wrestling in a round -- the first round of the Foreman fight. 20 times.

Riddick Bowe set the record for hitting after the bell against Jorge Luis Gonzalez... 5 shots after the bell dinged numerous times... Lampley shouted that Bow was risking disqualification and was "STUPID"... He dismissed how corrupt referees could be...

Lennox Lewis set the record for holding and hitting in 2 rounds in the Michael Grant fight.. Numerous times, including the KO punch.. "I wanted to make sure his head didn't move" Lewis told the interviewer when asked to explain his holding-n-hitting after the fight.

Ali set the record for disobeying a referees direct orders to go to a neutral corner in the 2nd Liston fight... Ali refused to go to the corner for the entire count... Liston NEVER got a count from the referee. He got up on his own WITHOUT a count.. Neither boxer nor the referee knew that the timekeeper counted Liston out while he was down. According to the rules that can't be done. The count is suspended if the fighter scoring the knockdown doesn't go to.. or remain in.. a neutral corner. However the rules weren't followed and Liston was ruled out after Liston and Ali resumed the fight without the referee being present. Walcott was busy talking to Nat Fleischer (a spectator, not an official). Fleischer told Walcott to stop the fight and he did. Though he broke no rules, Liston's license to box was revoked for years. Both Dempsey and Marciano said nobody but Liston felt the punch, so the knockdown could easily be legitimate. The Boxing Commission didn't think so. The bastards ruled that Liston faked the knockdown. Wow. Ali also egregiously violated the neutral corner rule in the Bonavena fight.

Lewis set the record for palming an opponent in the face in the 2nd Bruno fight... While the referee read him the riot act for palming Bruno's face, just before the end of the fight, Lewis looked at Bruno to see how he was doing instead of at the referee. As the fight resumed he went right back to palming.

Golota set the record for hitting an opponent low in the 2nd Bowe fight... After being disqualified in their 1st fight for low blows, Bowe went right back to punching Bowe low in the rematch... The simpleton was warned and point deducted numerous times but couldn't stop zeroing in.

Larry Holmes had a reputation for slick thumbing. This was probably correct... He didn't like or respect Leroy Jones and thumbed the shiit out of him.

Jack Sharkey was very frustrated... He had Jack Dempsey beaten in their fight when Dempsey started hitting him low and hard... After several such low blows with no action from the referee, Sharkey turned to the referee and shouted "HEY.. HE'S HITTING ME LOW." Dempsey next punch wasn't low. Since Sharkey was busy yelling at the referee Dempsey knocked him cold with a left hook to the chin, winning the fight and the shot at Tunney that Sharkey wanted ... But sometime later Sharkey got a shot at the Heavyweight Title against Max Schmeling.. He wasn't fond of the German and hit him with a low punch.. Schmeling fell to the canvas like a sack of cement and writhed on the canvas in obvious pain.. Sharkey was promptly given a DQ.

Tyson Fury was decked by 210-pound Steve Cunningham and greatly embarrassed.. An angry Fury started brawling and beating the turds out of Cunningham, while being warned for infractions of the rules.. A few rounds into the fight Fury pinned Cunningham to the ropes with a forearm over his eyes.. His next punch while he held him in that position was a right uppercut to the chin that knocked the smaller man cold.. A ripple of indecision crossed referee Eddie Cotton's face.. "Do I count or DQ?" ... He started counting for Cunningham's only KO loss.

One of Evander Holyfield's stock's in trade was slick head work.. He used the head here and there in the 1st Mike Tyson fight, and scored a late knockout after beating tamales out of Tyson that he never ate.. Before their rematch Holy sneered coldly at Tyson, showing him utter contempt.. Again he showed the younger man who was boss of that ring.. He doinked Mike a few times pretty solidly, pissing Tyson off to no end..Then Ev roughed mike up inside and punched him around for good measure.. Mike was enraged and fit to be tied.. Tyson refused his mouth piece to start a round.. After they battled for a while and fell into a clinch Mike tried to bite one of Holyfield's ears off.. He actually bit off a fair chunk of it and spit it out.. Maybe it didn't taste good.. Refere Mills Lane was slow to grasp what went down as Holyfield shouted at him and waved frantically at his ear.. I thought a DQ was certain, but Lane took points.. 2 whole points.. When the fight resumed they fell into another clinch and Tyson bit Evander's other ear savagely.. Two more points??? Nope. Mills finally came to his senses and said "You bit him twice you're gone." Really, so soon?

When you bite off a piece of a person and spit it out -- and don't get DQ'd immediately for it -- you know it's Boxing.

[BitPlayer]

It's pretty hard to compare different era when what's allowable has changed so much over the years.

[cfang]

Fireman Jim Flynn's disgusting behaviour in his fight with jack johnson where he repeatedly and obviously head butted johnson by jumping up in the air at him really is shocking when you see it now. It went on for ages too round after round. Johnson and other black fighters of his era had to put up with this sort of thing all the time I guess. They used to throw cigar buts at johnson in between rounds and also hot coins. His laughing at flynn following those head butts really shows what a great character johnson was.

Of course pre his era there were battle royales and all sorts.

When it comes to modern butters evander was the master of that as it was quite subtle in that he would kind of lunge in and look the other way whilst butting. Very clever and very dirty.

