Thread: Who You Admire

Another survey for the gang. What fighters, now or past, best exemplify what you want out of a professional fighter? They need not be great, you need not be a fan. This is about the way you like to see the sport, and the fighters within it, behave. Please give us a brief why.

Thanks in advance.

First name that comes to mind is Alexis Arguello. Tremendous puncher... exciting style... huge heart... and just as important... a gentleman and role model both inside and outside the ring. He was the pride of Nicaragua, an excellent ambassador to the sport. His fights with Aaron Pryor were classics... too bad he lost them both. A truly ATG, in my book. Here in Puerto Rico he was respected and admired, even though he beat local favorite Alfredo Escalera in a grueling, bloody fight.

R.I.P., Alexis.

Jung Koo Chang aka Korean hawk

Marquez

Ricardo Lopez

Floyd Mayweather

I love boxer-punchers with high level of intelligence and no one does it better than these guys, simple as that..

Tim Bradley- he's a inspiration the way he comes in , in amazing shape
Cotto- He works hard, is skilled, and I like his style in and out of the ring
Tyson- he's had it tough and is doing good right now- great fighter.

emille griffith

Originally Posted by Pavlik

emille griffith

Same here. And Shah Khan.

Originally Posted by TitoFan

First name that comes to mind is Alexis Arguello. Tremendous puncher... exciting style... huge heart... and just as important... a gentleman and role model both inside and outside the ring. He was the pride of Nicaragua, an excellent ambassador to the sport. His fights with Aaron Pryor were classics... too bad he lost them both. A truly ATG, in my book. Here in Puerto Rico he was respected and admired, even though he beat local favorite Alfredo Escalera in a grueling, bloody fight.

R.I.P., Alexis.

There goes MY number one pick! Two things to add are Alexis was willing to go to the other guy's place to fight him and he ALWAYS made daring matches.

Originally Posted by FinitoElDinamita

Jung Koo Chang aka Korean hawk

Marquez

Ricardo Lopez

Floyd Mayweather

I love boxer-punchers with high level of intelligence and no one does it better than these guys, simple as that..

Nicely done!

Originally Posted by Pavlik

emille griffith

I always feel so bad for Emile. Such a good guy and such a tortured soul.

Originally Posted by gest12645

Tim Bradley- he's a inspiration the way he comes in , in amazing shape
Cotto- He works hard, is skilled, and I like his style in and out of the ring
Tyson- he's had it tough and is doing good right now- great fighter.

Totally agree with first two.

Whoda thunk Mike Tyson would be alive and seem to more or less have his stuff together at 45?

Monzon... kidding, kidding...

Let's be real here though, a lot of boxers had/have alcohol or drug problems among other things, just like anybody else. Even Alexis had drug issues. But some of these guys can still be admired in a sense for overcoming adversity out of the ring. SRR was a womanizer and alcoholic... Guess we really don't know sometimes.
Barrios and Ulises Solis both while drunk ran over people. Look at Valero and how he turned out to be.

ODLH
Ricardo Lopez
Jose Torres
JMM
Zaragoza
Emile
Foreman
Holyfield
Alexis
Gatti
Dick Tiger
Ali

Originally Posted by CutMeMick

Monzon... kidding, kidding...

Let's be real here though, a lot of boxers had/have alcohol or drug problems among other things, just like anybody else. Even Alexis had drug issues. But some of these guys can still be admired in a sense for overcoming adversity out of the ring. SRR was a womanizer and alcoholic... Guess we really don't know sometimes.
Barrios and Ulises Solis both while drunk ran over people. Look at Valero and how he turned out to be.

ODLH
Ricardo Lopez
Jose Torres
JMM
Zaragoza
Emile
Foreman
Holyfield
Alexis
Gatti
Dick Tiger
Ali

Sadly I think Alexis' drug and booze issues were probably a function of him being bi-polar or something like it and self medicating. He struggled with life and his place in the world as far back as I can remember,

Nice list! I actually don't really care about guys outside the ring unless they are really, really bad guys (Monzon, Valero, Ayala Jr)

I'm glad so many recognize Emile griffith.

I admire the following fighters :

Marvin Hagler - Hard nut , fearsome , the one guy who looked like a mean bastard.

Tommy Hearns - my favorite fighter ever.

Sweat Pea - this guy in his prime was impossible to hit with a handfull of gravel.

Marquez has got to be my favourite personality in boxing at the moment. A real family man who has a 'win or come back on my shield' attitude I just love. I think the epitome of Marquez was what he did in that fight against Pacquiao. Getting KDd three times in the opening round he comes back and puts on an awe-inspiring performance. His timing is something I greatly admire, it's to me one of the most important aspects of a fighter's repertoire, and generally the better you are at timing, the better a fighter you will be (though obviously it should be allied to various other things, and the more of those you have the better off you'll be as well). The combinations he puts together are also stunning and technically brilliant, making him very exciting to watch. To a lesser degree I also admire Mayweather, I think as a boxer his professionalism and skill is second to none. He obviously got some good genes, but he has never taken a relaxed attitude to his career, and has shown himself to be, I think, the most complete and versatile fighter around today. My only qualm is that he does not seem to have the warrior's heart that Marquez does, and perhaps that is purely because no one has ever pushed him the way Marquez has been pushed by the likes of Pacquiao. I do remember watching the DLH/PBF fight and thinking, that if DLH had just been a little younger, then maybe we would have seen Floyd pull out something special to win - or wilt. Who knows? Then again DLH outweighed him by a fair bit that night and had the choice of gloves if I remember rightly, so it may be that Floyd is just so far ahead of his competition that we don't get a chance to see him really dig deep. I mean, he was clearly rocked against Mosley and one could argue that he may have wilted there when he was stunned, but he came out quite aggressively after being hit. And then again I asked myself the same question; what would have happened had Mosley been a little younger, or even in his prime? He would obviously have gone in for the kill, and at that point I would like to see if Floyd would have the combination of mettle and skill to battle his way back into the fight and then reverse the damage. Essentially, I think if we are to see the best of Floyd, he has to fight the man everyone is talking about - if he beat him, then his status as the best boxer of his generation would be well and truly cemented.

1 boxer i admire at the moment is Froch, he lays it on the line, takes a great shot and is happy to fight away from home. He doesn't shy away from the big names and has continually been prepared to face the best.

Gutsy warrior, makes fights harder for himself than they need to be sometimes but the defence has been improved. Not the greatest around at the moment but he always means business always turns up in shape and gives 100%