Quote Originally Posted by greynotsoold View Post
The saying "styles make fights" is very self-serving. You use it if a fight you promote stinks and you are trying to explain why, or it comes out if a fight that was supposed to suck heats up.
All, every single one, good fighters are counter-punchers. You cannot be good unless you counterpunch well. Some guys wait and counter, other guys push to draw leads they can counter off. Counterpunching is the trick when it comes to boxing.
My favorite styles...Olivares against Lionel Rose...Most any fight with Buddy McGirt, Julio Cesar Chavez, Mike McCallum, Ricardo Lopez, or James toney. I like guys that counter well, punch good, and make a fight.
I couldn't disagree more. The saying references the differences between fighters, and although there are certain tools that transcend style (be it a stiff jab, a counter-punch or head movement) different fighters use these tools in different ways.

Yes, counter-punching is a universal strategy that is always utilized in some way, but to say that all good boxers employ the counter-punch in the same way is to lump together a number of very different styles. Both James Toney and Bernard Hopkins were exciting fighters in their prime, but I would say that Toney's style was based on the counter-punch, whereas it was a specialty within Hopkins' wide arsenal (not to say he didn't use it or it was unimportant).

The aforementioned comparative example (counter-punching), could just as easily be Cotto's left hook or Ray Leonard's ring movement. The fact is that boxers, while all similar in some respects (due to a form of athletics honed for thousands of years), are also very different. These differences often dictate how a fight will play out. I believe that to be the essence of the statement.