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Re: The All-Time Boxing Classic
QCS wrote:
I'm not very familiar with boxing but this is really cool. Love the commentators, it's a nice personal touch on the series. I recognize some of the names but is there anyone you'd recommend for me to root for?
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying this! Hmm, as far as boxers to recommend, I can throw a few out there, although there's plenty to love here. I haven't introduced him yet, but I like Joe Louis from the Heavyweight division a lot. Seemed like a really classy guy and a Heavyweight legend that could easily win that division's tournament, (speaking of Heavyweights, Evander Holyfield is another one of my personal favorites).
If you like movie references, Robert De Niro plays Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull and Russell Crowe plays James J "Jim" Braddock in Cinderella Man (that's another boxer I haven't introduced yet, Braddock will be the in Light Heavyweight division).
As for my personal choice, I can throw out Ray Mancini, (fun fact, he was the first boxer I ever saw fight. It was on ESPN Classic. I don't remember who he fought, it may actually have been against Alexis Arguello, who'd be another good fighter to root for). He was an incredibly fun boxer to watch, plus his story is great, trying to win a title for his dad, who had also been a boxer in his heyday, but had never been a champion (Ray would succeed!)
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Re: The All-Time Boxing Classic
Today, we announce the entries to the Light Heavyweight division's portion of the All-Time Boxing Classic! This is a weight class that's interesting to me. There's quite a few guys on this roster that also competed for (and occasionally won) the Heavyweight titles after dominating the Light Heavyweight division. That would be normal usually, as I've mentioned that in boxing, it's very common for fighters to change weight classes as their careers move along. However, giving the fame and glamor associated with the Heavyweights (who are usually MUCH more famous than their lighter counterparts), it can feel like some fighters view Light Heavyweight championships as more of a gateway division to greener pastures than it does the pinnacle to their careers.
That being said, in the ABC, there's plenty of prestige to this Light Heavyweight division, as the competition is as stiff as ever! Consisting of fighters from my boxing simulator's Light Heavyweight (175 lbs) and Super Middleweight (168 lbs) division, here are our Light Heavyweights!
And of course, I wouldn't forget to include the informative International Boxing Hall of Fame bios, which are here below!
Finally, our boxing experts have their say on who they believe will win this portion of the All-Time Boxing Classic!
Johnny Armando: This is yet another really difficult weight class to figure out. There's quite a few guys that I'd consider to be favorites in this one. I'm going to take Michael Spinks here. He's one of the only Light Heavyweight champs who was successful in moving into the Heavyweight division and becoming champion there too, (and I believe he was the first reigning Light Heavyweight champion to do so!). What makes Michael so dangerous compared to these other guys is how awkward he was to fight. Yes, he had knockout power, but his use of varied angles where he'd hit you makes him extremely difficult to defend against. Only one Heavyweight ever broke through his style, but in the ABC, he's only fighting the Light Heavyweight, who I think won't be able to figure him out!
Dick Dingleberry: I like Joe Choynski here. He doesn't get the respect he deserves, probably due to never winning boxing gold. But don't let his "only" 25 knockouts of our 50 wins fool you, (*cough* Chip! *cough*. Chip: Oh no, you haven't got the covid do you?! Dick: Oh for the love of.... I was messing with you! Chip: Now you really are messing with, like, my mind! Dick:....nevermind) This man had amazing punching power, the type of punch capable of ripping open mouths and breaking teeth! There are a couple of Heavyweights who even said that Joe, not some other Heavyweight, was the hardest hitter they ever faced. These guys at Light Heavyweight, if they get popped good by Joe, are getting a nap, curtesy of Choynski Suites!
Jebediah McAllister: You guys know I have that "Iron Sharpens Iron" approach to these predictions. That those who challenge themselves with the best competition will only improve themselves more. Well, how does picking a guy with a 14-3 record against your fellow weight classmates sound as a prediction? That's Ezzard Charles' record against his fellow IBHOFers in this weight class alone! He never actually fought for Light Heavyweight gold (he opted to fight a lot of Heavyweights despite being rather small for the weight class, never weighing more than 200 pounds) but he was awfully good against them!
Chee McGee: Joe Calzaghe might hate me for this, having beaten my pick before, but I love Roy Jones Jr. to win here! In his peak, Jones was pretty much the universe's best fighter, pound for pound! Winning gold at Middleweight, Light Heavyweight, and Heavyweight (only the 2nd former Middleweight champion to pull this off, following Bob Fitzsimmons, who's also in this weight class!), Jones was so skilled and athletic that you could honestly say size didn't matter with him. I really believe he's going to prove that he is the greatest fighter in this weight class and maybe the greatest of all time!
