Fantasy fights

For me one of the ultimate fantasy fights has to be Chavez vs Duran.

This would of been a hum dinger. Both great fighters with sometimes underrated boxing skills. For me Duran is the better boxer and I would pick him to win a hard fought battle. Think he is a bit too crafty for Chavez.

Who is your fantasy fights? Be interested to see your picks.

TopHat you're more than welcome to contribute if you see fit.

Me vs Meg Ryan in a mud pit....

Duran over 12......Chavez over 15...

I can't see Chavez winning that often in any case, but in terms of the 12 or 15 round theory I'd go the other way, Truss. Did Chavez even box a 15 rounder in his career? He had top stamina and conditioning, so I'm sure he could have managed it, but Duran had the knack for knocking guys out between rounds thirteen and fifteen and lasted the pace superbly. Think Julio would prefer a twelve rounder myself.

But as I said, I think Roberto wins this one almost every time. Chavez fantastic at what he did but Duran does all those things at least as well, sometimes even better, with the added advantage of being a bit slicker and skilled, too.

This is quite an easy one to pick. Duran wins as he's just better in every department for me. Not under rating Chavez either, I don't believe, just don't think he's really on the same level as Duran.

I was counting on Duran being slicker also.

Duran could outfight Chavez and he certainly can outbox him.

For all Chavez good wins he would never, in my opinion be good enough to beat Ray.

No matter what happened in the rematch, Duran will always be remembered as the first guy to best Leonard. He out physced him and out fought him. Perhaps Ray could of fought a different style but Roberto done a terrific job in getting inside Rays head.

Have great respect for Chavez and believe he would make it very competitive, however I just think Duran was that bit more special.

One of my fantasy fights would be Henry Armstrong v Roberto Duran. Armstrong, possibly the greatest fighter of all time who was once a lightweight champ v Duran, possibly the greatest lightweight champ.

I don't know who I'd pick to win.

Armstrong against Duran. Wow. I do think Duran was the more skilled fighter, but Armstrong was a phenomenon at his peak, just indomitable. Chavez did get put on the back foot now and then (Laporte and Lockridge being two examples), but Armstrong? Him against Duran would be absolute carnage. Might edge ever so slightly towards Duran, but there's nothing in it. Could see them fighting three times with each man getting a split decision in their favour and the other one being a draw, to be honest.

I'll focus on my favourite weight class, the Light-Heavies, for some other picks. Roy Jones against Mike Spinks would be a dream one, for me. Wouldn't be the same white-knuckle ride as something like Armstrong-Duran but a fascinating mesh of styles. Thought about it a lot and their particular styles, along with a bit of gut instinct, makes me install Spinks as a very narrow favourite against Roy (55:45 or something like that).

I think I would have enjoyed Ibeabuchi vs Bowe. Tough bastards skilled on inside and out .

For me Sugar Ray Robinson Vs Splenda Ray Leonard would be a fantastic spectacle. The skill, speed & movement in that fight would have been beautiful.

Hard to go against Robinson in this one and would go for a late KO personally.

Something about chavez' attritional style that never floated my boat. Great fighter, obviously, but never really enjoyed watching him stick his head on the other guy's shoulder and work them over.

Duran a better boxer and every bit as tough so I think he wins this.

I'd like to have seen duran Pryor at light welter. Their eras crossed but their weights didn't. Similar sized guys, and stylistically maybe a little pointer to that duran armstrong fight.

You'd have to favour duran, but you'd sure as he'll get your money's worth.

Surely spinks KO's Jones.

I go Floyd Pattinson vs Kovolev (24 hr weigh in)

Watching Robbo get his ears boxed off in London against Randy...

Certainly wouldn't give him the Leonard fight.....

Pickem for me

Assuming it would be welter truss where both did their best work, so I'm not reading too much into the Turpin fight, (european tour and all... Although he struggled in the return too).

That said, for all robbo is rightly more revered, in a head to head its a Pickem for me too. I don't see a stoppage either.

He was out smarted...Bollox to the division.

Brian Sutherland v Eric Crumble.

Thats one for the purist right there.

