which was under-rated, & one which was over-rated, in the eyes of the consensus public in your view? For instance... Larry Holmes: Over-rated - Speed Under-rated - Durability Here are some fighters to mull over... Humberto Gonzalez Lionel Rose Joe Louis Ruben Olivares Felix Trinidad
Chavez - his power tends to be over-rated, his defense is under-rated Calzaghe - his skill is over-rated, his power is under-rated Hopkins - his skill is over-rated, his derelict dirty tactics and grappling is under-rated
Wladimir: Underrated Chin and Staying Power, Overrated Right hand. Joe Calzaghe: Underrated Power, Overrated Defence.
Larry Holmes speed is over rated? He wasn't Ali-quick, but he delivered and jab-straight right hand combo amazingly quick. Then again, I've never heard anyone describe Holmes as being blindingly fast in the first place.
Larry Holmes is over-rated in general. And most would describe him as fast. And he was pretty fast for a heavyweight. But among other things, his speed is over-rated.
Uh, why is that so funny? Holmes very nearly lost to much worse fighters than Golota. This is what I'm talking about - some here chuckle at the idea of Holmes losing to a fighter the calibur of Golota. Why is that funny? The guy went life and death with just about every opponent he fought who wasn't a complete bum. Next you're going to tell me Gerry Cooney would've easily handled Golota. Get real. Thank you for fortifying my point - which is that Holmes is hugely over-rated.
The pre-Holmes Cooney blows Golota away. Too big a puncher/too fast a starter for the fragile minded Golota to handle. Andrew is not nearly mentally strong enough to cope with Holmes. Holmes was a bad man with a street fighter's mentality behind his skills, and was far too intelligent a techncian to lose to the biggest choke artist boxing has ever seen.
His chin was solid prior to the Tito fight, though not good enough to cope w/a puncher like Felix. It was his lack of defense that was a bigger problem then his chin. Nando's handspeed is also underrated. He was quick handed, and had good footwork pre-Tito. Chris Eubank: Overrated chin - For someone who supposedly had a "granite" chin, Eubank got hurt/knocked down alot. His chin was very solid, but damn sure not granite as some suggest. A granite chin is Hagler, Chavez, Laporte, Lamotta.
Yeah, I said he had an underrated chin. People got the impression from the Tito fight, his being badly wobbled and dropped when he fought Rivera, his being wobbled when he fought Flores, his being stopped by Shane and Oscar that he may have had a "bad chin"...the truth is that he was usually stopped late after an accumulation of punishment and was always trying to get back up. And yes, his chin was broken by Tito but he still took a lot of punishment after that fight and came through most of it.
Hearns's body punching is often overlooked. He had a terrific left hook to the body. People don't talk enough about Leonard's left hook IMO, which I consider a great punch of his. Hagler's boxing skills are underrated by newbies/casual fans who think of him as a slugger due to the Hearns fight. Froch's chin often gets overrated. Haye's handspeed gets totally overrated. I remember Gavin Evans proclaiming him to be "easily the fastest heavyweight since prime Ali". :: I skimmed through the latest The Ring at the newsstand and another writer compared his handspeed to prime Tyson. Lewis's chin gets underrated due to the two losses. It wasn't that bad, he faced a lot of big/capable punchers and his defense wasn't THAT great to the point where if chin was as bad as people often say, he'd only have two losses.
Joe Louis : overrated: foot speed (while most modern observers are aware that Louis was on the ploddy side, there are a good number of rose-lensed observers who think he was good on his feet) underrated: all the rest of his skills Ruben Olivares overrated: his one-shot power... underrated: his tremendous boxing ability, when he put his machismo on the backburner, he was a beautiful boxer Felix Trinidad overrated: EVERYTHING except his power, he was a terrific puncher
agreed. he had a GOOD chin, but it was his fighting heart that usually allowed him to fight back through punishment
love these, especially that last one In both cases, he got hit by TERRIFIC shots, especially the Rahman shot which was like a videogame haymaker... I think Hasim's knuckles scraped the ring floor on the way over his shoulder... that shot would have knocked out most fighters And people always overlook that he got up from the McCall shot if his chin was the crystal people are always saying it is, he would have lost 10 times
I'll critique my all time fav fighter. Tyson: Overrated - Defense. Yeah he had a very solid defense for a pressure fighter, but at times I think it gets exaggerated. Overall his offense WAS his best defense. Underrated - Heart. Some act as if Mike was some front running bully, and I just dont think so. I'm not saying he had the heart of Saad Muhammed, but he had ALOT more heart then many gave him credit for. And w/the exception of the Holy rematch, he always took his ass whuppins like a man and never really offered too many excuses.
To be fair to Tito.... I think his handspeed is underrated. He had ponderous footwork, and overrated skills, but his hands were quite quick in addition to his power.
Tyson showed some gusto & heart during the skirmishes with Ruddock. He took his licking like a man against Lewis, many moons past his peak. I don't think he was the quitter many make him out to be, but I do think his head-set was an obvious liability, & would cripple him in some fights with the division's all-time legends.
