Khan-Garcia: Final picks

Neil, I am saving the last dance for you, baby. You've seen more black member than Julia Stiles.

 

Couldn't agree more. His whole style is soooooooo amateur it's unreal; the straight line movement, lack of head movement and especially his pitty-pat punching style is perfect for scoring points in an ammy fight but useless in the professional game. The latter is especially important- after nearly eight years he still hasn't learned to sit on his punches and keeps throwing eye-catching but ultimately useless clusters of punches. His opponents have figured out that you simply have to wait for him to stop punching (because he won't hurt you) and counter hard at the end of it all.

It's very weird.

MTF

 

You do have to blame Roach and the gym prep for part of this. Yes, I know he's sparred with Manny but I'm sure either Manny whupped his ass or simply didn't press him.

Khan fights like a guy who had NO CLUE he could get countered...which tells me when he spars he's sparring with guys he can dominate rather than push him.

You'd think he would have gotten used to or at least leery of counter shots in sparring. yes the gloves are bigger and you're wearing head gear but you can still get KTFO in sparring...especially considering if you've got a weak set of whiskers like Khan.

I think the approach the past eight years (espeically after the Prescott fight) was focused on rebuilding confidence rather than rebuilding a fighter. I expect him to rattle off another string of victories (depending on who he's matched with) and fully expect him to go out on his back once or twice more.

 

Khan is just not a good fighter. He's a good boxer and could have been remembered as one of the greatest amateurs of all time if he had stayed there. Same with Bernard Dunne, who at least has the Cordoba win, as much as I despise the wee bollix.

 

Dunne had a notoriously bad chin. Even Freddie Roach admitted he regularly got dropped in sparring.

 

Yep, him and Khan had a great many similarities in their physical makeup, but Dunne was a far more compact boxer and, like Khan, too often tried to brawl where boxing would have served him better.

Dunne always told people he came back to Ireland because his wife was homesick. Dunne knew he wasn't going to make it in America, especially after he got owned and cut by some unknown fighter.

 

Exactly. The way he was always leaving his hands down after punching was ridiculous. He mostly got away with it inhis career cause he's fast and rangy enough, but , as said earlier, Garcia made the really gutsy move of punching at the same time as Khan (I wouldn't even call it countering, as he wasn't slipping those shots).

This mistake should have been corrected in trainnig a long time ago

 

Yes it should have been, but when are people going to realise that Khan is not capable of changing and learning. He is a boxbot with no ring IQ, and that's what he'll always be. He'll always have that amateur style ingrained in him too.

Roach has done as good a job as anyone could have. Like I said before it's like asking Mayorga to fight like Whitaker, it's just not going to happen. Khan is what he is.

 

tha'ts ridiculous. As muzse said, if he was sparring guys that were drilling him repeatedly , he would have corrected this mistake. He obviously wasn't getting good enough sparring form Roach

 

I bet Khan has been "drilled" in sparring many times by Pacquiao and others, that has nothing to do with it, Khan is just an idiot.

He'll never really change from the style he has now, or correct those inherent flaws.

What's ridiculous is thinking he can or shall.

 

That last sentence. I agree

the first fight was quite a battle and the 9th round was apocalyptic. Gatti's rep and Frank Cappuccino's liberal interpretation of his duty to protect the fighter allowed it to continue. Most guys, the fight would have been stopped as Ward was just unloading on him with clean shots. Say what you will about the quality of either guy (I certainly have) but as a purely entertaining fistfight, it was great. Not a ton of replay value because there's not a lot to savor, but live it was frenetic and thrilling.

The 2nd and 3rd fights had a moment or two of drama but were basically standard UDs

 

Gotta admit none of the 3 really do it for me, not even the first one. I just don't find it that exciting, especially on second viewing. I guess it was pretty good at the time.

It doesn't even come close to Morales - Barrera 1, let alone Chico - Castillo.

 

Yeah but the least they could have done was pay the guy.

 

mikE's opinions shouldn't really surprise anyone... this is a guy who will howl until the cows come home that the modern amateur game isn't any different than the pro game. He likes to throw out figures, names, superficial comparisons, W-L records, but at the end of the day, he knows nothing mechanically or technically about the sport.

