Fights You Watched Today

Curry also fought with his chin in the air at all times.

He had a good right hand though. Just watched his fight yesterday with Diaz.

 

I've seen the Diaz fight many times.

That was arguably his best performance outside of McCrory.

He was also very sharp in the Baez fight.

 

TBH, I think Curry is somewhere inbetween over and underrated, which isn't being rated fairly.

Some people dismiss him as a poor, like Dubblechin, who says he loses to DSG, Thurman and wasn't as good as Palomino. That's ridiculous IMO. I haven't seen anybody favour him over genuine ATGs like Leonard or Duran, so he can't be that overrated. I think he's a bit better than say, De La Hoya.

His footwork and ring IQ were outstanding. You can see the years of honing he had in the ams. Very good in the pocket too.

 

Thurman and DSG are incredibly mediocre fighters. Neither one would be at all competitive with Curry, ESPECIALLY not Danny.

For fucks sake Donald Curry would have a field day with Danny.

 

I'm still sold on Curry beating Oscar. Bad style for Oscar.

Mosley? I dunno. I might have been wrong on that one. Shane might have been too fast, and tough for Curry. The way Curry's defense was set up, Shane lands that fast overhand all night.

Trinidad? I reversed on that one. Tito would have executed Curry.

 

Call me crazy, but i think prime Thurman gives hell to curry. DSG has nothing for him though

 

Yeah...

Youre crazy.

Thurman has nothing for Curry.

 

I don't know. I think je was fast and careless enough to gives hell to Curry. Wouldn't pick him, but i don't think its a rout

 

Thurman is a midget with t-rex arms. He would have to sell out to reach Curry, and in doing so his porous defense and mediocre chin get exposed.

Trutfully, I'm not 100% sure Thurman beats a Nino Larocca or Colin Jones.

I definitely don't think he beats Starling or McCrory.

 

Me neither, especially not Starling. McCrory was pretty mediocre, could see keef outathletticism him

 

McCrory and Jones would both KO Thurman IMO. Starling makes a fool of him. Curry has a quite a nice little resume for himself. He also has an underrated run at 154, too. Roger Stafford was no bum either, he quite impressed me vs Cuavas, albeit a declined version.

I have to say, I've seen a couple people make a case for Curry to KO Hearns over the last couple years. Not a fucking prayer, IMO. Like, even if he lands that hail Mary with as much power as he can put into it. I think Hearns gets up, and KOs him. For all the talk of Hearns having a glass chin, he was very hard to put down with one punch. So there's the puncher's chance 'issue' cleared up. And what Xplosive said is right. Curry had a bad habit of leaning straight back. That's a bad enough habit vs guys shorter and slower than you, but when you're in with a taller, quicker guy who has the jab and firepower of Hearns, it's suicide.

I rewatched Hearns vs Cuevas yesterday, and I'd only pick two or three welterweights ever to beat him. Robinson and Leonard, and maybe Walker.

 

My Conteh binge is almost over. I give him precisely zero chance vs the best LHWs ever. Especially Foster and Spinks.

 

I would give Conteh no chance at all against whom many consider the "Big 5" of light heavyweights - Charles, Spinks, Foster, Moore, Roy.

He just wasn't on the level of those guys.

 

Yeah, not only was he not as good, they all represent very difficult styles for him IMO. Foster, Spinks and Roy especially. I find it very strange that awhile back on ESB there were a large number of folk picking him to beat Jones.

My opinion of him has gone up, though. I see him as closer to Harold Johnson than I do Virgil Hill, but I doubt I'll ever see him as a great, great LHW. Especially now I've seen most of his best fights. Although when coming him to Hill, I don't think it's a whitewash where Conteh does everything better. Hill was definitely a more mentally reliable and consistent fighter, and his movement was clearly better too, IMO.

I'm not sure who the best LHW I'd pick him over is. Maybe prime Saad? Not sure if he wins that one. I'd pick Galindez over him, close though. Torres? Moorer? Dunno, I'll have to think about it.

 

I think a prime Harold Johnson would pretty clearly outclass Conteh.

 

Yesterday, I decided on committing to watching some Conteh. Pretty glad I did, TBH. Very interesting and fun fighter to watch. His performance vs Ahumada was great. Jorge seemed to be really good fighter, too. He had a very sneaky cross, a good left hook follow though and a decent jab of his own. Conteh almost pitched a shut out while using just his jab, left hook and uppercut.

In the Finnegan fights, you can really see his right hand, and how good it was before it was marred by injury. Reminds me of Canto's TBH. Very good when he decided to use it, but he didn't often. It slashing and sharp. He seemed to throw it with vicious intentions, and he set his feet for the split second he needed to line it up and nail Finnegan with it. Good shit. I'm sure glad it wasn't me in there when Schmidtke was getting lit up by it.

Beautiful jab; extremely varied and multi faceted. Vs a southpaw, he used it effectively while pawing it, and splaying his palm at the opposing lead. Brilliant method of taking away a southpaw's lead. He hooked off that very well, too. His premier jabbing performances from the collection of fights I saw were Lopez and Ahumada, in this he should excellent usage of feints, level changes and a smooth, but snappy jab. One thing I've noticed about it is that he has a tendency to build a lot of power in the elbow and wrist, rather than the shoulder. I suppose that's why it still had that snap when he was moving while throwing it. He really was able to offset Lopez's base with it.