Surely Fritzie zivic has to be up there when it comes to dirty tricks and also to some degree greb. Although a lot of that is probably more legend than anything else and based on the odd interview from opponents he beat up, in newspaper reports from klomptons amazing book, i don't recall his dirty tricks being much mentioned more his speed and ability,

[scartissue]

Chuck Wepner - King of the rabbit punchers

[Tony1244]

How about a best ever in the following categories.

1. Low blows........ Gerry Cooney
2. Hitting on the break......
3. Head butting...... Holyfield
4. Rabbit punching...... Wepner
5. Thumbing.....Holmes
6. Pushing an opponent down in the clinch.....

Wlad Klitschko

[BitPlayer]

Fireman Jim Flynn's disgusting behaviour in his fight with jack johnson where he repeatedly and obviously head butted johnson by jumping up in the air at him really is shocking when you see it now. It went on for ages too round after round. Johnson and other black fighters of his era had to put up with this sort of thing all the time I guess. They used to throw cigar buts at johnson in between rounds and also hot coins. His laughing at flynn following those head butts really shows what a great character johnson was.

Of course pre his era there were battle royales and all sorts.

When it comes to modern butters evander was the master of that as it was quite subtle in that he would kind of lunge in and look the other way whilst butting. Very clever and very dirty.

Surely Fritzie zivic has to be up there when it comes to dirty tricks and also to some degree greb. Although a lot of that is probably more legend than anything else and based on the odd interview from opponents he beat up, in newspaper reports from klomptons amazing book, i don't recall his dirty tricks being much mentioned more his speed and ability,

Well he didn't really have to put up with it considering he got a win by DQ. There's tons of accounts of fighters doing as bad or worse stuff at that time. Harry Greb was imfamous for eye gouging, and him and Kid Norfolk were reported to have both bitten each other, alledgely Mysterious Billy Smith once covered the ring in broken glass knowing his opponent was going to fight barefooted, and also got a DQ for both kicking and biting in the same fight, Tommy Ryan doesn't seem to be considered especially dirty, but once got DQ'd for kneeing an opponent.

[Tony1244]

I should have put Golota down for low blows as others have. My thought went right to Holmes-Cooney.

[cfang]

He put up with lot id say

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iybw67dh5V4

Fireman Jim Flynn's disgusting behaviour in his fight with jack johnson where he repeatedly and obviously head butted johnson by jumping up in the air at him really is shocking when you see it now. It went on for ages too round after round. Johnson and other black fighters of his era had to put up with this sort of thing all the time I guess. They used to throw cigar buts at johnson in between rounds and also hot coins. His laughing at flynn following those head butts really shows what a great character johnson was.

Of course pre his era there were battle royales and all sorts.

When it comes to modern butters evander was the master of that as it was quite subtle in that he would kind of lunge in and look the other way whilst butting. Very clever and very dirty.

Surely Fritzie zivic has to be up there when it comes to dirty tricks and also to some degree greb. Although a lot of that is probably more legend than anything else and based on the odd interview from opponents he beat up, in newspaper reports from klomptons amazing book, i don't recall his dirty tricks being much mentioned more his speed and ability,

Well he didn't really have to put up with it considering he got a win by DQ. There's tons of accounts of fighters doing as bad or worse stuff at that time. Harry Greb was imfamous for eye gouging, and him and Kid Norfolk were reported to have both bitten each other, alledgely Mysterious Billy Smith once covered the ring in broken glass knowing his opponent was going to fight barefooted, and also got a DQ for both kicking and biting in the same fight, Tommy Ryan doesn't seem to be considered especially dirty, but once got DQ'd for kneeing an opponent.

[Ambling Alp II]

Golota is know for low blows. However in other fights, he threw a blatant head butt, and he bit a fighter in yet another fight. Tyson copied that move.
For hitting on the break ... Duran. End of story.

[Kalan]

Henry Armstrong is the dirtiest fighter I've ever seen. His head was a 3rd glove. The only guy he didn't butt was Ray Robinson who was a good friend of his. That fight had one-way action -- the tamest contest ever seen. The only fight it could be compared to was Byrd-Williamson -- those 2 haven't hit each other yet..

Armstrong not only used his head for leverage and a battering ram, he shoved with his shoulders, forearms, and hands as well. He probably committed more infractions per minute than any boxer in the history of the sport.

[Kalan]

Boxing critics have a tendency to pick on Heavyweights. They bare the brunt of the attacks as the division that always sucks. It's been that way since the 50's, but that's as far as I go back. They're far from the worst actors in the sport, but Heavyweights draw the most brickbats.

Nobody ever says "The Flyweight division sucks these days" or "Who were the dirtiest Light Heavyweights?"

[jaclem3]

to much wordage for an simple solution ,,...just watch film of marciano highlights...\

[gregor]

Rabbit punch was Fres Oquendo trademark.

[Kalan]

Holding and hitting by Lennox Lewis...

Lewis's favorite foul---besides palming you in the face with his gloves---was holding and hitting.. During the Guerrero-Berto fight Guerrero was fouling the HELL out of Berto with not a prayer of any points being taken by corrupt referee Lou Moret... As Guerrero was firmly holding Berto's head with his left, and pounding Berto with his right, Max Kellerman shouted "SHADES OF LENNOX LEWIS." ... That drew loud laughter from the HBO crew.