Chip N. Daylin: You guys knew I'd pick him for sure and why not? Archie Moore has more knockouts than, like, anyone else in boxing history with 132 knockout wins (some sources say he had even more!)! Like, I wasn't even considering anyone else here! He's another guy who tried to fight the Heavyweights, even though he was nearly untouchable at Light Heavyweight, and I admire that! It's like trying to climb Mt. Everest after mastering your home's staircase! (Dick: Being Light Heavyweight champion isn't exactly easy either...)
And there you have it! We only have one more weight class to introduce before the fights begin (although I will have one more surprise before we REALLY get started, but this will go a bit quicker!) and it's the big, most famous, and the baddest men around, the ABC's Heavyweight participants! Hope you enjoyed this, C + C is always appreciated, as well as any predictions you want to share!
Last edited by Stickman (1/18/2022 6:48 am)
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Thread Starter- Osgiliath Guard
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Re: The All-Time Boxing Classic
I'll have to take Braddock here. I like the chances of the Cinderella Man. Not many people can say they have fought with a broken hand or jaw and still competed to their normal level. If not him, then Ezzard Charles, purely cause he got in the ting with Marciano and survived.
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Re: The All-Time Boxing Classic
I'll have to take Braddock here. I like the chances of the Cinderella Man. Not many people can say they have fought with a broken hand or jaw and still competed to their normal level. If not him, then Ezzard Charles, purely cause he got in the ting with Marciano and survived.
Charles would be a pretty solid pick for sure, definitely see him as one of the strongest bets to win this weight class! And you never know with Braddock, he might have quite a large amount of loses by comparison to the other guys, but there's a reason we do the fights! He is the Cinderella Man and it isn't midnight yet! (it's actually 10:37 am at the moment by my clock)!
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Thread Starter- Stickman
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Re: The All-Time Boxing Classic
BREAKING!!!
I just discovered today (minutes ago actually) that I missed one member of the ABC's Lightweight Division! There will in fact, actually be 43 entries into the tournament. Tod Morgan (who is being inducted into the 2022 class in the Old-Timers category as a matter of fact) was the Hall of Famer previously bypassed. As we will be including ALL Old-Timer and Modern fighters in this tournament, Morgan will added and I will be doing some rescheduling, (luckily, we hadn't started yet and actually discovered the error going through the IBHOF bios). So that means even more fights for us to enjoy (and that also means that the Lightweights will start fighting sooner, in Round 1 instead of waiting until Round 3). 
I'll be posting the Heavyweight division participants likely tomorrow!
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Thread Starter- Stickman
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Re: The All-Time Boxing Classic
Tonight, we introduce the final weight class in the All-Time Boxing Classic, the Heavyweight division! This is easily the most famous division in the sport, and even non-boxing fans will be familiar with at least a couple of these fighters, as some of these guys are so influential that their impact transcended beyond boxing. Consisting of boxers from the Heavyweight (no weight limit) and Cruiserweight (190 lbs originally, changed to 200 lbs), every one of these men could knock anybody out easily! Here are the participants for the Heavyweight portion of the All-Time Boxing Classic!
As always, here are the links to these boxer's International Boxing Hall of Fame biographies!
Finally, our boxing analysts make their final general predictions for this weight class's winner!
Johnny Armando: He called himself the Greatest for a reason (besides being cocky). Muhammad Ali's impact on both the sports and real world are well documented. Focusing strictly on his abilities and odds in the All-Time Boxing Classic, I don't believe anyone can match him in terms of skill and hand speed. He was also a master tactician in the ring, and the scariest part is that we very likely never saw him at his absolute best (having been arrested for refusing to enlist in the Army after being drafted during his peak). For these reasons, I feel safe predicting Ali will prove he's still "The Greatest" boxer of all time, (or at least at Heavyweight!)
Dick Dingleberry: Heavyweight's history is remarkably rich with elite level talents. However, my pick wasn't the most talented, the biggest, and didn't have the most knockouts (though he had plenty). What he did have was an excellent chin, the desire to win and the will to withstand the worst pain that he could be given as he fought to victory. I'm talking about Rocky Marciano, the epitome of effort. Athletes today don't have half the heart this man had during his career and his refusal to quit will carry the day despite his lack of speed or size!
