silkov wrote:I wouldnt say Lee was mediocre, far from it, ...look at the wars he had with Doug Dewitt... he was an underachiever though and had an erratic career which partly stemmed I think from the fact that many fighters wouldnt touch him with a barge pole. Had he been handled better he could have gone much further imo.... good speed, skills, and excellent power... I never saw anyone else hurt Sibbo the way Lee did, (aside from Mwale early in Sibs career) not even Hagler.Elton John wrote:I've seen Sibbo myself a few times. At his peak he was able to beat Minter which put him in line for an eliminator against top ranked Davison whom he outpointed in twelve to qualify for a title shot at Hagler.silkov wrote: Sibson would definately have had a good chance of beating Dewitt, and Johnson, Jackson and Taylor were not exactly standouts imo.... a lot of these American fighters tend to get reps that flater them quite a bit while British fighters are often sneered at... for instance people on this thread mention Minter like he was a bum yet he handled Antuofermo far easier than even a peak Hagler did... people go on about how great Jermain Taylor is, but the guy can barely fight a full 2 minutes a round let alone three... as for Bernard Hopkins, loads of defences yes, but who did he actually beat aside from some blown up welters and lightweights???....
Of course, I've seen the Hagler fight, followed by the Collins fight.
It seems that popularity influenced people into thinking John would have the same success as Hagler if you can believe that. I thought John looked too frail next to Tony.
Tony knew he had no reason to fear and in fact had an easy prey in front of him. He was able to avoid the jab coming in and scored with authority using the right lead the way my man Roy Jones would a decade later.
And that left hook was was without peer. Let him hit you with it and you're finished. And it wasn't just the power it carried but the fact that he used it so effectively in succession and on top of that, was also lethal in the form of a jab. No doubt about it, the man was gifted, especially when it came to quickly getting another man in trouble.
The Lee fight shortened his career I believe. he skyrocked downwards afterwards. Lee was mediocre but like Buster Douglas, he trained very hard for this fight. having a decided height advantage at 6-2 to Tony's 5-8 and turning lefty on him gave Tony stylistic problems.
James Toney I give credit to. he was the first man to beat Micheal Nunn but as a middleweight, he proved a few times he could be outworked and several of his bouts were to close to call. I think Sibbo would outwork him and definitely packed more of a punch. I like Sibbo to get inside and work him furiously to the body.
McCallum was technically better than Sibbo but not nearly as powerful. Maybe he could handle him and maybe he wouldn't. That's how I feel about him.
Hopkins was the best of a weak division. he beat a weaker man in Trinidad but it took him 12 to do it. He lost lopsidedly to Roy Jones who fought with one good hand.
I'm not knocking him but I have have never beaten an elite middleweight. An elite middleweight is someone like Kalambay, Nunn and in Hagler's day it was usually contenders.
His durability is without question. But, his power is a bit low and I very seriously doubt that Bernard could hurt Sibson in a tough fight. I'm not saying he would lose but I don't have full confidence in his ability to win either.
Sibbo had a lot of injury problems after the Lee fight, I remember him having a chronic elbow problem that hampered his left hook... this led to inactivity... one problem with Sibson is that he probably turned pro too early at 18 and by the time he was in his late 20s he was a little jaded and disillusioned with boxing... I remember his last fight with Tate and he had been doing well but then just seemed to run out of steam and lose heart... I think there were quite a few problems for him going into that fight and he was probably sick of all the hassle that goes with boxing etc... the Sibbo of a few years earlier would have beaten Tate imo...
yes, it's hard to judge Tony off of that one fight with Hagler. It looked as if Marvin was too dominant. Judging Tony from the Lee fight is also misleading because Lee had so much height on him. Even at that, Tony was handling him with ease but once Don turned his stance around, he was vulnerable to Don's straight counter to the chin.
I don't remember ever seeing Don look as formidable since that time.
