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The"Stare Down"
Posted: 01 May 2010, 19:04
by Brutu
When did the stare down in boxing begin?
and what are examples of the more classic pre-fight stare downs?
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 01 May 2010, 19:31
by yancey
Don't know when it began. (Liston, perhaps?)
Leonard-Benitez was a damn good stare down.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 01 May 2010, 19:33
by Goodnight, Irene
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.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 01 May 2010, 19:39
by Brutu
A good one was Joe Frazier-Jerry Quarry I in 1969.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 01 May 2010, 19:41
by Brutu
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.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 01 May 2010, 19:54
by yancey
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.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 01 May 2010, 19:57
by Brutu
Bernard Mercado and Tex Cobb was another classic stare down.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 01 May 2010, 23:56
by Goodnight, Irene
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.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 01 May 2010, 23:57
by ThatOne
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.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 02 May 2010, 00:17
by Goodnight, Irene
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.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 02 May 2010, 00:32
by yancey
How 'bout the Ali behavior at the stare down with Larry Holmes?
Kinda pitiful, wasn't it?
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 02 May 2010, 00:35
by Goodnight, Irene
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.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 02 May 2010, 01:35
by jaclem2
....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.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 02 May 2010, 03:37
by elmersalsa
Hearns vs Benitez was also a classic staredown a la Leonard vs Benitez
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 02 May 2010, 09:33
by Goodnight, Irene
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.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 02 May 2010, 14:18
by Brutu
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).
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 02 May 2010, 15:06
by Diamond WEAPON
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.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 02 May 2010, 15:50
by granberry
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.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 03 May 2010, 01:17
by jaclem2
..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.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 09 Sep 2010, 17:51
by mrshot
benitez was good at the stare down,one of the best is benitez/hearns
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 10 Sep 2010, 01:24
by Brutu
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.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 10 Sep 2010, 19:05
by Cutman Scabbers
My favorite ever: Bonecrusher Smith vs. Larry Holmes.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 08 Feb 2011, 14:15
by SUGARRAYSMELEE
Tyson vs Holyfield 1 was intense.
Hagler vs Hearns was also classic.
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 08 Feb 2011, 16:02
by orbtastic
Re: The"Stare Down"
Posted: 08 Feb 2011, 18:31
by Goodnight, Irene
I guess no one knows when staredowns began.