Re: How good could Zab have been... if?
Its kind of hard to say. Skill wise,he had a natural talent for evading punches. He had good power, a low center of gravity. His chin would always be a problem, but with the right training and ring savvy, it could have been protected.
At heart Zabs a knucklehead and you could see it in some of the things he did even early on. He had good influences around him early on in Lou Duva and Ronnie Shields. They kept him humble for the most part and on a path when things went a little crazy in the ring (Like the piledriver he got from Wilfredo Negron).. Reminded him to use his skills and what he worked for in the gym and stuff like vengeance and anger would take care of themselves with the opportunity presented itself. They provided a frame for him and structure. He used to stutter really badly in the beginning and but never hesitated in the ring. It was part of him defining himself and coming into his own.
When he got close to a title fight and left Ronnie and Lou and put his father in the corner. He started getting knocked down. Not training as hard and the knucklehead tendencies became reinforced by his knucklehead father. You could tell he didn't train that hard and was dismissive of the thought of preparing like he used to and his father convinced him it was all skill and he could do whatever he wanted to his opponents. So he started stepping straight back with his hands down (Tszyu, Millet) and hitting fighters when they were already down (David Sample) ... all these things that showed lack of discipline. Theres 2 schools of thought on this... He was knuckle head who's level of competition caught up to him when it got stiffer .... or he started preparing down to his level of competition because he didn't feel he had to try as hard; a bad attitude uncaged and reinforced by his father in desire to keep the money in the family.
Looking at the later fights that he lost but still performed well early on in, like people mentioned above... kind of discredits the first theory. Considering the same kind of drop off (except on the scales) that David Tua suffered after he left Ronnie and Lou (who always tried to keep him somewhere near 220lbs).. it also lends credibility to the second theory.
Guided by Lou and Ronnie, Zab could have been something special... Lou had Sweet Pea so its easy to say he knew how far he could take Zab and who to keep him away from and how to handle the people he had to go through. Ronnie's also a good trainer and could have taken Zab the Rest of the way when Lou couldn't get up for the physical stuff. But this is all dependent on how long and far they could have kept Zab away from being a knucklehead, knowing he would be around that kind of influence every day with his dad and the people he hung around with. Its all dependent on that. (To those saying Zab beat Spinks with his dad in his corner... Even a blind chicken finds a worm sometimes...) Just my opinion of course... I could be wrong.
They want your @$$ beat because upsets make news. News brings about excitement, excitement brings about ratings. The objective is to bring you up to the tower and tear your @$$ down. And if you don't believe that, you're crazy.
Roy Jones, Jr. "What I've Learned," Esquire 2003
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Originally Posted by Dizaster
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