Twist vs Laraque - What's all this then?

[2,5,10GameMatch]

Originally Posted by ewen21

The underlined stuff.

I promise you that EVERY LEFTY in the league saw what Twist did to Peluso and it scared the shiat out of them, they were ALL petrified of him, Domi included.

Probert was the only guy who would regularly step up to Twist and I often wondered why, he made Probie look silly.

[brad houghton]

Originally Posted by BaddaBing Badda Boom

I never had any reservation about Twist landing that short right that buclked Laraque. BGL lands in the beginning, looks to KD big Tony, but not for long.

Look, I thought we agreed that we would not resort to "well, it was only his first year bit?" - I have a news flash, ready, Laraque, Twist, Wilson, Fotiu, etc...all did this in the minors, constantly! Its not like they came over to the NHL from doing project development at Microsoft - They are fighters! - From Jump Street! The essentials are the same! I really doubt that anything new short of Probert and Ray losing their Jerseys really surprised any fighter whether it was in their 3rd year in the minors, 1st year in the NHL, etc...so, I see it as a moot point - Let's look at what the evidence shows not what it might show, if only...

BBBB i think your statement has merrit but might be too general IMHO since most ranking are somewhat subjective anyways....i think "experience" can be a factor

take Brian McGrattan as an example.....by the time he hit the NHL he was 24 and had 84 professional fights under his belt in the AHL against a who's who list......my expectations would be that he would hit the ground running in the NHL maybe not peak but be very competitive from day 1....similar to a guy like Battleship Kelly who was an AHL legend by the time he hit the NHL and dispatched a prime Dave Schultz in his first NHL fights....he was 27 and in his fighting prime when he entered the NHL....in these cases being in a rookie season is a non factor due to the load of experience they had at a professional level

compare that to a Wendle Clark type that spent no time in the AHL...he went from junior hockey to the NHL.......similar to Behn Wilson or Clark Gillies......these guys spent zero time in the minors so they were taking a big step up and i would expect some adjustment to the NHL level tough guys

i agree with Ewen completely in that different fighters peak at different times...some guys suck as rookies and become solid fighters so i don't think its out of bounds to talk about what point in a career a guy enjoyed his win or suffered a terrible ass whipping.....if you were to have beat Sandman in his first three seasons in the NHL i believe the win has more weight than if you beat him in his last season when he was a shell.....now thats just my take

for the purposes of this fight i would say this was a prime Twist (from 1995 on) when he was really tough to beat due to his brute stregth......BGL was pretty good from day 1 in the NHL and did fine in this fight although he did suffer a loss this was not a crazy beat down by any means

this was an interesting match up due to the fact that both these guys were really tough to beat in their primes.....BGL might be one of the toughest guys "to beat" in the history of the NHL

i found this fight boring and definately not my style but two of the all time strongest guys to ever lace them up

[brad houghton]

Originally Posted by battleship25

TT seemed to land a couple of good shots............................. to the shoulders and back of BGL..... Not much of a fight, the reason BGL went down was because TT pulled out of his jersey and slipped to the ice. To me it looked like TT hit the deck with the only punch that counted, a quick flash kdn...but TT was up quick. I see this as all pretty short uneventful fights, a more seasoned BGL would be a physical match for TT. Like most of the TT fights...it would be a lot of flailling and throwing around, looks good from across the arena but often times is pretty uneventful. I liked a pre-roid TT much better ...seem to rely more on good punching and not so much of the throwing around...

wow this is so dam confusing.....could you dum this down for us a bit and maybe put it in a comic book format with some cool pictures........and stuff

[Costanza]

McKenzie stood up to Twist better then anybody.

Im sure some people will argue, but i dont think Probert in his Chicago days wanted anything to do with Twist. Tony ran him every chance he got and i clearly remember Pat Foley and Dale Tallon (the hawks announcers) commenting on how uninterested Probert was.

[ewen21]

Originally Posted by 2,5,10GameMatch

I promise you that EVERY LEFTY in the league saw what Twist did to Peluso and it scared the shiat out of them, they were ALL petrified of him, Domi included.

