The absolute KEY in a slugger vs swarmer matchup is who controls the distance...that is THE key.
A swarmer wants to get inside and smother his opponent's attack with his own attack. A slugger wants to have distance to get leverage on punches and keep the swarmer off of him. A swarmer wants to tie up to get inside, a slugger should tie up to get a break in the action and reset on the break should his footing or position in the ring be wrong.
I'm thinking Foreman-Frazier was Slugger vs Swarmer, Douglas-Tyson ended up being Slugger vs Swarmer, Liston vs Patterson was Slugger vs Swarmer, Argeullo-Rooney was slugger vs swarmer, all of those fights saw the Slugger get the W. Tyson-Holmes was Swarmer vs Slugger, Patterson-Johanssen was Swarmer vs Slugger, Marciano-Louis was Swarmer vs Slugger.
So again, all of those fights were decided by DISTANCE...Swarmer on the inside is bad for the slugger, Slugger on the outside bad for the Swarmer happens every time, every time!
As for Kostya Tszyu, he didn't fight all that much, but hey more power to the guy if you can survive off of a fight a year then there ya go, boxing takes a lot out of you. Now I would have CERTAINLY loved to see him fight more talented fighters and more famous fighters I don't know why that didn't happen. The Judah fight was his big win, a 38 year old JC Chavez meeeh, he couldn't KO Roger Mayweather so I doubt Floyd would have been hit by him.
Tszyu has a low fight total because he was at top level early. Everyone slows down fight numbers when on top.(title in less than 3 years, his 14th fight)
Something to consider is Tszyu has a huge right, so obviously his best wins would come against southpaws. His jab wasn’t his bread and butter which means he wouldn’t have fared well against Floyd. Think of how inept Manny looked, you have to have a formidable jab to stay with Floyd.
Last edited by Ron Swanson; 10-14-2017 at 04:39 PM.
In hindsight and while I always loved watching Kostya fight you couldn't get around the fact that he wasn't hard to miss with fast punches. Judah actually cracked him early until the the roof collapsed on him and the Phillips ending wasn't a complete shock as you watched it slowly unfold as nuts as that sounds. But he wasn't fighting total bums and had a solid early run with some capable fighters. What always got me was how Uncle Roger went the full 12. Judah was massive win and he earned every bit and in fairness Judah rebuilt and did more than just lose to Baldo. Even less of a slight as Mayweather saw fit to fight them both regardless and even Canelo batted out his shadow years later and acted like it meant something.
So there you have it GaMo. Quality over quantity with Kostya which is why he only a fewer fights than others.
This is all opinion, so not saying mine is valid and yours isn't, but undefeated fighters are the hardest to defeat.(as the saying goes). The version of Judah that Kostya beat was the best version we saw (MUCH better than the one Cotto and Paulie beat), and Kostya destroyed him. Master is right when he says Judah came back for some decent wins after, and even showed glimpses of Great potential in some losses, but Zab became inconsistent after that first loss.
I also don't think you give Sharmba Mitchell as much credit as he deserves. Mitchell was a very good fighter, with solid boxing skills and good speed. Kostya definitely doesn't have the quality of opposition that Manny, Hop, Evander, Oscar...etc. had, but he didn't duck or fight weak opposition either.
Judah isn’t anything special! I’m not sure why you’re trying to make out he was a great fighter when his best win (coming in against Tszyu) was against Mickey Ward. Tszyu was getting blasted around the ring in the first round and his victory could be described as a lucky punch. As for Mitchell... he was knocked out by light punchers twice at lightweight so is that win really impressive!? Floyd also stopped Mitchell so Tszyu’s two biggest wins are shared by Floyd but they’re not big wins for him because he done so much more.
Do not let success go to your head and do not let failure get to your heart.
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