BoxRec

The overpraising of Izuagbe Ugonoh around here was absolutely bizarre. Reminiscent of Boxrec posters raving over the palpably average Dominick Guinn, back when he was undefeated. Nothing Ugonoh did looked impressive, and yet he was being called by many a "beast" and other such names. Blown out in 5 by Dominic Breazeale last night. That should be the end of that.

Tuan_Jim wrote:Ugonoh looks ordinary. And if you have any sort of power you would stop a massive target like Julius Long, 13 years after Audley Harrison 1-shot KOd him. Why he has become the connoisseur's heavyweight-of-choice I have no idea.

I don't think he was hyped a hell of a lot, but he was definitely a bit overrated. I was surprised to see that he was a fairly comfortable favourite over a powerful, massive guy with documented toughness against good opposition.

To be fair, he was very competetive. Breazele isn't anything special of course but he's a decent fighter in today's heavyweight division.

With Ugonoh, and similar unknown heavyweight quantities, people often want them to be something special to overrate them. To think people were seriously talking about him being a threat to Joshua...

First time I'd seen him last night, he looked good until he started getting hit back, a bit like Herbie Hide.

Flump wrote:First time I'd seen him last night, he looked good until he started getting hit back, a bit like Herbie Hide.

Good comparison

Flump wrote:First time I'd seen him last night, he looked good until he started getting hit back, a bit like Herbie Hide.

Reminded me exactly of Herbie Hide.

Bat sh1t crazy fight, I loved it, Breazeale has a set of stones and a half on him

Could have been as good as Ike could have been if he hadn't of been arrested....

Nothing Ugonoh did looked impressive,

There were plenty mistakes in there but some of the punches he landed last night were impressive. How Breazeale stayed up against some of those right hands was impressive. To say nothing he did was impressive was harsh.

I would also say, I don't remember him being massively hyped.
I've read people say he's a dangerous guy, which in todays heavyweight division, he still is.

As for the picture you posted, that's him actually resting there on referees instructions, smiling and shaking his head, disappointed at the stoppage. He could have possibly carried on.
A picture of him looking sparked outside the ring is a tad misleading

A bit on the small side, and not an intelligent boxer, but he's strong and small, a bit like Mike Tyson, except that Mike was a bit more determined.

asdfjkl wrote:A bit on the small side, and not an intelligent boxer, but he's strong and small, a bit like Mike Tyson, except that Mike was a bit more determined.

Yeah that's the obvious difference between the two of em

Stuarty30 wrote:

asdfjkl wrote:A bit on the small side, and not an intelligent boxer, but he's strong and small, a bit like Mike Tyson, except that Mike was a bit more determined.

Yeah that's the obvious difference between the two of em

Izuagbe really looked unsure and scared yesterday, he seemed to have a lack of confidence. Somehow he's still 230 pounds of muscle.

Last night was the first time i had seen Izu. He is physically impressive and clearly has a lot of skill. His biggest flaw was his defence, he was leaving himself wide open to be countered. He also gassed badly, this lost him the fight IMO.

Last night wont help his confidence, but he can come back from that defeat. I dont know who is training him, but with the right team around him i would say he could be developed into a serious pro, the talent is clearly there.

Never heard of him before, but was mightily impressed early on by the confident way he went about the towering hulk in front of him, hard hitting exciting fighter, but a little on the cruiser weight side to be tangling with the giants...the 3rd round was incredible, round of the year, to come back like that after being heavily floored showed major balls, but then delayed shock of those heavy punches landing, and Breazeale's super human heart seemed to drain the confidence from him very suddenly in the next round, and his reluctace to follow up when he had DB hurt shortly after lost him the fight.

ALI wrote:Last night was the first time i had seen Izu. He is physically impressive and clearly has a lot of skill. His biggest flaw was his defence, he was leaving himself wide open to be countered. He also gassed badly, this lost him the fight IMO.

Last night wont help his confidence, but he can come back from that defeat. I dont know who is training him, but with the right team around him i would say he could be developed into a serious pro, the talent is clearly there.

I wouldn't use the phrase "a lot of skill" for both those guys combined. They're both tough and gamey, but neither has much in the way of skill. You are correct though, Izu's stamina really cost him that fight. He was shot after the third round; he didn't know how to pace himself or how to recover. He can improve, but he's too old to make any really noticeable changes at this point in his career.

I think the Herbie Hide comparison is very apt.

Also this was similar to the price loss to Thompson in the way he was taking a massive step up in class from his previous level of competition.

He desperately needed interim level of opponents to give him rounds and cause him problems without the ability will or strength to beat him.

Once again I'm mystified. "Skill" has been credited to both men. And yet neither one appeared to be boxing with any strategy in mind. It was all just loading up & lobbing big telegraphed looping rights - a depressingly common sight in modern heavyweight boxing, along with the abysmal stamina.

davie wrote:

Nothing Ugonoh did looked impressive,

There were plenty mistakes in there but some of the punches he landed last night were impressive. How Breazeale stayed up against some of those right hands was impressive. To say nothing he did was impressive was harsh.

