Worst style mismatches between great fighters

Note: I'm talking about fights that occurred, not mythical matchups.

Mayweather vs Marquez is one for me. Both had many many wrinkles to their game but if you wanted to simplify it I suppose you could call them counter-punchers. Floyd had the edge in hand speed, reflexes, defense and to top it all off was the bigger guy. I couldn't think of any realistic path to victory for JMM. Both great fighters but head to head it's a mismatch.

What were some other matchups between greats in which the styles made them one sided? (not cases where it was mainly hindsight like Foreman-Frazier)

 

Mayweather vs Marquez had a lot to do with size. It was as much as a style mismatch than norris vs taylor was.

An obvious one is toney vs jones and pbf vs chico (if you consider chico great)

 

Size just tipped it over the edge. What real advantages does Marquez have directly over Mayweather? Grittier? More experience in wars and handling exchanges? Irrelevant when you consider the styles as JMM is not going to be able to force that kind of fight.

 

Who knows. He landed a few counters. Maybe it would have made pbf more reluctant. But we're entering the land of "make believe" which bring us dangerously close to a mm.

Just to be sure, if i understand well, it has to a match between great that was viewed as a mismatch coming in and thst turned out to be a mismatch? If so, my toney-jones example is not a.good.one

 

wright vs. trinidad

 

Pretty much, but mainly based upon styles and attributes of the two involved. Not that the public/pundits figured the fight was a total waste of time, but that it was near impossible to think of one guy winning outside of "anything can happen in boxing".

 

Im not sure youll find any good ones, if there's no size or age difference.

 

Tito was a.heavy favorite.coming in. Not a good example

 

Not with that attitude.

 

Depending on the definition of great, hamed vs bungu and froch vs Ward might qualify.

Both Froch and Bungu were highly touted opponent coming in, but pretty much.nobody gave them a chance

 

Liston-Patterson went kind of as expected. People generally knew going in that Floyd was gonna get killed - it was a style mismatch even on paper.

 

Bungu had gone life and death with Danny Romero. Yeah, it didn't bode well for his chances against Naz.

 

Yeah and back then it was somewhat rarer for the challenger for a world title to be the odds on favorite.

 

Probably the best example

 

Tyson-Spinks, same thing. Although, there were some people picking Spinks. Tyson was the solid favorite though. It was the 91 seconds that shocked people.

 

Yeah, but size and age probably played a factor in this one. Dont think styles were the main factor.

If we're including fights where there's a size difference, id also nominate pea vs nelson

 

Here's one for you:

Quarry vs Frazier. Quarry can never win. A very slightly underpowered counter puncher with some pressuring aspects falls between two stools against a guy who just has one very formidable forward style and all the physical edges bar, maybe, handsleed. No path to victory for Jerry. He's just competitive until his skin breaks.



Foreman vs Frazier. Frazier can never win. The advantages he enjoyed vs Quarry disappear and Foreman has the brute power, height, range, reach, strength and inside game required to take the full advantage of Fraziers hittability. Foreman hits him and hurts him and keeps him lit everytime.

Two fights that you can almost set your clock by.

And, I just gotta throw this in....

Quarry vs Foreman.... A fight George claims he may well have lost and that he avoided on the grounds that Quarry had a blend of caginess, counterpunching and durability that could have caused problems. I myself think Quarry makes George miss a good bit.

There might be something to it:- Quarry handled Lyle in a far more cultured fashion than George did.

 

Damn your eyes, Frazier vs Foreman is the best example as it featured better men.

 

Froch vs Ward? Make it a 20 rounder.

 

Archie Moore vs Marciano.

Reset their bodies and replay the fight over and over and it goes the exact same way, everytime.

That Moore even dropped him, HARD, and got beaten down regardless tells me how this one goes, everytime.

A lot like the Frazier vs Quarry fight. Rocky just too relentless for a guy who had the tools but was just that bit more vulnerable.

 

Bernard Hopkins vs. Glen Johnson

 

Glen Johnson was not great. He lost to, amongst others, Froch, Ottke.

 

It was boring. Please don't.

 

I thought the ending was exciting. Froch was putting a lot if pressure and I was wondering if we could have a replay of the Taylor fight. Never really came close to it though so I guess watching it on replay, it would be boring.

 

Haw Haw lord I'll never forget that one.

Spittoo!

my teef !

 

Wheres my gumshield, I had it a minute ago, stop while we look for it.

 

Reading about it on wikipedia a while ago, I was surprised to see that while Liston was the favorite, he wasn't overwhelmingly so (less than 2/1) and a lot of former champions and experts were picking Patterson

 

Leading up to the fight, Liston was an 8–5 betting favorite, although many picked Patterson to win. In an Associated Press poll, 64 of 102 reporters picked Patterson. Sports Illustrated predicted a Patterson victory in 15 rounds, stating: "Sonny has neither Floyd's speed nor the versatility of his attack. He is a relatively elementary, one-track fighter." Former champions James J. Braddock, Jersey Joe Walcott, Ezzard Charles, Rocky Marciano and Ingemar Johansson all picked Patterson to win

 

ahhh,............................

magnificent.

Indeed it was the, second best, round by round, I'd ever seen.

 

And the best....