BoxRec

be critical about them or their careers. In other words pick things about them that you think they could've done better, fights they should've taken or maybe just their quality of opposition.

Marvin Hagler, he should have been bolder in the first Antuofermo, Duran and Leonard fights

Marciano. Was lucky to be in the era he fought. Dirty fighter.

Don Curry, he should have turned pro a year earlier, kept disciplined about his weight, moved up to light middle before Honeyghan, he should have boxed cautiously v McCallum (it probably wouldn't have made much difference).

Muhammad Ali.
Should have retired after 'The Thrilla In Manila' but he decided to carry on, so he should have taken Leon Spinks more seriously and trained properly for their first fight.
He had to take the rematch to become the only ever 3 time (linear) heavyweight champion but should have stayed retired after that, and not been tempted back to fight Larry Holmes.

SteveO wrote:Muhammad Ali.
Should have retired after 'The Thrilla In Manila' but he decided to carry on, so he should have taken Leon Spinks more seriously and trained properly for their first fight.
He had to take the rematch to become the only ever 3 time (linear) heavyweight champion but should have stayed retired after that, and not been tempted back to fight Larry Holmes.

What a record he would've had if he did retire after last Frazier fight, 49 wins (35 kos) and 2 point losses which were both avenged.

He never threw body punches either, something I would have like to see him do.

For Ali I'd say it was tactical. Laying on the ropes worked against Foreman, but against Norton it didn't. Norton had no answer when Ali got up on his toes and jabbed. Hate to see a fighter abandon a strategy that worked.

Thommy Hearns, too brave for his own good.

NIGEL BENN

Finding the balance between delivering devastating, often overwhelming aggression and leaving himself deeply vulnerable in fights he could have won was not always totally resolved in his career. What worked brilliantly against Barkley, DeWitt and the G-Man could also backfire against others.

Michael Watson and Chris Eubank (first fight) both tactically smart enough to cover-up and wait for the tornado to blow itself out. Watson - in his finest/seminal performance - knew what was coming from Nigel and almost encouraged him to come at him before chosing the right moment to start accurately countering a tiring Benn. Even the far less celebrated Anthony Logan had a brief moment of glory against an up-and-coming Nigel.

Bodyshot3 wrote:NIGEL BENN

Finding the balance between delivering devastating, often overwhelming aggression and leaving himself deeply vulnerable in fights he could have won was not always totally resolved in his career. What worked brilliantly against Barkley, DeWitt and the G-Man could also backfire against others.

Michael Watson and Chris Eubank (first fight) both tactically smart enough to cover-up and wait for the tornado to blow itself out. Watson - in his finest/seminal performance - knew what was coming from Nigel and almost encouraged him to come at him before chosing the right moment to start accurately countering a tiring Benn. Even the far less celebrated Anthony Logan had a brief moment of glory against an up-and-coming Nigel.

Great analysis of Nigel Benn, my second favourite fighter of all time

dr_devious wrote:

Bodyshot3 wrote:NIGEL BENN

Finding the balance between delivering devastating, often overwhelming aggression and leaving himself deeply vulnerable in fights he could have won was not always totally resolved in his career. What worked brilliantly against Barkley, DeWitt and the G-Man could also backfire against others.

Michael Watson and Chris Eubank (first fight) both tactically smart enough to cover-up and wait for the tornado to blow itself out. Watson - in his finest/seminal performance - knew what was coming from Nigel and almost encouraged him to come at him before chosing the right moment to start accurately countering a tiring Benn. Even the far less celebrated Anthony Logan had a brief moment of glory against an up-and-coming Nigel.

Great analysis of Nigel Benn, my second favourite fighter of all time

agreed. The brilliance of Watsons performance gets greatly overlooked i m o, there's this "benn spent hours getting a stupid hairdo then punched himself out" master narrative where Watson sat in a shell for 5 rounds then benn ran into a jab

The accurate countering started a lot earlier than seems to have become a general perception, i think

The great Roberto Duran. He should have taken care of himself after beating the great Sugar Ray Leonard. He went into a party frenzy and did not take care of his body....Damn, it hurts.

Duran was doing that long before he fought Leonard. I remember reading that when he was a LW, his weight had ballooned up to over 180 a couple times between fights.

Arturo Gatti....too brave for his own good RIP

Seamus wrote:Duran was doing that long before he fought Leonard. I remember reading that when he was a LW, his weight had ballooned up to over 180 a couple times between fights.

yes, he did, but after that fight, he thought that he was the king of the world. He partied like never before and forsook training. He was training to reduce weight. Not to be mentally and physically prepared.

Rocky Marciano

There's a good argument to say that he didn't hang around long enough when he was at the top of the game and in his prime...
And he didn't defend the belt as regularly as I would have liked to have seen him do.

I wouldn't criticize him too much for that; he had six defenses in three years. That is pretty much par for the course.

The accurate countering started a lot earlier than seems to have become a general perception, i think

@Counterpuncher....that's fair comment. I re-watched the fight last night - god, it still is a good one that stands the test of time - and Michael was skilfully slotting home the odd useful shot much earlier than I had remembered. It was a seriously masterful piece of boxing. My respect for Watson has grown again and I do kind of wish that he had held back a little longer and not had the fight with McCallum so early.

Counter-puncher wrote:

dr_devious wrote:

Bodyshot3 wrote:NIGEL BENN

Finding the balance between delivering devastating, often overwhelming aggression and leaving himself deeply vulnerable in fights he could have won was not always totally resolved in his career. What worked brilliantly against Barkley, DeWitt and the G-Man could also backfire against others.

Michael Watson and Chris Eubank (first fight) both tactically smart enough to cover-up and wait for the tornado to blow itself out. Watson - in his finest/seminal performance - knew what was coming from Nigel and almost encouraged him to come at him before chosing the right moment to start accurately countering a tiring Benn. Even the far less celebrated Anthony Logan had a brief moment of glory against an up-and-coming Nigel.

Great analysis of Nigel Benn, my second favourite fighter of all time

agreed. The brilliance of Watsons performance gets greatly overlooked i m o, there's this "benn spent hours getting a stupid hairdo then punched himself out" master narrative where Watson sat in a shell for 5 rounds then benn ran into a jab

Benn was a bit raw at that stage, he relied too much on his power and Watson was just further along the path at that stage and put in a sublime performance to derail Benn. I was surprised at how easily McCallum beat Watson the following year, it was like master vs pupil

Bodyshot3 wrote:

The accurate countering started a lot earlier than seems to have become a general perception, i think

@Counterpuncher....that's fair comment. I re-watched the fight last night - god, it still is a good one that stands the test of time - and Michael was skilfully slotting home the odd useful shot much earlier than I had remembered. It was a seriously masterful piece of boxing. My respect for Watson has grown again and I do kind of wish that he had held back a little longer and not had the fight with McCallum so early.