Should have kept their mouths shut!

Sometimes a fighter over steps the mark and talks his way into a beating. There have been many examples of this in boxing but here are my top 3 from memory.

3) Roy Jones jnr v Vinnie Pazzienza.

Vinnie ran his mouth before the fight by playing the race card against Jones. He let his thoughts known on what he perceived as black favouritism in the sport of boxing. Jones to his credit kept a cool head and took Paz apart. Paz gave a good fight but was hugely outclassed and dispatched in devastating fashion.

2) Joe Calzaghe v Jeff Lacy

We all know what happened here. Lacy was touted as the next best thing in the division and came to Britain very confident. He accused Calzaghe of being a slapper but by the end of the 12th round he looked like he had been hit with a sledgehammer.

1) Greg Haugen v Ceaser Chavez

Where do we start with this 1. Haugen you silly, silly boy. First off he enrages Chavez and ALL Mexicans by saying that there was not 130,000 Mexicans who could afford to go to the fight. I think something like 132,267 turned up.
Then Haugen disregards Chavez's record by claiming that he had beaten nothing but a bunch of Tijuana cab drivers. He really got under Julio's skin and was severely punished as a result.

David Haye with Wlad, although he just talked his way in to a loss, wasn't a beating by any stretch.

Some good examples.

Ali v Terrell

Interesting stuff, OneTwo. My compliments.

That said, I reckon that Pazienza and Haugen, regardless of what they said or how they conducted themselves in the build up, were always on a hiding to nothing in those respective fights. I'm not sure their smack talking really increased the quality of their opponent's performances, but rather just left them looking a bit daft!

Speaking of which, a personal favourite of mine must be Khan back in 2008 hyping his upcoming bout against Prescott, turning to address the camera and saying "Make sure you tune in, people, because this fight will be over very quickly." He's nothing if not honest!

Slightly distasteful but surely the worst example of this was Griffiths and Paret, realise the story is more complex than often portrayed but the ill advised insults from Paret certainly added to the mix.

I thought about Haye v Wlad but Wlad did not do enough and seemed scared of Haye as much as Haye was scared of him.

Yeah that was personal. Who knows what stress Griffiths was under being gay in those days. He took it out on Paret but the ref had more to do with the outcome then anyone.

A tragic example would be Benny Paret v Emile Griffith.

Domestically, Richard Dunn infuriated Joe Bugner with his trash talk in the lead up to their fight. Among other niceties, Dunn had a toilet seat suspended from the ceiling of his training camp with a picture of Bugner inside it. Come fight night, a furious Bugner came snarling and steaming from his corner like Dempsey or Tyson and absolutely annihilated Dunn inside a round.

Such a shame that nobody else ever seemed to provoke Bugner in such fashion.

EDIT : Sorry, fellas. Crossed post on Paret.

Onetwo have read a bit about this fight recently and a lot of people are saying it was as much related to the fight Paret had with Gene Fulmer about a month before, have not seen that fight but apparently he took a fearsome beating in that one, a lot of people who saw both fights have said he had no business being back in the ring with a fighter of Emile's quality so soon after.

Another domestic fight would be Benn v Watson.

I think Watson was called Micheal Whats his name and Benn was confident of just blasting him out of there. Micheal outclassed Benn in my book making him look quite ordinary.

DeGale against Groves, for the sheer 'ha ha, you look stupid now' factor. Chunky even began an early celebration upon hearing 'still undefeated' afterwards, just to put the icing on the cake.

88Chris05 wrote:Interesting stuff, OneTwo. My compliments.

That said, I reckon that Pazienza and Haugen, regardless of what they said or how they conducted themselves in the build up, were always on a hiding to nothing in those respective fights. I'm not sure their smack talking really increased the quality of their opponent's performances, but rather just left them looking a bit daft!

Speaking of which, a personal favourite of mine must be Khan back in 2008 hyping his upcoming bout against Prescott, turning to address the camera and saying "Make sure you tune in, people, because this fight will be over very quickly." He's nothing if not honest!

I have to look for that on youtube lol.

Mayorga De La Hoya

Hopkins prior to the Calzaghe fight. "I would never let a white boy beat me", and all that guff.

De La Hoya v Vargas

A lot of history between those 2. Oscar took revenge for Vargas calling him a fake Mexican.

McClellan

Although he don't say much now.

Kameda absolutely slated Wonjongkam, record and pretty much all of Thailand before their fight and was dealt with pretty convincingly consiering he was the younger fresher man up against a guy who was supposedly past it.

Kameda has a habit of this sort of thing mind you. He has been called The Mayweather of the East purely for his attitude. He turned up at a weigh in once eating chocolate because he heard his opponent was struggling with the weight!

Roy Jones Jr. vs Vinny Pazienza- vinny did nothing wrong based on what you wrote. why would someone who complains that there is racism in boxing need to shut his mouth? if there is racism in boxing then vinny was right to say it

You guys probably won't remember this or would've had access to it...but I remember Tyson fought Alfonso Ratcliff (former cruiser champ).... and before the fight all ratcliff did was say things like..

"the little boy needs spanking...he's going to be eating leather"..."Daddy is coming etc"....

.proceeded to run like a thief and held on for dear life...before he was caught and creamed in two.. Oh dear!!

Ribalta had a few things to say about Tyson too.

Got slapped.

Put up a good show though.

He certainly knew how to take a shot....

Margarito showed a real lack of class in the build up to the Manny fight with his mocking of Roach and again was less than classy before the 2nd Cotto fight, glad he got a beating both times and I hope there's a few more waiting for him before he retires on his ill-gotten stack of money.