Efficiently Lazy Fighters

Anyone familiar with the dynamics of the rat race will know that great rewards can come from presenting the appearance of being busy, committed etc. Perception is 9/10 of the law and those of us who choose not to waste our energy and on delivering something tangible can often find ourselves tagged as 'lazy'.

Question is - who have been the best 'efficiently lazy' fighters in history, focussing on quality rather than volume and winning whilst perhaps being perceived as a tad on the idle side? James Toney and the pre-Watson version of Eubank spring to mind immediately...

Nice to be back - it's been a while

Cast

Azumah Nelson, had a nack for making other fighters work hard without having to work too hard himself

Carlos Monzon. For such an incredibly strong Middleweight, he hardly ever sought to impose his will on an opponent if it wasn't absolutely necessary, and didn't mind fighting on their terms, either. If they wanted to try and stand toe to toe with him, he'd let them - and would naturally belt the living daylights out of them. And if they wanted to try and win the fight going away, he was happy to play boxing chess behind that jab of his. That was the scary thing with Monzon; he was the most dominant Middleweight champion of all time, and yet whenever I watch him, I always get the impression he could have moved up another gear still at any moment he liked.

The man we have been discussing on another thread Naseem Hamed could be added here aswell. Work rate was never one of Hamed's main traits but with his speed and power 90% of the time that was enough.

Floyd Mayweather aswell, so sublime with his timing and accuracy barely looks like he breaks a sweat in the ring at times.

Nice call on Floyd
Hagler might be a shout.Never did more than he had to and sometimes not quite enough
Chris..not sure Monzon had another gear but get the point and its a good call

Hopkins is pretty efficient and rarely wastes anything. With his ring generalship, counter punching and spoiling ability he rarely has to move through the gears to get the win.

Nicely put Chris. I think it comes down to the natural born mentality of fighters like Monzon. Physically he may have been well capable of stepping it up a notch but mentally that may not have been his style. He was seemingly built on patience and composure and to absorb and counter the approach of others rather than impose his own. He may not have felt comfortable doing so beyond desperate circumstances and as a result may have given his opponent a dangerous amount of optimism or become too awkward himself if he tried to force himself to do other than what his instincts were telling him to do.

Hopkins is also an obvious choice but down to the less favourable aspect of being extremely cagey, possibly more than ought to be permitted during his fights. Arguably no approach better than his for negating speed, power or both in an opponent.

Saul Alvarez looks like the part for this one at the moment

There is a difference between lazy and efficient and those that pick Hopkins might bear that in mind

Hopkins and Mayweather for sure.

Hopkins performing pressups inbetween rounds shows that his conservation efforts were paying dividends!

would put chad dawson down as an efficiently lazy fighter not really as good as the others however he always looks lacksadaisical and looks as though he has more to give. mayweather said hes actually the most naturally talented american fighter right now, apart from himself of course. dont know if i agree with it but so far he has gotten along with his style quite well.

Up until the last two fights, Haye got the maximum amount out very few fights without actually commiting to clearing out the division or proving his worth. This caught up with him in the last two foghts; one due to it being a ridiculous match that had no right to be and the other was against Audley! Seriously, the last against Wlad showed what happened against real quality.

The fact that Haye never seriously tested himself at the weigth before facing Wladimir and chose the money fights showed through in the end, though I'm not really convinced there would have been much difference in truth.

AlexHuckerby wrote:The fact that Haye never seriously tested himself at the weigth before facing Wladimir and chose the money fights showed through in the end, though I'm not really convinced there would have been much difference in truth.

Alex, fully agree with you. Lazyiness for me is about trying to get the rewards without putting in the time / effort.

I think Lennox was kinda lazy

I think Lennox was kinda lazy.

I know what you mean but always hard to tell with Lennox as he was such a laid back character and could be overly cautious at times. On balance though, he was probably efficiently lazy.

Monzon is the clearest example but Chris got there first.

Especially the Lennox that fougth Rahman, though to be fair, I think that was just pure and simple lazy.

He was certainly laid back, but definately lazy IMO, that said given what he acieved, surely he could be classed as efficiently lazy?

James Toney later in his career.

Carl Froch too an extent as he shuts off with his left hand low and is so easy to catch with the overhand right (see vs Johnson) - but when he puts his combinations together he looks a class above.

This shut off style almost cost him against Dirrell too