Very good defensively, too. Aside from having a great jab, brilliant dictation of range, pace and positioning, he also had a complex defence with many layers. Great head-movement, for starters. When on the back-foot, he had a great eye for punches coming, and seemed almost impossible to hit with single shots while on the move. I don't wanna make him sound like a bigger Pernell Whitaker, though. He wasn't. He was just extremely hard to hit when he committed to fighting defensively, like he did for stretches vs Saad. I liked the parries he used as well, though. Old school in their precision, as he seemed to like to get straights off the line and turn with hooks. His defence at mid-range really impressed me, moreso than the elusiveness while fighting at arm's length. He actually reminded me of Jose Napoles with the slip-and-counter method. Very effective, and it really set up some nasty one-twos. He also had that Duran/Fenech/Qawi-esque duck-and-jab, the sort of weight shift to just carry his head an inch out of range like Ali did. Very layered defence. But like I said, he wasn't unhittable when committed to mounting an offense. The B-Netts found ways to land their jabs, and lead hooks off them. He got hit more than you'd like with the cross-counter vs Ahumada. And he was clipped a bit by Lopez. Not saying he was easy to hit, but I feel like somebody like Foster or Spinks - with their great jabs - would be able to set up some heavier shots.

Solid chin too, with the massive heart in the fights with Burnett and Saad, towards the end of his career. He wasn't some powderpuff out-boxer with no dog in him, he really went out to hurt you if you pissed him off, like Lonnie Bennett did. You can really see how cruel a fighter he was in the Schmidtke fight.

Stylistically, I don't see him as the prancy, one-handed out-boxer like I did before. I suppose a comparison to Kingpetch would be a decent comparison to how I originally thought he fought. Not that he didn't dwell into that area at times, but he fought more stationery than that, and closer to his opponents.

 

I think Conteh was a step below what I call the 'B-list' at 175. Charles, Moore, Spinks and Foster being the A-list, guys like Tunney, Loughran, Qawi, Jones, Conn, etc; would be too much for Conteh. I think he's a step below them, but slightly above guys like Torres or Pops.

 

I wouldn't take Conteh over Torres, but it is debatable. I think Conteh would struggle mightily with the peek-a-boo style and with how explosive Torres could be.

 

Can definitely see that, but if Torres won, it'd be because he's a hard style. I don't think he's a better fighter. Conteh was better than Pastrano IMO, but Pastrano and Torres are fighters who I haven't revisited in a while, and only ever gave a cursory look into their careers anyway. Well, Pastrano anyway, I've seen a lot of Torres.

I'd put Eddie MM, Galindez and Saad on the same level of Conteh. So he's in good company.

 

I rewatched the first Michalczewski vs Rocchigiani fight today. Decent little action fight. Michalczewski is a little underrated in terms of being an action fighter IMO, most of his fights were very good. Anyway, it was a good fight. I thought Rocky was probably up by a round or so, but I didn't score. His left was landing very easily, and he could work some short, compact shots to the body quite well. He seemed a little more comfortable fighting off the back-foot than I remembered. Michalczewski's jab was really good.

I lost quite a bit of respect for Michalczewski, though. Not saying that I think he's a pussy or anything, because he clearly wasn't, but he definitely, definitely took the easy way out of this one. It was so embarrassing seeing him big deal the punch. It wasn't even that hard. If I was the ref, I'd have told him to sort his shit out of he's being stopped for being a bitch.

In those words, too. That woulda got him back in there loooool

 

It was a shameful act indeed by DM.

 

I think I'm gonna rewatch Becerra vs Halimi later:

 

I can never see that man's name without seeing Halloumi cheese.

 

I feel another boxers as food items thread coming on...

 

Rewatching Griffith-Paret 1 right now.

Griffith was a phenomenal fighter.

 

Probably my second favourite WW ever, after Hearns. In that stretch where he was coming into his own, and hadn't killed anybody, he really was a fucking beast. Even after he lacked the tenacity to hurt someone (something he never actually had in spades, from his own mouth), he was still a great fighter. A brilliant boxer, with a good workrate, bullish strength and an amazing inside game.

I dunno where I'd rank him at welter H2H, but it'd be fucking high.

 

He's probably like 5 or 6 on the WW head-to-head list.

The top 4 of course being Robinson, Leonard, Hearns, and Gavilan.

 

Griffith had the second broadest shoulders I've ever seen on a welterweight - behind only Hearns.

He was a powerhouse in the upperbody.

 

I'd take Griffith over Gavilan. Imagine if Graham was a better boxer, but could also tie Griffith up on the inside.

But that said, in my opinion, Napoles would always beat Griffith, and Rodriguez seems to have come off the better of the two (although, I've only seen their first two fights).

Mickey Walker needs consideration. I know you lot think that the 1910 & 20s are prehistoric in boxing terms and wouldn't last with the post-Walker law crowd, but I think Mickey looks as good enough to trouble anyone at the weight.

 

Watched Carr vs. Coley on ironside. Really good fight I missed when it happened.