BoxRec

All fighters can have an off night, or they can just happen to get caught with a punch they never saw coming, still in other fights they may just have ran into a guy who was in the middle of a roll, or the fighter in question may have just been past his prime. But here are some fights I have always been puzzled by. Fighters who previously had shown much more ability. It's like in these fights they just bumbled around the ring until they got knocked out.

Leon Spinks ko by Gerri Coetzee
Loyd Honeygan ko by Mark Brealand
John Collins ko by Robbie Sims
John Tate ko by Treavor Berbick
Ken Norton Ko by Earnie Shavers


Maybe you can shed some light on what might have happend to these fighters in these particular fights, or maybe you have some similar fights where you wondered what was wrong with a guy who you figured would have made a better showing.

Kick , good call on Collins - Simms.
John didnt look like himself getting into the ring vs, Simms.
You remember he had a swollen eye from training before the fight started .
He looked mentaly and physicaly beat before the bell rang.
He didnt look quite right vs. Sibson either.

Collins was just crap, that's all.

Bumphus vs Honeyghan is one that comes to mind.

John Collins got into the ring with Robbie Sims without warming up in anyway, and that's why he got KO'd in the 1st. A friend of mine knew Collins and said he actually didn't want to be a fighter. He never fought again after the Sims debacle. Someone told me he became a Chicago cop, but I don't know for certain.

I think a classic example was Melio Bettina being dropped three times and kayoed in one round by Gus Lesnevich in 1947. He looked as though he was in a trance before the opening bell.

The mouse under Collins eye was from a fracas in the hotel bar the night before...something involving a chick. I believe he's an engineer in Chicago.

Scartissue

Augustus/Oliveira....Ray grabbed the back of his head in the later rounds, and just looked like something was completely off in his head and it was extremely obvious to everyone. It got to the point where Augustus stopped throwing at Ray's head, and just tossed jabs to the body until the fight was over.

Norton loss against Shavers is very simular to his defeat against Foreman and he wasnt shot against Foreman... he just couldnt take Foreman or SHavers power, he also couldnt fight going backwards.... Norton was also simularly koed by Cooney but he was well and truly shot by that stage...
Honeyghan was just shot against Breland... he was never the same after the Starling fight and became somewhat 'chinny'... Tate vs Berbick is a simular situation, Tate was never the same after the Weaver fight and looked distressed everytime Berbick landed with a good shot...

What surprised me with Norton against Shavers is the apparent lack of a strategy, the way he just stood around. Even a little movement or some clinching could have gotten him out of the first round. Another thing that was surprising is how easy Norton was to hit. Alot of time a fighter will get hit because he left himself open when throwing a punch. But the only real punch Norton threw was a feeble left hook that was flatfooted with very little on it. It seems like he could of went into the fight saying to himself what does this guy have, power. Okay how do I adjust. But I did'nt even see that much of a game plan.

Leon Spinks ko by Gerrie Coetzee

Leon Spinks was always in danger of getting caught cold he was stopped in the first as an amateur by DC Barker in 74/75.

Against Coetzee, Spinks came flying out the blocks as he always did and always would. Hurling himself forward, throwing hooks with a leaky defence and got caught by the hard hitting South African.

Then Leon did was he would always do when he was dropped, lose his temper, stop thinking and carry on steaming forward, with little regard for defence or taking a breather to recover from the knockdown.

Years later when a shell of his former self the exact same thing happened to Leon against John Carlo, but in slow motion.......

kick asner wrote:What surprised me with Norton against Shavers is the apparent lack of a strategy, the way he just stood around. Even a little movement or some clinching could have gotten him out of the first round. Another thing that was surprising is how easy Norton was to hit. Alot of time a fighter will get hit because he left himself open when throwing a punch. But the only real punch Norton threw was a feeble left hook that was flatfooted with very little on it. It seems like he could of went into the fight saying to himself what does this guy have, power. Okay how do I adjust. But I did'nt even see that much of a game plan.

In a book I read a while ago, Nortons trainer said that Norton never liked fighting power punchers like Foreman and Shavers... technically they were bad fights for him as his crablike style meant that he couldnt fight going backwards. On the other hand his style made him a nightmare for boxers like Ali and Holmes...

silkov wrote:

kick asner wrote:What surprised me with Norton against Shavers is the apparent lack of a strategy, the way he just stood around. Even a little movement or some clinching could have gotten him out of the first round. Another thing that was surprising is how easy Norton was to hit. Alot of time a fighter will get hit because he left himself open when throwing a punch. But the only real punch Norton threw was a feeble left hook that was flatfooted with very little on it. It seems like he could of went into the fight saying to himself what does this guy have, power. Okay how do I adjust. But I did'nt even see that much of a game plan.

In a book I read a while ago, Nortons trainer said that Norton never liked fighting power punchers like Foreman and Shavers... technically they were bad fights for him as his crablike style meant that he couldnt fight going backwards. On the other hand his style made him a nightmare for boxers like Ali and Holmes...

That makes quite a bit of sense.

kick asner wrote:What surprised me with Norton against Shavers is the apparent lack of a strategy, the way he just stood around. Even a little movement or some clinching could have gotten him out of the first round. Another thing that was surprising is how easy Norton was to hit. Alot of time a fighter will get hit because he left himself open when throwing a punch. But the only real punch Norton threw was a feeble left hook that was flatfooted with very little on it. It seems like he could of went into the fight saying to himself what does this guy have, power. Okay how do I adjust. But I did'nt even see that much of a game plan.

Totally agree. Every time I watch this fight I always think the same thing. Everyone knew Shavers' M.O. was his punching power. Yet Norton went out there and just kind of put his back against the ropes and, with almost no reproach, let Shavers start teeing off on him ...

Really a dumb strategy!!

kingpawn wrote:

kick asner wrote:What surprised me with Norton against Shavers is the apparent lack of a strategy, the way he just stood around. Even a little movement or some clinching could have gotten him out of the first round. Another thing that was surprising is how easy Norton was to hit. Alot of time a fighter will get hit because he left himself open when throwing a punch. But the only real punch Norton threw was a feeble left hook that was flatfooted with very little on it. It seems like he could of went into the fight saying to himself what does this guy have, power. Okay how do I adjust. But I did'nt even see that much of a game plan.

Totally agree. Every time I watch this fight I always think the same thing. Everyone knew Shavers' M.O. was his punching power. Yet Norton went out there and just kind of put his back against the ropes and, with almost no reproach, let Shavers start teeing off on him ...

Really a dumb strategy!!

Here is another way Norton could have approached it. He could have simply viewed film of Shavers fighting Ron Stander and said okay here is a fighter who is limited in all areas. Yet he manages to survive Shaver's power and came on to score a knockout. And then ask himself, what did he do that solved Shavers power and how might it work for me? In fairness to Shavers he did improve somewhat since then.

Apologies for straying from the topic a bit, but why the hell did Norton take the fight with Cooney? You just KNEW what was going to happen, in a Tua vs. Moorer kind of way.

To get back on topic, I tuned in to Douglas-Tyson in the middle of the second round and immediatly saw that Tyson wasn't himself that night. Something just looked wrong about him.

Cowdell-Daho I
Fenech-Nelson II

Lewis-McCall II

One of the strangest moment's in recent boxing history...

sweetsci wrote:To get back on topic, I tuned in to Douglas-Tyson in the middle of the second round and immediatly saw that Tyson wasn't himself that night. Something just looked wrong about him.

I get the same feeling, but I assumed that Tyson was waiting for Douglas to get scared or something. I still think Douglas wins that night (even w/a A plus Tyson) because he had the perfect strategy to fight Tyson.