Rope a Dope was great Also gotta give credit to the cross dressing faggot. In that Whitaker fight... all those rounds that had close to zero action it was brilliant to finish the round with a brilliant flurry (Even though nothing landed) and throw your hands up like you did something. Brilliant
Leonard vs Hagler Negotiate 12 rounds rather than 15 and increased ring size. Flurry, move and steal rounds. No big secret what the idea was but it still worked. Then Hagler plays right into it.
I feel like "rope a dope" is overstated. Ali took control of that fight in the first round and never let it go. Leonard-Hagler is a really good one.
Goody Petronelli telling Hagler to brawl with Hearns instead of trying to box with him, which was very apt considering Hearns (with one hand) out-boxed the boxing master Wilfredo Benitez
Hearns also was most devastating when he had distance to get leverage on his right hand. Cuevas, Duran, and later Shuler were all KOs where Tommy got distance for that right hand. Hagler usually broke guys down methodically and boxed so well from the outside, but couldn’t do that against Hearns. So he went balls-to-the-wall and it worked perfectly.
Holyfield understood that post-prison, Tyson's footwork had appreciably declined. It was easy to push him back because his balance and pivoting was nothing like it was in the 80s.
Furys twitching and clowning vs Wilder and Klitschko, plus his acknowledgment that his weight and strength were his best tools in the Wilder rematches. He took it a bit too far in the third fight but it was broadly the same thing. Hattons decision to go right after Tszyu. A cautious approach probably costs him the fight. BArrera vs Hamed. A perfect blend of high-hands boxing and just enough aggression to break Hamed down physically and mentally. Barrera never took huge risks and never allowed Hamed to assume the initiative. A very well-balanced plan. Probably the best example of controlled aggression at that level.
Fury completely spooked Wlad. He basically won by pretending to fight. Strange, strange match, that. MTF
Klitschko couldn't deal with twitchy goofy spiders who wouldn't engage and kept him guessing, certainly not by that stage of his career. He'd struggled with Tony Thompson in 2008. Massive goofy spiders who fluted about and didn't present obvious, usual targets. Vitali too, his fight with JC Gomez had Boxing Monthly literally crying after David Haye like he was JJ Jeffries to come and rescue them from the horror.
Wlad didn't have the means to deal with somebody who could disrupt his rhythm like Fury did. He was resetting constantly and couldn't get to grips with it. Vitali would have been a different animal because he fought so off the cuff, he just threw whether in position or not and had a natural instinct for where to be. It's interesting because Wlad was clearly the more talented of the two in terms of form, power and athleticism etc but you can't really buy the intangibles Vitali had. Saying that though, Feebs is bang on too, Fury played an absolute blinder with the mind games.
Agreed, and adding to that when it just comes down to Fury there was more than intangibles at play. Wlad was maybe more athletic, but he was also more robotic. Vitali had an awkward style himself. Wladimir while good at what he did was very basic. It's easy to say "take the guy out of his comfort zone" but there's truth to it. When Wlad was in his own comfort zone or wasn't it was pretty easy to recognize. With Vitali it wasn't as clear as he didn't rely on patterns as much.
Both of them more or less put on clinics. Ali went to the ropes right away in the 2nd round and outfought Foreman off the ropes. Watson seemed to do the “rope-a-dope” both on the ropes and in the middle of the ring. They would be in the middle of the ring, Watson would completely block some haymakers that Nigel completely loaded up on, and then just come back with a clean 1-2s. I loved it. Watson took him to school and kicked his ass.
Hagler Has to Be a WORST Game Plan Candidate, Especially for a SUPER FIGHT Like the Leonard Bout... Coming Off the 3+ Year Layoff AND Retina Surgery WHYtheFUCK was Hagler Being CUTE w/Leonard???....Go Out There and Kick His Ass!!!...If You Hate Everything Dude Represents, WIPE Your Ass w/Him in Violent Fashion, Don't Go ORTHO and Give Away 4 Rounds Trying to Prove Some Lame Ass Point... Had Hagler BEGAN the Leonard Fight as he Did the Hearns Fight OR Had Hagler Fought the Early Rounds as he Did Round 9 of the Leonard Fight, He STOPS Sugar Ray... REED
Roy vs Virgil Hill... 1st of All, People Like to Say Roy COULDN'T Jab, Which is False...Roy Didn't PREFER Jabbing, Which is Different... Given His Handspeed and Since of Flash, Roy Figured WHY Jab 1st???...He Paid a HEAVY Toll on the Back End of his Career Though, Because He Never ADJUSTED His Style to Suit the Diminished Athleticism... Anyways, Virgil Hill's BEST Punch was his Left Jab...Nonetheless, Roy OUTJABBED Virgil Hill...He Also Landed Counter Right Hands OVER Hill's Left Jab for 3 Rounds, Before FINISHING the Fight w/a Counter Right Hand to the Body... REED's Pretty Sure it was the ONLY Bodyshot Roy Threw the Entire Fight and Hill's Torso was Totally UNPROTECTED When the Shot Landed...Afterwards, Roy Basically Said he KNEW the Bodyshot Would Be There Given the Success He was Having Countering OVER Hill's Left Jab... Mistakenly, Some View Roy as an ATHLETE Who Boxed, When in Actuality He was a BOXER w/Otherworldly Athleticism... REED
Morrison against Foreman. Boxed, moved, covered up and threw the occasional heavy blow just to remind George he could punch too. He never looked for a knockout or over-committed when he landed a nice shot. Stuck to the plan and won a wide UD. Some other versions of Tommy would have went on the offensive right away and got knocked out.
When you consider the list of guys who failed to even match, never mind improve on that performance, Tommy did very well for himself.....
Back in the mid 90's when Roy was at the top of his game and Ali could still move around he(Ali)went to Roy's gym in Pensecola to pay Roy a visit. It was mostly pr he spoke to Kids and gave them a motivational speech. But afterwards jumped in the ring with Roy for a little shadow boxing. And right away Ali jokingly said he found his flaw. They both laugh. But later on Roy admitted in an interview that Ali did find his flaw (his Jab) but that he was so fast he could get away with it. Then years later we found out he couldnt anymore in the Tarver fight. As he laid there motionless for close to 20 minutes before he was wheeled into an ambulance.
