Fighters and who they resemble throughout history

Little bit of a different thread but this is exactly as the title says it - fighters and who they resemble. Often times we hear "so and so" fights like Mayweather or "so and so" fights like Oscar. But if we look back in history often times these current greats studied and learned from legends of many years ago. Here are some examples:

Mayweather - George Benton. Benton was a great Philly fighter, great defense, great counter abilities, used the shoulder roll extremely efficiently excellent technical skills & defense. From the video you can see a lot of Mayweather in him. Perhaps that's why the Floyd defense is sometimes called "The Philly Shell defense".

(the last minute or minute and half of the video really shows how well he used the shoulder roll)


Mike Tyson - Floyd Patterson. Before Mike Tyson, Cus D'Amato trained Patterson. It's no surprise they were so similar:


(1:47 - 2:30 just screams Mike Tyson)

Although, some might argue that Tyson fought more like Jack Dempsey who was Tyson's favorite fighter & studied greatly and tried to emulate (start at about 1:14), but he didn't use that "peak-a-boo" style that Patterson/Tyson did):




Bernard Hopkins - Ezzard Charles. Charles was one of the greatest fighters ever. Hopkins studied Charles as much as he could when he was younger and tried to copy a lot of things he did, as did James Toney but I see more Hopkins in Charles than I do Toney. Hopkins also studied Archie Moore and Jersey Joe Walcott, which you can see pieces of their game as well.



James Toney - Archie Moore. You can see a lot of Toney in the Old Mongoose. Toney was also a student of the game and watched tons of hours of Moore, Ezzard Charles, Benton and Jersey Joe Walcott (which is why you can see a little of all of them in Toney's game).

What do you guys think of The Untouchable, Nicolino Locche? Do you see a bit of Pernell Whitaker? Locche was of Italian decent, from Argentina. Finished 117-4 and considered one of the greatest defensive fighters of all time.

Clownin!

Pacquiao, while pretty unique, is probably some combination of Aaron Pryor/Roberto Duran

Unlike Toney though Moore had legendary performances in his 40s, in that regard Hopkins is the modern day Archie Moore.

One guy I couldn't think of is Roy Jones. Truly one of a kind with his unorthodox style, superhuman reflexes and speed. Can't really compare his style to anyone that I know of from years before.

Yeah he could have done a lot better. Crazy to think his absolute prime was the early 90s fighting guys like Michael Nunn, Michael McCallum, Iran Barkley, Tim Littles, Roy Jones all before 1995! If he could have stayed between 168-175 his entire career, man I can only imagine.

Tony's managers made him fight so often because of his eating problem. Anytime he had any time off he'd have to move up a weight class lol. Hell, against Jones he had to lose something like 60 pounds in a month! Could have been why he had such a poor performance. Or Jones was a bad matchup for him, too much of a freak of nature.