Rocky Fielding vs Boxer with pulse

3fingers wrote:Surely spinks KO's Jones.

It's a possibility, mate. Spinks was a very strong puncher at 175. His left hand knockout of Pops Johnson is one of my favourites and I don't think many other Light-Heavyweights would have been able to get up from the right hand that floored Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, either. But I don't think the younger Jones' chin was as poor as the Tarver, Johnson, Green and Lebedev fights from his late career made it look, and more to the point he was incredibly hard to catch cleanly with a really telling shot. If there is a knockout I'd probably be more inclined to think that Spinks gets it, but I'd see it as a distance fight more often than not.

Tricky, because nobody ever beat Spinks at Light-Heavy, and Jones wasn't beaten in the proper sense of the world until he'd hit a sudden decline having seldom been really threatened in his pomp, so I'd have a hard time imagining one of them clearly and decisively having the wood on the other, but I think there's a good chance that Spinks' more rounded game and ring intelligence might just trump Jones' speed and athleticism in this one to a tight decision. Think what Griffin did against Jones for eight rounds in their first fight, only being carried out by an all-round smarter, better fighter with higher durability.

horizontalhero wrote:

3fingers wrote:Surely spinks KO's Jones.

On the basis of?

On the basis that he lands a punch where others failed.

Good points Chris.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Rocky Fielding vs Boxer with pulse

You seen who he's fighting next?

I think there's a noticeable speed and size descrepancy between jones and spinks. I see the argument for looking at jones griffin as a pointer but Spinks was awkward to get to, where griffin was small stocky quick and slippery.

It might be stating the obvious but I think its a fight about range, if Roy can leap in and out and get through, he hits plenty hard enough to keep spinks honest and he could potentially be too quick for the jinks.

On balance though, he may have fought there for years but jones never looked a fully fledged light heavy to me. I err to spinks as the more natural at the weight and bigger man... but not a foregone conclusion.

Spinks had one of the best right hands in 175 pound history too...........

I'd go with spinks..........late.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Watching Robbo get his ears boxed off in London against Randy...

Certainly wouldn't give him the Leonard fight.....

Pickem for me

When a fighter has close to 200 fights, he's more likely to run into a fighter who outboxes him than a fighter who only fights 39 times.

Atila wrote:

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Watching Robbo get his ears boxed off in London against Randy...

Certainly wouldn't give him the Leonard fight.....

Pickem for me

When a fighter has close to 200 fights, he's more likely to run into a fighter who outboxes him than a fighter who only fights 39 times.

I used to love those Charlie Chan movies..

3fingers wrote:

horizontalhero wrote:

3fingers wrote:Surely spinks KO's Jones.

On the basis of?

On the basis that he lands a punch where others failed.

It's not that I'm questioning Spinks power, or suggesting that Jones is granite chinned - it's the "surely" that have an issue with. In a fight between to ATGs there's no certainties either way. Chris makes a compelling arguement for Spinks, but you can also make a good case for Jones out speeding and out landing Spinks to nick a decision.

A prime Mike Tyson v Lee Froch

In front of 80,000 fans at Wembley

Steffan wrote:A prime Mike Tyson v Lee Froch

Paulie Malignaggi surely be a better bet tHan a one pinch knock out . In a 999 round bout in front of 9m Chinese organ harvesters.

88Chris05 wrote:

3fingers wrote:Surely spinks KO's Jones.

It's a possibility, mate. Spinks was a very strong puncher at 175. His left hand knockout of Pops Johnson is one of my favourites and I don't think many other Light-Heavyweights would have been able to get up from the right hand that floored Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, either. But I don't think the younger Jones' chin was as poor as the Tarver, Johnson, Green and Lebedev fights from his late career made it look, and more to the point he was incredibly hard to catch cleanly with a really telling shot. If there is a knockout I'd probably be more inclined to think that Spinks gets it, but I'd see it as a distance fight more often than not.

Tricky, because nobody ever beat Spinks at Light-Heavy, and Jones wasn't beaten in the proper sense of the world until he'd hit a sudden decline having seldom been really threatened in his pomp, so I'd have a hard time imagining one of them clearly and decisively having the wood on the other, but I think there's a good chance that Spinks' more rounded game and ring intelligence might just trump Jones' speed and athleticism in this one to a tight decision. Think what Griffin did against Jones for eight rounds in their first fight, only being carried out by an all-round smarter, better fighter with higher durability.

