Might be worth a look, examining some of the footage of guys better known to us or the casual fan in their professional form. See if we can see their strengths, their weaknesses, any familiarities with them as pros, or if they fixed any of their issues, developed new skills. Looking at Jeff Lacy here vs Gaidarbekov, you can hear Atlas describe the exact same bad habit/flaw that Calzaghe exposed when they fought, namely Lacy's refusal/inability to work work work on the inside, preferring to laboriously plod around after a more sneaky/fleet footed opponent. ..."This is where Lacy has to score, once he is in here, he has to make the most of it.....Cos...when he's on the outside, he has to deal with the awkward style of Gaidarbekov, stepping off and making openings.........Lacy having a lot of problems with Gaidarbekovs style.....". Which is of course a problem that plagued Lacy in his biggest fights. The same guy Gaidarbekov beat GGG 4 years later, so it would be interesting to see if he exposed any flaws in GGG that we should have recognized in him as a pro fighter {like the flaw of fighting cheats or not paying the judges, that kind of flaw}
Angulo vs tall Southpaw Andy Lee. Angulo was dogged and persistent but was tagged pretty easily throughout. He didn't do much better with Lara when the time came.
Mayweather showing the same jab , same right-hand high against his face with his elbow in his ribs, cocked, , just a hint of the shoulder-guard You can see that sneak uppercut too, like what he Jesus Chavez with.
For what I remember of their finals fight, Gaidarbekov clinched and leaned a lot, preventing GGG from landing. And as only clear landed shots counted in the amateurs back then, GGG couldn't get anything going. I suppose Gaidarbekov demonstrated some tactical craft there in a way but not much else
He {Gaidarbekov} never turned pro, and that's hardly surprising, he must have felt he had a style that was just best suited to that computer scoring system. There was another one of these "Other People" Russians, a guy called Jabrail Jabrailov who was kicking everyones dick in, had a short pro career, got involved with some "Bizni Men" and more or less fell out of the fight game/went rogue. I was looking at Wlad vs Clay Bey and he had the same tendency to get hit by the short left hook at medium-inside distance, and Barrett hit him with it in their fight in the pros. I remember Clay-Bey had a reputation for being another of these fast, talented FAT USA heavyweights. Switch hitter, probably too small for the modern game, but would have been a great 200lb cruiser, just not serious enough. American AMMY heavies have been poor since Bowe, really. Davarryl Williamson, Bennett, Brock, Devin Vargas {remember him} In the ammy commentary you can hear they note his passivity, and that followed him into the pro game. As an Amateur Wlad actually fought a lot like Vitali He really was a lot lot faster and looser back then too, ,threw way more bodyshots and inside stuff. When he fought Ibragimov {post Sanders/Brewster debacles} he had this reluctance to throw punches when you saw the other guy pulling feints and running/fooling/playing possum, and you can see it with Clay-Bey here too, Wlad sort of just walks after him, not doing much, too wary. Left hook/Earmuffs defence is at 4:45
