Oddly enough I agree. Holyfield had the ability to fuck up a cup of coffee. He reminded me of his 1984 Olympic team-mate, Meldrick Taylor. It was like Meldrick roiding up to 160. His lack of true size and power, coupled with his repeated tendency to brawl, was only going to get him into trouble.
I'd personally rate Byrd's chin as average and maybe slightly better than average. He got knocked down by guys not really considered punchers and got knocked senseless by a couple of big punchers. Maybe I am in the minority but I wouldn't call Byrd's chin "good".
:: This is epic stuff. He starts his career as a "Blown up Super Middle", and then when he stands up to the best a noted 240lb boxer-puncher can hit him with, we get told that his chin was "average". :dunno: Ibeabuchi was the only guy who ever took a prime-Byrd out. Personally, of course, I never rated Ibeabuchi's power.
It is really possible for him to do it sooner, however and not be behind on the cards this time also, clearly Dokes was in his prime at that point
Some folks get all excited about that win for Ruddock, but Dokes was well on the other side of his prime at this point.
Irish 2002/2003: "Michael Dokes just died after a long battle w/cancer and instead of showing a bit of respect for a fallen fighter, I thought it would be better to take advantage of the R.I.P. thread to shit on him for the Klitschko's benefit."
Actually...I am curious as to when YOU think his prime was. I will give you a hint...it WASN'T at the time of the Ruddock fight. How many of Dokes' fights have you seen? Have you ever even discussed him (or even heard of him) prior to trolling this topic?
Michael Dokes kicked the shit out of his missus, so badly, that he made it into the same article in boxing monthly with Ike Ibeabuchi. And he got knocked out by a white heavyweight :: :laugh11:
Keep scooping up that negative attention. I guess to someone like you, ANY attention will work. As you were...
Actually, I'm waiting on you to tell us when his prime was and what his best wins were? Hint: He was over the hill at 32 and he has no wins worth mentioning.
I always thought the Weaver win was worth mentioning. In fact, it was a pretty big deal at the time. Naturally in 1982 I didn't have the benefit of hindsight revisionism. All I could do was take it for it was worth at the time. At the time, since dropping a decision to Holmes, Weaver had become a bit of a respected force in the HW division. I'm pretty sure he was favored to land a bomb on Dokes and retain his belt with eyes on a rematch with Larry at some point. Again, as it turns out, the decade was basically Holmes, Spinks and Tyson. So, in the genius-making light of retrospect, a bout between two footnotes probably doesn't register with the Box-Rec crowd.
Weaver was a fascinating character. Impossible to figure out. He was in some really memorable fights... In addition to the Holmes fight and the controversial first Dokes fight, there was the shock KO of John Tate, just 15 seconds away from a sure decision loss; a brutal back-and-forth slugfest with Gerrie Coetzee (one of the real forgotten classics); another out-of-the-blue KO, this time of Carl Williams and then the almost equally controversial Dokes rematch where the two hammered each other to a draw with many people believing that Weaver deserved the nod... He was like a journeyman one night, not letting his hands go, absorbing punishment and then an all-world heavyweight the next... weird career, many classic fights
Absolutely. Plus...he started out as a journeyman in the early 70's and eventually became a respectable "opponent" by the late 70's. Holmes was criticized for giving him a title shot, but he surprised everyone by giving Holmes a serious run for his money. And then all of a sudden he was a title holder and top contender and fought like one.
Guy, ironically, by the name of Sanders, a heavyweight-champ elect who died of from injuries incurred in a bout.