never understood why people rated Moorer as a Heavyweight

[treelo]

he has one win against one of the worst versions of Holyfield i have ever seen, and other than that, absolutely nothing

i had high hopes for him when he first stepped up but the guy just didnt seem to have any sort of motivation to be a great fighter, yet people still seem to say he was part of the era

the guy was the most bang average fighter considering how highly some people rate him, and some mention his name with the likes of Lewis, Holyfield and Bowe

a fraud who got knocked out by a grandad and scraped by Schulz, dont rate him at all at heavyweight

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

I don't understand it either. Just saw someone on here count Moorer among the top heavies of the 90s. He was a one-hit wonder. I'll have to rewatch his first fight against Holyfield. It's been a while since I've seen it.

 

[treelo]

I don't understand it either. Just saw someone on here count Moorer among the top heavies of the 90s. He was a one-hit wonder. I'll have to rewatch his first fight against Holyfield. It's been a while since I've seen it.

he scraped by Holyfield in that fight, and Holyfield was dreadful

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

he scraped by Holyfield in that fight, and Holyfield was dreadful

I remember that much but my memory of how the fight actually played out is a bit hazy. Holyfield really struggled with some of his southpaw tactics that much I recall. I think that Holyfield should've had a third fight with him to break the tied rivalry they had.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

Just rewatched it. Holyfield couldn't establish his jab at all the whole fight and wasn't busy enough. He was mostly throwing only one or two punches at a time. He did drop Moorer in round 2 but Moorer was winning the round up until that point. Moorer couldn't miss with his crushing straight left hand or stiff jab. He was tearing him up with that southpaw jab. By round 5 Holyfield was cut and looked exhausted in there. Moorer was the clear winner. Holyfield was really getting battered at times worse than I remember.

 

[djacobox372]

I don't think anybody rated him very highly. But I do give him credit for moving up from LHW and being in the mix during the most talented HW era of all time, but as a HW he's in the league of Morrison, Rudduck, etc.

 

[djacobox372]

I don't understand it either. Just saw someone on here count Moorer among the top heavies of the 90s. He was a one-hit wonder. I'll have to rewatch his first fight against Holyfield. It's been a while since I've seen it.

Moorer was a top 10 hw in the 90s. He had some good wins outside of Holyfield, he wasn't top 5, but definitely top 10.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

Moorer was a top 10 hw in the 90s. He had some good wins outside of Holyfield, he wasn't top 5, but definitely top 10.

That's my issue. Some will refer to the era and include his name in the Top 5. They'll write the Tyson/Holyfield/Bowe/Lewis/Moorer era or whatever. He wasn't that notable aside from his big win over Holyfield in the first fight.

 

[Fluffernutter]

First southpaw heavyweight champ

 

[mozfonky]

he has one win against one of the worst versions of Holyfield i have ever seen, and other than that, absolutely nothing

i had high hopes for him when he first stepped up but the guy just didnt seem to have any sort of motivation to be a great fighter, yet people still seem to say he was part of the era

the guy was the most bang average fighter considering how highly some people rate him, and some mention his name with the likes of Lewis, Holyfield and Bowe

a fraud who got knocked out by a grandad and scraped by Schulz, dont rate him at all at heavyweight

I didn't know he fought schulz. I was never a fan but I thought he beat decent fighters on his way up in the heavies, I don't think I saw those fights though. My problem with him is as a person, I never liked him and I hear he hasn't really changed. Freddie Roach had him at wildcard for a bit but he wasn't working, probably because of his personality. I always thought he was kinda a prima donna and he really didn't have the talent to even merit that, especially as a heavyweight.

Why did he and Emmanuel sterward fall out, I've forgotten.

 

[mozfonky]

First southpaw heavyweight champ

that's right, that's notable.

 

[mozfonky]

That's my issue. Some will refer to the era and include his name in the Top 5. They'll write the Tyson/Holyfield/Bowe/Lewis/Moorer era or whatever. He wasn't that notable aside from his big win over Holyfield in the first fight.

they put him that high? Well, the hype that the boxing media has promoted would be the culprit. I remember them still hyping up Bowe even though he hadn't had one single good performance after the first Bowe fight and I'm not counting the "defenses" against dokes and ferguson. He beat that cuban guy pretty good but outside of that he didn't look that good for several years and the media was still trying to hype him up. Golota put a quick end to that in the span of 2 fights, he went from "maybe the best heavyweight in the world" to someone who needed to never fight again, just that fast. But I thought he performed horribly against the hides, the Mathis' etc.., That was back in the days where if a guy got fat, you knew he wouldn't be able to fight, not like that today.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

that's right, that's notable.

