"A style you can't teach"

List the first 5 fighters you think of that epitomise this particular statement for you.

Now.

 

Floyd Mayweather

 

Muhammad Ali
Roy Jones
Naseem Hamed

Those are the 1st that Sprung to Mind...


REED:fightme:

 

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Jones and Ali. Unless you can teach somebody how to be the fastest fighter ever.

 

Dunno man, prime Hamed wasn't that different from other Ingle fighters except for a little extra reliance on his power.

 

Adrien Broner is a perfect example of this, actually.


Maybe I just view the topic differently. I dont think it is too hard to fight like a guy like Roy Jones. He didn't do anything groundbreaking there. He was just a super fast athletic guy with power. There are a number of guys that could fight like Roy Jones if they wanted to, but without his speed it isn't worthwhile since it is fairly "wrong". Throw a bunch of lead left hooks, time right hand potshots, dance around a lot...not rocket science.


On the other hand, matching technical brilliance like Floyd's couldnt be completed in a lifetime...copycats cannot even scratch the surface of his ability.

 

Nicolino Locche. I'll be damned if what he does is even possible without some sort of phase-shift time travel or mind reading.

 

That's true - most fighters have just too much instinct to throw punches, Audley's style is nigh on impossible to replicate.

 

Arturo Gatti, gotta be born with it
Vitali and Wlad. Besides them, no other tall fighter has so consistently been able to take advantage of that trait.

 

Mikkel Kessler
Kelly Pavlik
Vernon Forrest
Larry Holmes
Milton McCrory

 

Vitali's a good one. The only thing Wlad has that's unteachable is his special ability to feel no shame

 

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Generally, it would have to be guys who do something that involves a lot of things you should never do but are successful anyway and by extension, have particular physical attributes/talents that allow them to get away with it

I think Floyd, who has a classic, old-school style is a terrible example... but Silent Night and I have been through that before, so there's no point in rehashing it

I think of guys like Roy Jones, Muhammad Ali, Vitali Klitschko, young George Foreman, I agree for the most part with Hut regarding Locche...

A guy like Roy could do what he did because he was blessed with an insane level of speed in all categories... He moved his whole body faster than anybody ever, in my opinion... It was not just his hands... There have been other guys with blazing hands who couldn't do what Jones did because they couldn't move their bodies as fast as he. On top of that, he was inventive with his weird style... It would be one thing for him to simply be "wrong" and get away with it because he was fast, but he added extra layers of "wrong" that he was able to make work through lots of practice and preparation... None of it would have been possible were he not so physically gifted... A guy with 2/3 that speed would have gotten picked off a time or three long before the point of ruining himself by dropping back down from Heavyweight

Ali is so fascinating because he had really two, separate and distinct careers of doing "wrong" things... In the prime years, he would seem to waste energy by being on his toes all night, dancing around, but he could do it because he had the gas tank to do it... He never threw a bodypunch in his life... His arsenal was really two punches with the occasional left hook and right uppercut thrown in... It worked because he had great reflexes and amazing quickness... In his second career, he still had the fastest hands in the division, but he couldn't stay on his toes all night any more... Plus, the opponents got a little bit better... So he started doing something you are told never to do... lay on the ropes and cover up... Yet he made it work... Firing quick counter shots... Proving his insane toughness by absorbing punishment while his opponents got tired... Eventually what seemed like punches of mediocre heaviness started to feel stinging, sharp and heavy and he would start to hurt his opponent

Vitali Klitschko does things "wrong"... His punches are all arms, almost no legs, he doesn't swivel, transfer the weight, slam the door... he just pecks and pokes and almost slaps... But the hands are heavy and if the opponents aren't knocked out a la Mike Tyson or Ernie Shavers, they are bloody, bruised, exhausted, repeatedly wobbled... Furthermore, there is the matter of his defense... He stands straight up with his chin in the air, precisely what you are not supposed to do... It works because he uses every inch of his height and he has excellent head and shoulder movement... He takes few flush punches while constantly landing flush punches... Were he 6'3, this style would be a bad one... But Vitali knows his height is a layer of defense in and of itself and he has refined his tactics around it

George Foreman looked incredibly crude as a young fighter and in some respects, he really was... He, too, tended to have bad punching technique... But he was so preposterously strong and powerful that his roundhouse right hands and legless uppercuts effortlessly moved his opponents all over the ring... Then there was his tactic of holding his arms out with his head straight up, chin exposed, seemingly flailing to parry an opponent's punches... It worked because he had the strength and the vision to make it work... One thing he always did right (at least until the loss to Ali seemed to really shatter his confidence) is cut off the ring... He was a master at it... all the while pushing his arms out there to knock punches away so he could get his own in there... Few people would have the right physical talents to succeed the way George did with that style.

Finally, Locche... Locche didn't appear to have any special physical attributes... He doesn't appear particularly fast of hand or foot or body... He had negligible power at best, he tended to slap and push with his punches... Yet, somehow, defying all reason, he could stand right in front of a guy and while barely moving his head, make them miss 19 of 20 punches... The only thing I would disagree with in nominating him is that technically he was superb in two key areas... His footwork was absolutely top notch, superb balance, smooth, graceful, clearly well-trained... the other was his understanding of distance and angles... Locche was able to do the minimum physically to achieve the maximum defensive result because his technique with his feet and his positioning was so expert

 

agree... wald pussy is a terrible example other than his unique position as wald pussy

Vitali IS one of the best possible examples, on the other hand

 

REED Can't Say he's Seen Alot of Ingle Fighters, Other than Ryan Rhodes, Johnny Nelson & Junior Witter...Hamed Had THE Most UNDISCIPLINED Manner of Fighting REED's EVER Seen & it's a Wonder he Basically UNIFIED the Featherweight Division...

LEAD Uppercuts Land you in the Fracture Ward, & REED AIN'T Talking about a Fightbeat Forum when he Says that...

REED:cheer:

 

:ant:

It's like Andre Berto & Soto-Karass, All Over Again....You're Trying Toooooo HARD, TLC...



REED:shit:

 

emmanuel burton

 

Joe Calzaghe

 

Carl Froch

 

Let's hope so.

 

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c217/natas206/accuracy.gif

 

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The weird thing is it started off well enough, some solid shots slipped through the middle, then it just turned into a sort of doggy paddle with a 0% connect rate.

 

:: probably the worst stoppage in history

 

:bears:

Calzaghe bringing a barrage of brutality there

 

:atu:

 

Joe calzaghe
Vitali
Carl Froch
Roy Jones
Hopkins

 

Current Wlad is all taught nonsense. Its unfortunate as he used to have some unique, odd moves. Like quadruple left hooks to the noggin. He still has it, but its overshadowed by "Hall of Famer Trainer" bullshit.

Vitali is the antithesis of this. He's probably the best example of Bruce Lee's old "have no style, be like water" maxim.

Froch too.....is he a presser? A counterer? A body puncher? I don't know what he is.

Jones........speed and reflexes mean never having to say sorry. He did a whole load wrong, and once he slowed down, it showed. But in his youth he was unique. No point asking kids to learn how to throw the left hooks he did, like the one that drilled Griffen.

 

Disagree on Hopkins... Very much a classic technician... Even his negativity is old-school stalling tactics... The difference is that nobody has seen a guy employ them so much of the time since probably Sammy Angott was plying his trade