Was McKenzie a bad matchup for Kocur?
 

JK’s career spans 1983-1999 and Jimmy McKenzie’s 1989-2004 – so, it was within the realm of possibility that these two could have gotten together.

I see no evidence that these two did not even bump each other much less drop the mits. This would appear to be a very interesting stylistic match-up. If we use Twist Mckenzie series as a sort of benchmark here is what I see: Jimmy Mac does well in the first fights and then the roided version of Twist seems to fare better in the latter fights. Or is Kocur a bad stylistic match for Mckenzie?

McKenzie is a bad matchup for every fighter that ever played in the NHL, he's top 10 material as far as skills go so it's not just Kocur that would have a tough time with him, almost everyone did.

Might be the most underrated fighter ever. Big, little, hard puncher, fast puncher, pillow puncher, Jimmy Mac fared well against all types.

Can't explain why they never fought, Kocur had mellowed somewhat by the time McKenzie broke in and McKenzie wasn't a dirty player at all so Kocur likely had no reason to tangle with him.

McKenzie would of been able to hold his own with Kocur.

Mckenzie vs normal Twist (Twist looks a lil like Kocur in this one)

Tony Twist vs Jim McKenzie Round 2 - YouTube

Mckenzie vs enhanced puffed up Twist

Tony Twist vs Jim McKenzie Round 4 - YouTube

Maybe?

FBC - sorry for the joice of adjective I used for Twister did not mean to pour vinegar in your cheerios

Actually they came close to fighting when McKenzie was in Phoenix and Kocur had his 2nd stint in Detroit. My memory is a little bit off but I think Kocur went after someone and McKenzie stepped in. Kocur didn't seem to interested in a fight, but Kocur wasn't as active anymore (had some rough stuff with the likes of Parker, Simon, Oliwa but no fights).

I think McKenzie would have won if they would met during their playing careers. But the late 80s version of Kocur would probably held his own.

Surprising that you'd do a Kocur thread. You usually don't do many threads about Kocur.

your tunnell vision is blinding you. Give it up!

What's a tunnell?

I'm not the guy on his 90th Kocur versus ____ topic.

What's next? Kocur vs Godzilla? Kocur takes on T Rex? Find a new guy to obsess about.

Hey! wrap yourself around this Kocur vs Wilson

I'm sure you've lain awake at nights manually stimulating yourself over that one.

Kocur mellowed? His job was to protect players

He did protect his mates, probably as well as any other enforcer of the time but after 5 or 6 years, he didn't go looking for it nearly as much, he didn't have to and he didn't have a whole bunch of guys lining up to fight him.

If you look at his fight totals, his first 5 seasons look like he was out looking for fights with fight totals of 11, 34, 38, 26, and 26 then it drops to 15, 14, 9, 9, 11 the next 5 years. Having a wreck of a right hand had something to do with it also but he simply wasn't fighting as much, most guys go fast and furious through the first 1/4 of their career and then tail off and some are just consistent and others disappear for whole seasons.

Joe finished with fight totals of 5,6,4,4,5 his last 5 seasons. He often could defuse a situation just by "being there" ala Nick Fotiu and Joe had the reputation, even in his later years of being deadly with that right hand.

I'd say he mellowed but he also matured into a decent player and realized he didn't have to fight 30-40 times a year to do his job.

Fotiu STARTED his career mellow. And continued through his "prime"