gustiger12 said:
Ahhhh John Kosta TSZYU now there is one hard nut. He is one of the hardest punchers around in this weight division, but more importantly can take a punch very well. He has that kill or be killed mentality. He is a superhuman in the gym and trains like no man I have ever seen before. I really wonder what it would take to stop Tszyu to be honest. Although he is getting up there in age his is still undoubtedly one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world.
It is sad that I can't even comment on Calzaghe as I have never seen him fight. We are lucky to get highlights of a world championship heavy weight title here let alone anything else..
It is refreshing to see a few obvious students of the game on here. Didn't know you were such a student of the noble sport JohnF.
Now we have opened the discussion I would be interested to hear who you guys think is the best fighter pound for pound in the world at the moment and who you consider to be the best boxer ever.
Just to inspire a bit of friendly debate.
I fully agree Gus, Kostya is right up there in the top elechon of fighters pound for pound at the moment. The great thing about Kostya is that he is so mentally switched on, which compliments his great physical prowess. It's his level of discipline to be able to keep pushing himself where mere mortals decide to quit which has stood him in such good stead over such a long period of time. Whilst most fighters out there today are quick to talk *smile* (ala Mundine and Green) Tszyu is always a gentleman, cool, calm and focused. Tszyu just lets his fists do the talking, gets the job done and does so without the fan fare that he really deserves.
The best pound for pound fighter ever? So hard to judge these things... Sugar Ray Robinson and Ali usually get all the plaudits here, and fair enough too... Another fighter who can stake a claim to the title of being the best fighter ever pound for pound is Henry "Homicide Hank" Armstrong who fought in the 30's and 40's. This guy was rediculous! To get a picture of how this guy fought think of a miniature Mike Tyson throwing the volume of punches that Jeff Fenech would throw. Armostrong would stand toe to toe with anyone that was brave enough to stand in front of him and go about trying to impose his will on the other man. He didn't care about getting hit, he welcomed it, he would jsut stand there and clobber away knowing that he would never give in until his opponent succumbed to his barrage of punches.
What Armostrong's legend is really cemented on however is that he held 3 world titles in 3 different weight divisions simultaneously!
Armostrong was best as a featherweight, but after claiming the featherweight title he decided to skip the lightweight division and jump up to welterweight where he dethroned the welterweight king of the time. Not to forget the littler guys he then jumped down to lightweight and took the lightweight title as well. He actually challenged for the Middleweight title and according to most boxing pundits he should have won the fight but lost on a points decision. If as they had said, he should have been crowned the middleweight champion, that means that he would have held titles in 4 of the 8 boxing divisions that existed at the time. And bare in mind that when we say title we dont mean any of this WBA interim belts or any crap like that; there was only one belt in each division. And also bear in mind that since then boxing has introduced about 8 or so more divisions between the weights of these 8 divisions that existed in Armstrong's era. So in effect by todays standards Armstrong would have held 7 belts (unified so really 21!) in 7 different weight divisions simultaneously!!!!!! WTF!!!!!!! THAT IS REDICULOUS!!!!! (1. featherweight, 2. super featherweight, 3. lightweight, 4. super lightweight, 5. welterweight, 6. super welterweight and 7. middleweight).
So yeah, when we are looking up the definition of pound for pound, I think there should be a picture of Henry Armstrong next to it.
The best fighter right now? Well six months ago i would have said Roy Jones Jr, easily. Probably the most athletic boxer ever to enter the ring. His skills aren't really that good, but he can beat anyone without raising a sweat on shear athletic ability. Unparralleled speed and footwork.
But age has caught up with him a bit and he looked a little shaky after the Antonio tarver fight. he was lucky to escape with a victory in that fight.
So the best at the moment would have to be floyd Mayweather. I hate the cocky bastard! But his skills can't be questioned. Great defnese and great speed.
Others knocking on the door are Manny Pacquaio who just demolised Marco Antonio Barrera
and also Bernard Hopkins and Kostya Tszyu.
The best fighter I have ever seen during my lifetime is Pernell Whitaker. Whitaker was poetry in motion. Boxing is often accused of being a brutal, ugly sport - I encourage the people that make those accusations to watch Pernell fight. He hardly ever scored a knockout and his opponents struggled to lay a glove on him. His defensive game was incredible. He could stand in front of guys and let them unload everything they had without being hit at all. In his prime he hardly lost a round, let alone a fight. He made a prime Azumah Nelson look silly, he pitched a near shutout against the great Julio Caesar Chavez (who had an 87-0 record at the time!) but was robbed on the scorecards and only got a draw. Even as a 33 year old washed up coke addict he still won more rounds than he lost agaisnt a prime Oscar De La Hoya, but once again, got robbed by those moron judges.
The best fight I've ever seen? Seen lots great ones but one that sticks out is the first Roberto Duran v Sugar Ray Leonard fight. 15 furious rounds with Duran imposing his will on Leonard and escaping with a narrow margin win.