 

But those are also fights with better fighters, they have more replay value because the combatants are bringing more to the table, more skill, more talent, even in a brawl.

Ward/Gatti doesn't have much replay value at all but watching that fight as it happened was exceptionally fun... it was a wild, wild brawl.

 

So what are you saying exactly? That you disagree that Khan is the most accurate fighter in boxing history and has the same skill level as Norris?

 

No doubt about it regarding your first paragraph, that's what so great about the 2 fights I listed. Ridiculously violent brawls but fought at the highest level, with a lot of offensive skill and talent.

And about Gatti - Ward 1 - yeah to be honest I'm probably judging it more on second viewing, as I can't really remember watching it at the time, but it must have been way more fun.

 

::

faster than opponents but a bad chin = Norris, Khan, Hide

therefore

Norris, Khan, Hide = one and the same

I like this game!

Black guys with great jabs = Liston, Whitaker, Holmes

Liston, Whitaker, Holmes = the same dude

 

I was on my feet the whole 9th round

Emanuel Steward sounded like he was 7 and his parents had just bought him the GI Joe Aircraft Carrier complete with a fleet of F-16s::

I liked it when he got all excited and tongue-tied in the last round of Toney/Jirov after the knockdown and there were a few seconds left and he yelled "He's gonna have to do a Julio Cesar!!!" but he pronounced the Julio with a hard "J" in his excitement

Say whatever you want about the guy, but it's hilarious when he gets excited during a fight... even in the corner during the Lewis/Tyson fight when he's yelling at Lennox "YOU GOT A DEAD MAN IN FRONT OF YOU! TAKE THIS MOTHERFUCKER OUT! YOU GONNA STAND THERE AND FUCK AROUND AND GET CAUGHT WIT SOME CRAZY SHIT!"

 

At times, speaking to Lewis must have been like speaking to a big retarded kid. Any wonder Manny got old.

 

Round 3 of Gatti/Ward II was great.

I'm standing by the Gatti/Ward fights. I enjoyed them. I was a teenager at the time, probably wouldn't appreciate something similar as much now.

 

Which opinions are you referring to?

 

Where did I say he had the same skill level as Norris?

Where did I say he was the most accurate fighter in boxing history or even remotely suggest that?

You want to debate, debate. You want to continue to be the 2nd biggest douchebag on this site, be it. You want to continue to be the cockiest douchebag on this site, be it. But the latter two work better if you aren't so transparently wrong.

 

All of them....

 

If you are just fishing for cdogg emoticon responses, congrats, I'm sure that will get one.

If you're trying to be clever, keep trying.

 

He recently unified the WBC and WBA(interm) cleverness title so you may want to reconsider your position.

 

Much better attempt.

But I don't count unification bouts when they involve the WBA interim belt. If you knew that when you posted, then props.

 

Part I was great, Part 2 was average and part 3 good. The most overrated trilogy ever was Barrera Morales. I and III were great. Part II was a piece of shit. It was boring. None of the Gatti/Ward fights were dull.

 

how could the morales barrera trilogy be over rated? either guy would have pissed on the two guys from the real over rated trilogy. best trilogy ever was vasquez-marquez before the farce of a 4th fight.

gatti ward 2 was nothing worth re-watching. to me the 3rd morales-barrera fight was better than the first gatti-ward fight. then again i did not watch the latter live.

 

Nor did I because Tszyu Tackie was on at the same time and HBO were spoiling pieces of shit back then. Well, I would have watched tszyu tackie anyway. But I did watch Gatti Ward I without knowing who won so it's sort of live equivalent.

Gatti Ward I, despite all of its flaws, was one of the most important fights in the 2000's. Casual fans absolutely loved that fight and I don't think there has been a boxing match since that had regular people talking about boxing so much afterwards. It was like Foreman vs Moorer in that way.

HBO did what they are supposed to do and they turned that fight into a lot of $$$ and hype and followup fights. But for big fans to argue the merits of that trilogy against trilogies that actually meant something long-term is pretty weak.