What styles work best against other styles?

[Rantcatrat]

As the age-old adage goes, "styles make fights." Well, what is the kryptonite for certain styles. Slick boxers, big punching plodders, volume punchers, swarmers, and the list goes on...

[marbleheadmaui]

The oft-repeated, oversimplified answer is

Swarmers (think Armstrong, Hatton, Basilio, Frazier, Qawi) beat boxers (think B. Leonard, Sweet Pea, Pep, Conn, Floyd), boxers beat punchers (think Foreman, Graziano, Tito, Manny) and punchers beat swarmers.

It is probably as true as a generalization can be, but it really is a generalization.

Other things come into play. First, just how GOOD a swarmer is a given guy? Second, I'm not persuaded all fighters fall into these three categories. Ray Robinson, Ray Leonard, Ike Williams and Tommy Hearns are better understood as hybrid "boxer-punchers." Third, there are guys like Duran or Gans or JMM (as well as some of the boxer-punchers) who really can transistion even within a fight from one category to another. Fourth not all men within one category are really similar. I mean I think most would agree that Jimmy Wilde and Saad Muhammad were both punchers. But when you watch them they really fight in different ways and therefore they fit with other fighters differently.

But again, swarmers beat boxers, boxers beat punchers, punchers beat swarmers isn't a bad starting point.