Stinky fighters who were superstars?

Which stinky fighters defied the odds by becoming superstars, in spite of their tedious style and rampant holding?

 

We all know you Double. We know who you're taking a subliminal shot at.

Just like to remind you that the man kicked Chavez's ass and outboxed your Golden idol.

 

To answer your question, I guess Sven Ottke was a star in Germany. He immediately comes to mind.

And of course, Wald.

 

PBF, well not PBF, but Money Mayweather. It's weird that he was an unknown when he was exciting, and that he became a superstar after turning into a bore

 

I was gonna say Spadafora, but I dont think he applies. He was only popular in Pittsburgh. He was a nobody outside of his city.

 

I wouldn't say Locche was boring (he had quite a few bore though), but he was much more popular than a guy with a defensive style usually is

 

You know I hate defending Floyd, but not every Money May performance was boring.

The Cotto fight was exciting. Also, the fashion he outboxed the plodding Ginger ducker was exciting.

He had a lot of duds as Money May, but honestly, he had some duds as Pretty Boy as well.

He was certainly more exciting pre-2006 though.

 

Yeah, he had a few good fights, but most of his fights were atrocious, especially at the end (him vs Berto nd Guerrero, ouf....)

 

I think he was Money by time he fought Hatton as well. Or was that his last Pretty Boy fight?

 

Locche didn't have a negative style, that's why he was loved.

He lacked power, but he was by no means a runner or a holder. He kept a high workrate, stood directly in front of guys, made them miss, then countered them.

And did all of this as a chain smoker.

 

There might be a higher appreciation of Locche if film of the first Cervantes fight existed.

 

Yeah I agree. That's why I said that I don't considered him boring/stinky, hence he doesnt reallt fit the thread. Sill he was wildly popular in argentina, wmuch more popular than boxers with defensive style usually are.

 

Dela Hoya and the 24/7 Countdown Series Hyping that Fight is When "Money Mayweather" 1st Surfaced...



REED

 

Baldomir, too.

 

This thread was inspired by the Akui vs. Dalakian fight last week. Dalakian had been champion like five years coming into the fight. And it occurred to me I'd never heard of him. Then I watched him fight and realized why. He ran the whole night and tried to hold after every punch he threw. Somehow the ESPN announcers thought he was dominating. Fortunately, the judges didn't share their view and Akui won the decision as I thought he should. But point is, Dalakian had been champion 5 years with 7 defenses and I'd never heard of him. Now I know why after finally seeing him fight.

 

Ricky Hatton. Popular fighter despite his ugly style and constant grappling.

Wlad Klitschko and Andre Ward fits the criteria as well.

 

Ward wasnt a superstar. Popular in Oakland, but he was never a mainstream name.

 

You sure he was even popular there?

 

The first Maidana fight was fun and also competitive.

Second fight sucked.

 

It helped that he fought more popular fighters like Carl Froch and Sergey Kovalev but he never had the star power appeal beyond hard core boxing fans. Probably had a lot to do with the fact that Ward just has a dull personality along with having a boring style, especially for a US fighter.

 

He's the first example I thought of, too. Most of his later fights were absolute snoozefests yet he made squillions from them.

MTF

 

Hatton only really started with the grappling after the Tszyu fight. It worked so well for him in that bout that he reverted to it fully afterwards and became a very ugly watch.

Before that, he was actually an entertaining fighter to watch, with very good foot speed and a nice repertoire of body punching.

MTF

 

Hatton had a lot of fun fights.

 

Oh yeah, wlad is a great example. How dreadful that cunt was, yet he was absolutely adored in boring ass germany

 

Hatton started grappling in the Tackie fight, but to be kind to him, he was too offensive to call his style stinky.

You could tell Ricky tried to employ a lot of the inside tactics Duran used, but because he lacked Duran's talent and skill, it didn't look as effective.

 

He got fairly stinky but at least you could say he usually tried to work inside, unlike some heavyweights like Ruiz who look to constantly clinch and do little else other than lean on on their opponents.

 

He threw 80 Punches per round in his prime. His original style was to scissor step and cut off the ring and fight at close quarters and wear the opponent down. I didn't find that style boring at all.

One of the criticisms Hatton got in the UK was that Mickey Vann had reffed an abnormally high amount of his fights. Hatton's early style was reliant on a ref that let's the fighters fight inside rather than breaking them up when they got close. And that was Mickey's MO.