Jebediah McAllister: My pick was dominant against the best the world could offer at the time and is one of, if not THE single most significant black athlete to ever grace sports. Jackie Robinson rightly gets a lot of credit for overcoming what he put up with while he broke baseball's color barrier, but Jack Johnson was breaking barriers before Robinson was even born. In Johnson's day, many black fighters simply were dodged because many white fighters refused to fight them, (promoters also used to excuse of the fear of race riots to never put white and black fighters together for the Heavyweight title). For Johnson to even get a shot at Heavyweight gold is a testament to how unignorable his skills were. His victories over Tommy Burns and in particular over James Jeffries, I can't even put the words to how historically important those moments were for both sports and American history in general. But I can put this to words, Jack Johnson will win this contest!
Chee McGee: My pick is both an Olympic champion and Heavyweight legend, Lennox Lewis. He's got a huge reach and knows exactly how to use it. He could maneuver well despite his large body to get in the right positions and had the power to knock anyone's block off. And his chin is underrated too! He didn't retire undefeated like Marciano, but did avenge his only 2 losses. Currently the last undisputed Heavyweight champion, Lewis is exactly the type who will prove that no matter how tough they were, modern athletes, with their ever improving athletic training, diets, conditioning, and fight analytics, will always win the day at the end.
Chip N. Daylin: My pick is the lean, mean, fat-grilling machine, The George Foreman Grill-Man! (Dick: Seriously? I thought we all agreed to not make any stupid Foreman grill jokes! Chee: I think that was just in your head, man) George Foreman was, like, a freaking killer in his prime, and nearly all his wins were by knockout! Also, I love his grill product thing, so, like, I have to pick him! (Dick: Aren't you a vegan? Would you even need to ever use a Foreman grill? Chip: You can grill tofu, Richard!)
And there we have it! I hope you've had fun reading these introduction posts, (I've sure had fun writing them up!). With all the fighters introduced, we are almost ready to get started with the fights! However, I do have one more segment I want to run before that. Fight fans always get excited for the fight cards that they eagerly anticipate even months before the fights happen. I thought it'd be fun to have our own fight cards in the ABC. Round 1 will have 42 total fights in it, which I've decided to break down into 7 fight cards. These won't take as long to go through though. So while I have been whipping up posts pretty regularly, it will take a little while to get those together (especially since I did have to make some adjustments to the schedules). Please bear with me and in the meantime, C+C and predictions always welcomed!
Last edited by Stickman (1/21/2022 9:37 pm)
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Thread Starter- ProsecutorMilesEdgeworth
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Re: The All-Time Boxing Classic
No one picked Tyson?
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Re: The All-Time Boxing Classic
Going controversial here. I'm taking either Marciano, Ali, or Lennox Lewis. Marciano is my personal favorite, but I can see Ali or Lennox taking it too. However I prefer Rocko cause of his determination. His terrier-like determination to beat his opponent to me gives me the impression he can beat anyone.
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No one picked Tyson?
Surprisingly not! No doubt Tyson will be one of the most interesting guys to watch here. In his peak, (and when properly trained and motivated) he was as unbeatable as any Heavyweight ever has been! I could easily see him winning this whole thing, (especially since in Title Bout Championship Boxing, you can't bite people's ears!)
I think, breaking it down, that Chip N. Daylin very easily could have picked him, but with George Foreman having an near identical knock out ratio, (and more of them!) he went with Foreman instead . The others were scared off by Tyson's surprisingly weak win percentage against his fellow Heavyweights, (off the top of my head, I think he was something like 1-4 against ABC Heavyweights), his smaller size, and in Dick Dingleberry's case, being born after the Great Depression.
Going controversial here. I'm taking either Marciano, Ali, or Lennox Lewis. Marciano is my personal favorite, but I can see Ali or Lennox taking it too. However I prefer Rocko cause of his determination. His terrier-like determination to beat his opponent to me gives me the impression he can beat anyone.
Yeah, any of those 3 would be good picks for sure! Heavyweight rightfully is one of, if not THE most interesting weight class in this tournament, every one of these guys are killers! But Marciano, Ali, and Lewis are definitely among the most respected of the bunch! I'm definitely excited to see how that weight class plays out!
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Thread Starter- Enigmajones
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Re: The All-Time Boxing Classic
Shame that Jerry Cooney isn't listed, he's my cousins uncle.
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