I would also say, I don't remember him being massively hyped.
I've read people say he's a dangerous guy, which in todays heavyweight division, he still is.

As for the picture you posted, that's him actually resting there on referees instructions, smiling and shaking his head, disappointed at the stoppage. He could have possibly carried on.
A picture of him looking sparked outside the ring is a tad misleading

Great post Davie

Tuan_Jim wrote:Once again I'm mystified. "Skill" has been credited to both men. And yet neither one appeared to be boxing with any strategy in mind. It was all just loading up & lobbing big telegraphed looping rights - a depressingly common sight in modern heavyweight boxing, along with the abysmal stamina.

Ugonoh did have skill in there he was working the body had good foot movement and threw straight shots. His problem was stamina like you said but it wasn't from looping punches that was Breazale. There was definetly skill from Ugonoh in there.

I think it is extremely harsh to say Ugonoh was over-hyped. He was revered as a prospect, which I still consider him to be, even after the defeat.

It's the first time I've seen him fight, and from what I saw there is a lot to be encouraged about, but there is also a lot for him to work on too. He has a lot of power, and has a really impressive jab which even pinned someone a lot bigger than him down. His powers of recovery after going down heavy in the 3rd are also to be commended, however that being said, his defence is a shambles. This is not at all a surprise considering he's from the Parker camp as Joseph Parker has demonstrated in his two highest profile fights is that he is far too easy to hit. He also seemed to gas quite a lot, and was comfortably second in pace behind Breazeale, who I consider to be a plodder at best.

I personally think he's been badly managed, and badly trained going into this fight. The step up from top 200 fighters to Breazeale is not particularly smart, and although many of us would not consider Breazeale to be a threat, he is a solid boxer. He's incredibly durable, as we saw against Joshua, and Ugonoh should of had him out of there in the 4th, but couldn't seal the deal, and allowed Breazeale back into it. I don't know what advice his corner was giving him, but he looked like he was going to try box at one pace, which he'd never be able to carry through. There was no ring intelligence, and he was unable to think round the problem, rather than steam roller it.

Rob3_142 wrote:I think it is extremely harsh to say Ugonoh was over-hyped. He was revered as a prospect, which I still consider him to be, even after the defeat.

It's the first time I've seen him fight, and from what I saw there is a lot to be encouraged about, but there is also a lot for him to work on too. He has a lot of power, and has a really impressive jab which even pinned someone a lot bigger than him down. His powers of recovery after going down heavy in the 3rd are also to be commended, however that being said, his defence is a shambles. This is not at all a surprise considering he's from the Parker camp as Joseph Parker has demonstrated in his two highest profile fights is that he is far too easy to hit. He also seemed to gas quite a lot, and was comfortably second in pace behind Breazeale, who I consider to be a plodder at best.

I personally think he's been badly managed, and badly trained going into this fight. The step up from top 200 fighters to Breazeale is not particularly smart, and although many of us would not consider Breazeale to be a threat, he is a solid boxer. He's incredibly durable, as we saw against Joshua, and Ugonoh should of had him out of there in the 4th, but couldn't seal the deal, and allowed Breazeale back into it. I don't know what advice his corner was giving him, but he looked like he was going to try box at one pace, which he'd never be able to carry through. There was no ring intelligence, and he was unable to think round the problem, rather than steam roller it.

Tuan_Jim wrote:The overpraising of Izuagbe Ugonoh around here was absolutely bizarre. Reminiscent of Boxrec posters raving over the palpably average Dominick Guinn, back when he was undefeated. Nothing Ugonoh did looked impressive, and yet he was being called by many a "beast" and other such names. Blown out in 5 by Dominic Breazeale last night. That should be the end of that.

Tuan_Jim wrote:Ugonoh looks ordinary. And if you have any sort of power you would stop a massive target like Julius Long, 13 years after Audley Harrison 1-shot KOd him. Why he has become the connoisseur's heavyweight-of-choice I have no idea.

He'd make an excellent draught excluder though.

ALI wrote:Last night was the first time i had seen Izu. He is physically impressive and clearly has a lot of skill. His biggest flaw was his defence, he was leaving himself wide open to be countered. He also gassed badly, this lost him the fight IMO.

Yes I thought he was gassed at the end of round 3. As soon as he took his foot off the pedal, he lost against a second tier, basic heavyweight.
It seemed typical of a fighter who has had a too easy run, not used to going rounds and slack defense. He did some lovely combinations though.

asdfjkl wrote:A bit on the small side, and not an intelligent boxer, but he's strong and small, a bit like Mike Tyson, except that Mike was a bit more determined.

Determination. Yep, that's the difference between them