Tszyu, Freitas, Hamed. Trinidad, as overrated as he was, wasn't a mental midget. He was just completely overclassed against elite opposition.
Oh shit, yeah Judah is a classic. In pretty much every loss he has, he's wilted mentally at the half way stage, or just lost focus or something. Even in his wins he often seems somewhat mental midget esque.
Shane Mosley has had vast stretches of his career in which he seems completely incapable of making any type of adjustments to his game plan. A bit surprising to me because early in his career and for the first De La Hoya bout, he seemed to be one of the smarter fighters in the game, and frequently made adjustments during a fight as needed.
yea, while you can't question his heart, he has gotten discouraged when he lost the first few rounds decisively ala vs. winky, forrest I, mayweather
I can't believe I didn't think of Tyson either. He's one of my favourite fighters ever, but no doubt, a proper mental midget. And yeah Khan is a mental midget more in a boxing sense and traditional sense. Clearly he has the IQ of a fencepost, but not necessarily fragile mentally like a Tyson or Judah and prone to flipping out/wilting mentally. In fact, I think Khan has such a miniscule amount of brain power, he is incapable of mentally wilting. He doesn't have the brain cells required to perform the function.
He's definitely not the liveliest stick of dynamite in the vest, thats for sure. Freitas, for me, wins this hands down. Celebrating and crying....after you just fucking QUIT???athetic:athetic: Zab "I wasn't hurt, yo" Judah is another one. Golota also. Mike Grant bottled it pretty big for the Lewis fight.
Who was the guy who counted himself out when the referee refused to do it for him? Not sure if that was stupid or a just a smart sense of self-preservation. ::
When Zab and Andrew fucked up, they knew it. Freitas would fuck-up and still think he had accomplished something.
This thread needs to be more precise in what area of mental midgetry we're talking about. For example, someone listed Holyfield. Now as far as intellect goes, yes Holyfield is pretty dumb, but in the ring I consider him clever and mentally strong. So I would say he is NOT a mental midget. Another example. Tyson out of the ring is more intelligent than Khan. But in the ring Tyson is very weak mentally, hence a mental midget, and Khan doesn't seem to be mentally weak in the ring. So is it about their perceived intellect, or how fragile their psyche is in the ring?
Exactly. Its not a question of people who quit, etc. Gota quitting vs Tyson when Golota was as past his best as Mike was, and Golota had those injuries to his neck, would not be best regarded as a moment of "mental midgetry"- it was a quit job, but it was the smartest thing to do. The fuck-faces in the crowd who threw beer at him would be better instances of mental midgetry. When Kevin Mitchell was KO'd by Katsidis, that was more mental midgetry, even though he didn't quit. He instead failed to prepare properly, got caught up in the hooplah of a big fight in a big stadium, walked right into Katsidis power and got KO'd. A more refined example of that might be when Emile Griffith allowed all the hooplah of the New Garden being opened to distract him from his job against Nino Benvenuti. According to Gil Clancy, Griffith was apparently more interested in getting a tuxedo which fitted him than he was in getting around to fighting Benvenuti.
Holyfield certainly wasn't any brighter in-ring than Tszyu, who you gave mention to. Still recall Lou Duva using words to the effect of, "He would just nod his head & say, 'OK,' to anything we asked of him. If I asked him to walk through a brickwall, he would just nod & say OK." I don't think Duva was trying to illustrate anything other than Holyfield's determination to win, but inadvertantly...
Ike I-beat-a-hoochie. His appearance as a guest on FNF was legendary. That was a mistake before it even happened. Then, "if I lock myself in the bathroom and the police can't get in, they'll just leave and I'll come out later." :NotThink: