Styles

[Chadness]

I felt like throwing out an idea for more styles. Right now you have Slugger, Boxer, Both. I was randomly thinking about what numbers Librado Andrade possibly had in regards to facing Boxers/Sluggers. CF vs Boxer should be high... but that's depending on what you call a "boxer". He's made to eat up faux-boxers that move more than they box (IE: Jab, feint, precise movement). Not so much against the opposite. So, here are some style ideas to represent different levels of 'Boxers' and 'Sluggers'.

Boxer

1 - Elite technical boxers. They use a solid jab, mix in lots of feints, and have the difficult to master ability of attempting to stay away from an opponent whilst being just close enough to capitalize when the opponent makes a mistake.

2 - The same as the above but they generally only move side to side or even use their technical skills to press an opponent. They try to keep a certain range but don't stray away from where they can land punches/have punches landed on them because they'd rather offense than defense unlike the above category.

3 - A fairly rare style that tends to ignore the jab in order to counterpunch with power shots and will more often than not attempt to entice their opponent into a faux-brawl by not moving so much it's hard to throw punches at them as these boxers want their opponent to lead (hence the lack of jabbing).

4 - Boxers that generally use certain defensive technique in place of being mobile. They'll stay away from the inside but are confident in their ability to defend in close.

5 - Boxers that use reflexes over technique. They attempt to make their opponent to make the first move with lots of feinting while in a range where they could land a punch. It's similar to #3 but when you're assigning the styles you'd look at the difference in jabbing. Boxers that jab at least every so often would go here more than there. That is, a solid jab. Not a constantly flicking jab IE: Shane Mosley.

6 - The prototypical "runner". Not hard to figure out if a boxer goes in here or not. It's not a slight to be a "runner". It just is what it is and deserves it's own style as there can be a big difference in a stylistic matchup from this or something else. The difference in result between Hatton/Mayweather and Hatton/Malignaggi says as much, for example.

7 - And finally, similar to 6 are boxers who also only use their feet for defense. In the case of this fighter, however, it is not a "safety first" approach but rather a boxer that is just unable to do anything on the inside. They don't know how to in-fight and instead move a lot until they're at a certain range but then turn into punchers who attempt to catch a guy coming in with combinations.

This would be the type of boxer I was referencing as the sort that endurance machines like Andrade and Margarito are born for because all the unnecessary movement just helps wear em out.

1 - Floyd Mayweather, Bernard Hopkins
2 - Kostya Tszyu, Mikkel Kessler
3 - Shane Mosley, Zab Judah
4 - Winky Wright, James Toney
5 - Roy Jones, Andre Dirrell, Yurorkis Gamboa, Jean Pascal, ...you get the message here
6 - Cory Spinks, Paulie Malignaggi
7 - Andy Lee, James McGirt Jr. (Notice the drop off in talent here? This style rarely gets very far.)

Slugger - These are far less 'varied' as far as stylistic matching goes but figure if you move in this direction with styles that it's not a bad idea to go ahead and detail the differences in sluggers as well.

1 - 'Full-time' sluggers that are extremely adept at cutting off the ring, getting inside and using effective in-fighting tactics.

2 - Sluggers with the skill to be "Either" but at the end of the day their style is to be offensive minded.

3 - Similar to #2 but in the case of this type of fighter they'll pretty much never stick to the "boxer" part of boxer/puncher even with the skills. They just love brawling too much. The difference is in what a fighter is more comfortable being. Boxers are #2, punchers are this category.

4 - Similar to #1 but these guys aren't the pure in-fighters that they are. They'll probably have better boxing skills but also are not as constant in their attack. The difference is in if they close distance faster or slower. Guys that get on the inside faster go up above. Stalkers go here.

5 - Sluggers that may not even typically attempt to chase their opponent down but always come with a high offense/low defense mindset. If you'd wonder between #2 or #5 you'd basically ask if the fighters offense is known for being a fairly potent defense or if they're more known for trading shots.

6 - Straight forward, all-action sluggers. Basically, if this slugger has a purely offensive attack but lack ability to do anything else then they go here.

7 - The stalking version of the above. THE pressure fighter. They can throw an endless amount of HARD punches if they are given the chance. They're also great at cutting off the ring and pretty much always win through an endurance battle.

8 - Volume punchers that can only be effective if they are on the inside and are smothering their opponents. The big factor with them is that they throw a lot of weaker punches over choosing stronger shots. They have, however, mastered the attack. They know how to cut off the ring and they know how to avoid getting tied up.

9 - Your general 'unskilled' laborer. They plod forward without throwing punches until they are inside and usually don't even know how to cut off the ring.

Ricky Hatton, Micky Ward
Manny Pacquiao, Rafael Marquez
Erik Morales, Arturo Gatti
Miguel Cotto, Fernando Vargas
Vic Darchinyan, Paul Williams
Jorge Arce, James Kirkland
Antonio Margarito, Librado Andrade
Juan Diaz, Kassim Ouma
Lovemore N'Dou, Juan Urango

Then, of course, you have your Boxer/Puncher input. Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, so on and so forth.

There's a certain dynamic change that would be made to fighters Control Factors with this type of stylistic implementation. There is a big difference in how, say, Miguel Cotto could handle a slugger like Kassim Ouma over a slugger like Antonio Margarito(as we saw).

[meade95]

Good topic / analysis on your part -

I'm becoming more to the line of thinking that there should be 3 catagories not two (boxer / slugger). A third should be added "pressure / swarmer" style fighter (a la, a Ricky Hatton, Fenech, Frazier type fighting style). -

And then within all the varibles (Def, CP, PL, Holding, etc, etc) if we had these 3 styles one can break them down further with the varibles below.

So each fighter would be rated one of the three styles above...and then would also be rated / have a CF Vs each of the three styles as well.

[Cap]

Yeah. This would be a definite priority for version 4 or 5 of Title Bout. Right now I'd like Andreas to concentrate on programming what we've already been promised. That alone may take another year or three. So join the queue, chaps!

Cap

[Chadness]

When is #3 supposed to come out? What's been listed for features?