One loss doesn’t equal hype job

By Boxing News - 09/22/2014 - Comments

By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: I don’t believe no fighter is a hype job regardless of how the media builds them up or what other fight fans say. What I like to do is look at the resume of a fighter and study the different styles he’s fought. I also look at the fighter himself and the style he has.

Is he a mixed bag (meaning he can brawl, box, has footwork, has good offense defense, volume puncher etc). Is he a straight up boxer or brawler; how is defense and footwork. I look at everything. If a fighter is taking matches that cater to only his strengths, sooner or later those weaknesses will be exposed. But this still doesn’t mean the fighter was a hype job. He was just made aware of what he needs to improve on. The real test is how the fighter responds.

Take Mike Alvarado (a brawler) for example in his fight with Brandon Rios. From rounds 8 until the end of the fight, Mike boxed and moved. This stifled the attack of Rios as he was unable to land cleanly. However, this did not constitute Alvarado as a boxer. Before his match with Ruslan Provodnikov, he stated he was going to box the whole fight. It proved to be his downfall as he was stopped. This was also his undoing against pure boxer Juan Manuel Marquez.

A fighter can’t take an eight week training session of learning to box and say “hey I’m a boxer”. It has to implemented into the plan early on and he must be disciplined enough to maintain that plan. The brawler may box for a couple rounds then revert back to what has brought him success (especially if he gets hit a few times). Thomas Hearns was definitely no hype job, but his defense was very leaky heading into his fight with Ray Leonard.

Hearns had knocked out thirty of thirty opponents so his defense was not tested. He stated in Legendary Nights that he was learning on the fly how to recover during the eight and ninth round after being in trouble in the seventh. Joe Louis also was no hype job, but a weakness was exposed by Max Schmeling. Schmeling saw that whenever Louis threw his jab he brought it back below where it should have been (protecting his chin) and Louis ate counter right hands. Louis lost via knockout. The second fight was much different as Louis made adjustments and stopped Schmeling in the second round of their rematch.

To be honest there is really no clear way for a b level fighter to prepare for an A level fighter. The best the B level fighter can do is take all the stuff he’s learned at the b level and try to execute it at the next level. Whether a brawler chooses to fight nothing but brawlers and boxers chooses to fight nothing but boxers, then there still should be some level of growth. But one lost does not qualify a fighter to be a hype job. It just means he needs to improve.



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