Notorious Front Runners

What fighters are famous for starting off fast and fading in the mid to late rounds?

I gotta give it to Zab Judah, first 4 rounds he gives you a show, then he fades and gets beat up.

 

Roy Jones' picture should be on the definition.

 

Shannon Briggs despite that miracle he pulled off a couple fights ago.

Derrick Jefferson. Remember him knocking himself out against Izon.

Acelino Frietas.

Mike Tyson - as soon as he fell behind in a fight he was done.

 

Terrible example.

 

Oscar.

 

Because the truth hurts?

 

no because it's a terrible example.

 

Roy Jones has lost a grand total of zero fights because he faded in the mid to late rounds.

 

I think i can't think of one example at all where he frontrunned in the fashion that Joe King described to us.

Which was giving a show for 4 rounds than faded and got beat up. The only fight were he faded and got beat up was Tarver 1 and he didn't exactly give a show there. In the Johnson fight he didn't give no show whatsoever.

Yeah Roy Jones is truly one of the worst examples for this thread. :notallthere:

 

Roy was a frontrunner his whole career. He never once came back from behind. That is a frontrunner. You guys are using another use of the word. Roy never faded but if you took the lead Roy would fold like paper in RubioMHS' hands. I don't want to hear the myth of him coming from behind in the first Tarver fight. He didn't. Tarver faded. There is a big difference. Roy was big and bad fighting teachers, postman and Australian Aboriginal Sanitation workers as soon as Tarver popped his cherry and stood up to him in the first fight, he lost in the second and lost in the Johnson fight and the quit against Tarver.
Roy is a perfect example of a frontrunner.

 

I thought Roy faded, too...

 

Either way, for this thread, your example is bukkake.

 

No, it isn't. Roy is a frontrunner as much as Mike Tyson or Zab just in a different way. Roy is like Humpty Dumpty.

 

Other than a DQ, Roy didn't lose a boxing match for 15 years. But yeah, he was a front runner. OK. ::

 

How many did he win once he got his ass handed to him. Again
Tarver beats his ass in the first fight only to have his own lack of courage and fade.
Tarver after Roy's toughest fight knocks him the fuck out.

He comes back and gets knocked the fuck out

He comes back and quits versus Tarver in the third fight.

Actually, thank you for making mypoint for me. No one would dispute Roy's toughest challenge was against Montell before the first Tarver fight. Roy was behind and what does he do? He hits a man who was on the ground. It was one of the most cowardly moves in boxing HISTORY. Honestly, just admit you never thought about this issue. My point is proven. Roy hit a man on his knees because he was so used to frontrunning he couldn't adjust without a cowardly act.Roy was lucky he landed a hail mary in the rematch.

 

now jones jr was a front runner? ::

this chap just continues to add to his dossier of daftness at breakneck speed

 

Its not Roy's fault that he was so good in his prime, he never HAD to come from behind to win.

 

It is Roy's fault that he chose to fight garbage men, postmen and teachers though. I get called a hater but my only beef with Roy is after he fought Toney he fought one decent fighter(at the time they fought) for almost 10 years or what seemed like 10 years.

 

Come on man, this is far from a Roy thread. When I start a notorious devestating KO thread, I'll PM you so you can be the first to post Roy's KO losses.::

 

well Roy did bitch out of the Griffin fight when he was getting schooled :dunno:
dont think he's a front runner just from that though

 

I think Cotto fits this to some degree, also Jean-Marc Mormeck

Guy like Frietas or Judah are the most clear examples

 

Tommy Morrison was a five round fighter...except for the Foreman fight, but he fought completely different in that fight, basically running from Foreman at times...which he could do because Foreman had the footspeed of a sloth in his old age.

 

I'm not sure you can say this was always the case. There were certainly fights where he was a front runner, but he had some fights (like Quartey, Vargas) where he pulled out fights with late-fight heroics. He ended Carr's night late as well, in a fight that was more competitive than the cards would indicate.

 

was he behind in that round? either way after the offical knockdown, he would have been ahead in the fight, i dislike jones as much as the next man, but he is a tremendous talent, you cant take away the fact the man can fight and at one time was deservingly p4p the best after whitiker was faded.

 

dont let lampey hear u say this, he will throw a bitch fit mid fight telecast.

 

dsimon writes:

Neil can you wear the spotted Yamachule, you know the one that matches the dradle I like so much.....?

 

dsimon writes:

:atu:::. I loved watching Roy hit the canvas against senile Lew! ::

 

Get the hell outta here. A front runner wouldn't be number 1 on the p4p list as long as Roy was.

 

dsimon writes:

Why not? I think Ike's point that a front runner means a guy who builds early is "what it is" is a point well taken. I mean Jones could be considered a succesful front runner as compared to Judah. I would definitely hold out the first Tarver Jones fight as an example: I mean JOnes won a couple of flurries in the center of the ring and scared Tarver off of trying to do anything but corner him for the rest of the fight. I think Jones deserved the W in that fight.

Now compare that to Judah and Mayweather. Most people would say Jab did pretty good in the early rounds of that fight, but once Mayweather adjusted he shut down.

Another way to put this... and I often get chastized correctly on this point by some of the wiser heads on ths site (Donny, Muze, Jake, etc).... is that when scoring a fight it is 12 rounds long and those early rounds count. There is a tendencey to view a fight from the perspective of how it develops more than the actual events in the early rounds and again, I am guilty of this thinking in spades. A good front runner knows this and steals the early rounds. Jones always does this when he can. He has a few flurries at the end, whatever he can do to steal those close early rounds.

Bottom line is that front running is part of the game.

 

It "is" part of the game. And that's what body punching is for. Chavez was the king of tearing down front-runners. He'd be losing the rounds, but winning the fight. Trinidad was somewhat like this too, building to a crescendo and by fight's end clearly distinguishing himself as the superior fighter.

I guess it's difficult to root for front-runners, by your definition, because it's as if they're trying to steal a victory rather than win the fight.