BoxRec

Who are your main choices of fighters who by accident or by choice, changed their style the most, during their career?

My 2 are:-

1) Hector Camacho (the original) - He was such an exciting & attacking fighter, then one night, Edwin Rosario stunned him to the sole of his boots & from that point on, he became one of the dullest & most safety conscious fighters ever. It was even more remarkable because the transformation happened during a fight & he never really reverted back to his original style after!!!

2) Donovan 'Razor' Ruddock - He was more of a boxer to start with, then when he sparked Michael Dokes with his vaunted 'smash' punch, he morphed into a one dimensional slugger who thought he could KO every opponent with his honey punch! :P

Roy Jones Jr. fights with a whole lot less impugnity now than he once did. Confidence has really defined the way he develops a gameplan. He's really a scared fighter now & boxes accordingly. There was a time when he would do anything but concentrate on the task at hand, so self-assured was he.

Tommy Hearns, turned from the Hitman to cautious boxer in the latter stages of his career.

Marco Antonio Barrera became good boxer after his losses to Junior Jones. Back in the day Mexican fighters were basically left hookers to the liver. Miguel Canto and later Sal Sanchez exhibited beautifull boxing skills. Today many Mexican fighters are well taught. The trainers in Mexico(many former fighters)are much better.

Ive heard the Matthew Franklin, later Matthew Saad Muhamed ,was more of a boxer early in his career .
He became a crowd pleasing banger later on.
I havent seen any of his fights from that stage in his career.
Anyone?

Early (I saw him some back in the seventies) in his career Marvin Hagler was very much a side to side movement boxer but later in his career became more of a move straight forward and beat you to death type.
Ali of course was the speedster back in the sixties, a standard straight up boxer after returning from exile, and do the rope a dope and expect the judges to give you the decision by the late seventies.
Foreman was of course a completely different fighter when he had his comeback.

Ken Norton moved into a crab, cross defence styled fighter which made him alot more successful.

Ali the dancer, boxer. to Ali rope-a-dope, against the hardest hitter in the sport. Surprised everyone including his corner.

I'm voting for Lennox Lewis.

His defeat at the hands of McCall had a profound effect on his fighting style.

When he 1st started out, he was reckless; he used to dangle his hands low & he used to try & take out every opponent out with a single Right hand, until that fateful night, when the titanium chinned McCall countered him & sparked him out.

From that point onwards, Lewis became cautious & defensive.

This manifested itself in the 2 Holyfield fights & alarmingly so in the Tyson fight, where he could have taken out Tyson inside of 3 rounds if he really wanted to.

Tyson was a sitting duck after round 2 & just wanted to be put out of his misery & take the money & run, but Lewis just dragged the fight out to round 8!

Even Manny Steward was cursing him!

Broncano wrote:Tommy Hearns, turned from the Hitman to cautious boxer in the latter stages of his career.

Hearns actually started as a boxer, but Emmanuel Steward honed his killer instinct and he became a dynamite. That is why he was able to outbox Ray Leonard most of the 12 rounds of their epic first battle. He was forced to box more later in his career out of desparation, weight and inability to concussively knock his opponents out.

Bernard Hopkins used to be more of a stalker and would pick his opponents to pieces throughout a fight. Since beating De La Hoya though he became more and more defensive and focused on making his opponents look bad than making himself look great.

Juan Manuel Marquez was a very patient fighter before who threw punches more sparingly and looked for the perfect counters constantly, but ever since the Chris John fight he's been much more willing to let his hands go and slug it out a bit to ensure he doesn't get screwed out of a decision. He gets hit a bit more but he also looks more spectacular in taking more chances.

Marco Antonio Barrera was the classic Mexican workmanlike pressure-slugger but as he got older, especially after the Junior Jones fights his handspeed improved and he became better with his timing and precision. In his final days he even learned to be evasive when necessary (i.e. vs. Juarez and Pacquiao).

Roberto Duran springs to mind. He was excellently able to adapt to his ageing body. Muhammad Ali also.

..panziana (sp) changed from charge in swarmer to dancing on the outside.

the fighter whom i saw change his style the most was jersey joe walcott. he actually developed a different style for almost every fight, depending on the opponent. the walcott who baffled louis used an altogether different style from the one who fought charles, or the one in walcott 1.
in his losing fight to rex layne he didn't seem like the same fighter in any of the above matches. very bad performance, mostly defensive without countering or even attempting any of his bagfull of tricks.

the walcott of marciano II? look at the tapes if you have them. when i saw the fight on live tv i was stunned at how much older he looked than in the previous fight. then when the bell rang he went into his retreat and was virtually helpless. i think his feeling was if he couldn't beat marciano with that gem of a performance in the first fiight he had no chance in this one. i won't say he quit, but it was obvious his heart just wasn't in it.

the fact that he retired after this one showed he knew his good days were behind him and smartly got out.

mattym wrote:Roberto Duran springs to mind. He was excellently able to adapt to his ageing body. Muhammad Ali also.

Excellent shouts.

The mark of a truly great fighter IMO.