It was notable at the time but looking back at it now it's just not that impressive. Since Moorer we've had a handful of southpaws that've won heavyweight titles: Chagaev, Ibragimov, Byrd, Sanders & now Usyk.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

they put him that high? Well, the hype that the boxing media has promoted would be the culprit. I remember them still hyping up Bowe even though he hadn't had one single good performance after the first Bowe fight and I'm not counting the "defenses" against dokes and ferguson. He beat that cuban guy pretty good but outside of that he didn't look that good for several years and the media was still trying to hype him up. Golota put a quick end to that in the span of 2 fights, he went from "maybe the best heavyweight in the world" to someone who needed to never fight again, just that fast. But I thought he performed horribly against the hides, the Mathis' etc.., That was back in the days where if a guy got fat, you knew he wouldn't be able to fight, not like that today.

There are some that still mention Moorer's name alongside the other major players at the time. Probably because he beat one of them (Holyfield) in their first encounter. See below.

After the Holyfield/ Tyson Bowe/ Lennox/Moore era of the 90s ended early 00s HW has really never got back close to that. Klitchkos were good but at least in the US an afterthought. Could of had a great era with Wilder, AJ, an Fury 10 years ago but it's so hard gettibg fights to happen ...... still pissed never got Wilder vs AJ would of been a fire fight.

Usyk just doesnt have the appeal outside Ukrainian sympathies. A great fighter with some great wins n record maybe a top 5 ever HW said an done. Boxing hardcores will love him casuals won't care

 

[mozfonky]

It was notable at the time but looking back at it now it's just not that impressive. Since Moorer we've had a handful of southpaws that've won heavyweight titles: Chagaev, Ibragimov, Byrd, Sanders & now Usyk.

first anything is notable, can't beat first.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

first anything is notable, can't beat first.

In this case it's just another statistic that isn't meaningful. One seemingly overlooked reason why we likely didn't see any southpaws win a heavyweight title prior to Moorer (1994) is because historically many left handers were being actively converted to box orthodox. The designation also doesn't count fighters that are switch-hitters or fighters that regularly utilize shifting within their style.

 

[TheGreatA]

I've never heard of anyone rating him. He's a footnote in boxing history as a guy who got the belt in a rather uninspired way and lost it to an ancient guy from a previous era.

Entertaining fighter though, I always check his bar brawls with Stewart and Cooper if I just want to see a quick, good fight. He definitely had a lot of pop in his punches for a former light heavy. Had he managed to stay in that division, he would have probably gone down as one of the hardest hitting light heavyweights of all time.

 

[treelo]

I've never heard of anyone rating him. He's a footnote in boxing history as a guy who got the belt in a rather uninspired way and lost it to an ancient guy from a previous era.

Entertaining fighter though, I always check his bar brawls with Stewart and Cooper if I just want to see a quick, good fight. He definitely had a lot of pop in his punches for a former light heavy. Had he managed to stay in that division, he would have probably gone down as one of the hardest hitting light heavyweights of all time.

there are lots of people who rate him surprisingly, he seemed to avoid a lot of fighters as well, a few fights i would have loved to see him in

Hide
Morrison
Ruddock
Bruno

 

[TheGreatA]

there are lots of people who rate him surprisingly, he seemed to avoid a lot of fighters as well, a few fights i would have loved to see him in

Hide
Morrison
Ruddock
Bruno

He sort of became a pariah after the Foreman loss, and then Holyfield beat the crap out of him in a rematch, after which he was basically done at the top level. He popped back up in '04 to ruin Jirov's career, but that was about it. Lot of fun fights he could've had, but it seems like with his personality, offensive style and lack of size, he was destined for a short career at the top.

 

[treelo]

He sort of became a pariah after the Foreman loss, and then Holyfield beat the crap out of him in a rematch, after which he was basically done at the top level. He popped back up in '04 to ruin Jirov's career, but that was about it. Lot of fun fights he could've had, but it seems like with his personality, offensive style and lack of size, he was destined for a short career at the top.

i dont think he had an offensive style though, he was very timid at heavyweight and only really seemed to burst into life when he was hurt