Come on the Jones Griffin rematch showed that when Roy was on fire he was truly on fire, I could see him taking out anyone when in that kind of form and that kind of fire behind him. Clearly a class above that first performance, think Jones was nigh on unbeatable in his pomp and never even had to be as electric as he was in the Griffin rematch. When Jones turned it on he truly was in his own realm, don't see Spinks doing it. Doesn't have the speed in my view. Jones knows the danger and is too firey

Jones took some risks in the Griffin rematch. Was great what he did but had he fought that way every time then he certainly wasnt unbeatable. We might have seen what happend in the Tarver rematch at some point sooner than it did.

AlexHuckerby wrote:Come on the Jones Griffin rematch showed that when Roy was on fire he was truly on fire, I could see him taking out anyone when in that kind of form and that kind of fire behind him. Clearly a class above that first performance, think Jones was nigh on unbeatable in his pomp and never even had to be as electric as he was in the Griffin rematch. When Jones turned it on he truly was in his own realm, don't see Spinks doing it. Doesn't have the speed in my view. Jones knows the danger and is too firey

I don't think Jones blasting Griffin out in the rematch automatically means that we can't take anything from their first fight, Alex.

You can argue that it wasn't one of Jones' greatest performances, sure, but Griffin's style and approach to the fight clearly contributed to Jones looking less dominant than normal (I thought Griffin, despite being knocked down earlier, deserved to be level at least after eight rounds). Jones basically said, "to hell with it all" for the rematch and made those stylistic elements redundant by throwing caution to the wind and mowing Griffin down as quickly as he could, but during his Light-Heavyweight tenure that was more the exception rather than the rule for Jones.

A lot of people hoped that the back-to-back quick demolitions of Griffin and Virgil Hill was the start of a nastier, more cutting-edge Jones, but he was soon facing the 'Reluctant Roy' jibes again as he went back to carrying the likes of Johnson, Hall and Telesco to the latter rounds / the full twelve when he clearly could have got them out of there earlier.

Griffin, very good fighter though he was, is no Spinks in any case, but I can't see Jones making one of his relatively rare visits to that kind of animal destroyer mode here. As Marvin Johnson can tell you, throwing yourself at Spinks with a big knockout on your mind might not be the smartest way to go, even for someone as brilliant at Jones.

I think it takes a clever boxer to beat Jones at his best and Spinks was as smart as they come. You could probably accuse me of reaching a bit here, I guess, as these were only very small stems in the flow of Jones' dominance back in the day, but to varying degrees the likes of Hopkins, McCallum, Griffin and Harding gave a glimmer of what someone might have to do against him - have a canny defence, be able to avoid being hit without conceding ground, be a disciplined counter puncher and be able to back Jones to the ropes sometimes, just about the only area of a boxing ring where he didn't look completely comfortable.

Fair enough, in his prime years Jones only lost about 13 out of the 44 rounds he boxed in those fights against those fellas, but it can't be overstated how much of an advance a peak Michael Spinks is at Light-Heavyweight on those fighters, good though they all were.

Spinks is definitely facing a speed disadvantage here (what Light-Heavyweight wouldn't be against Roy?) but he was deceptively fast with his hands himself and I think he can at least keep hold of Roy's coat tails. As a talent you'll know I rate Jones hugely and have defended his record against some of his bigger critics - there are probably one two or three Light-Heavyweights I'd be comfortable making favourite against him, and none of them more than 60:40. But for me Spinks might just be one of them. Jones can win, no doubt about that, but I guess I just wouldn't use the same evidence as your good self to argue his case, mate.

Chris bigging up griffin again. Just because he owned the salad dodging love of his life

"Salad dodging" ???

Come on, milk man. As George Foreman said of that first bout between Montell and the salad dodger, "If Montell Griffin won that fight, cows lay eggs."

And we all know that Big George has never said anything questionable or taken a weird view on any boxing-related matter in his life.