The league did pretty much sh1t their pants over Twist for a few years, no doubt. However, even if they fought three or four more times I think they would have been pretty uneventful tests of strength. FOr all of Twist's bluster he only had a few genuine beatdowns. Most of his fights had a lot of sizzle without the steak.

I realize this was BEFORE he waylaid Peluso, but in these fights (you seen them) guys went left and lived:

YouTube - Twist vs McCarty

YouTube - Twist vs Peluso Round 2

YouTube - Twist vs McKenzie Jan 2, 1992

YouTube - Twist vs Mckenzie Round 3

YouTube - twist vs mccarthy

[ewen21]

Scouring through my memory of Twist fights with the help of DYG the Peluso fight when he was with OTT and one of the MacKenzie fights are really the only two fights where a guy went left and actually scored a draw or better.

I gotta say. Was there another fight where a lefty actually opened up against Twist?

[T800m101]

FOr all of Twist's bluster he only had a few genuine beatdowns. Most of his fights had a lot of sizzle without the steak.

I think you mean a few DOZEN genuine beat downs.

[brad houghton]

very good post Ewen.....Jimmy Mac and MacCarthy both had good fights with Twist by being open, technical, and trying to outland TT.....McKenzie caught him in the early days when he was still a normal sized guy.....he dared to "take one to give one" and if you wanted to win that was the formula with Tony....not strait T2T but definatley open and with losts of movement and switching....both these guys exploited Tony's prime weakness which was balance and accuracy.

as time ticked on though less and less guys were willing to pay this "potential price".....i say potential because his KO rate was nothing special but the potential of getting the lights turned out by TT was very real so why bother.....also as his career progressed and his....ah....weight exploded....he was away tougher to handle

Sandman dished out Tony's only loss of the season in the fight shown by doing a bit of the spin cycle and exploiting Twists balance issue

the fact is not many guys could impose their style on Tony it was almost always the other way around......most guys just didn't want to take the chance and it led to allot of boring fights

[T800m101]

That fight between McCarthy and Twist was a draw, the number of punches landed was dead even.

[Big Violence]

Beating Tony Twist wasn't that hard to do. All you had to do was tape your hand. Just ask Francois Leroux

[Stan Jonathan#1]

Originally Posted by battleship25

W- h---a--t ...who's drin--kin'...am not... (hick up!!)...Twist was the black guy in this one ..right !!!!

Jonathan lead with his face, Nystrom did too... I'll try and watch this snoozer again and see if indeed TT landed ...most of the time it was hard to tell if he landed or not....but it looked good...to most.

BTW... what is your drug of choice sj!.... I'm sure if we were to take a poll , pretty sure you'd have me by a country mile as far as who's on the funny sauce . Keep it up , I find it amusing at least .

I will take pugnacious as a compliment (last post).

Nystrom REALLY led with his head but was so big and strong he overcame but he did not fight a lot and looked very beatable against Bridgeman, Cochrane and a few more. Jonathan could have outpunched him Battle. I KNOW IT. Jonathan had the low center of gravity and was not as hittable as some. I still cannot get over your "analyzation" of this fight. Classic.

I do not drink (very little) or take drugs. I am mental without them!

Peace dude. I like your style.

[5forfighting]

If Laraque is allowed to take the same things Twist was taking, Laraque wins.

[Juha82]

Originally Posted by GIANTSFAN

Laraque is a top 5 fighter all time, where Twist is a top 30 all time fighter. Laraque hasn't been dropped like Twist was vs Ewen, Huard, Leroux & McKenzie. Laraque may not have as hard a punch as Twist, not as many KO's but his record of wins vs elite competition is as good as anyone. Laraque hasn't won all of his fights, nobody does, but his win/loss % is amazing. Twist never fought Domi, McSorley or Brashear. I'm not saying Twist ducked those guys, because I don't believe he did, but those guys are all elite fighters & omitted on Twist's fight card. In too many of Twist's fights, he hits helmets & shoulder pads. He had poor accuracy & not great stamina. He could knock your block off, but he also left himself vulnerable because he swung from the ice. I really don't mind both guys, but I don't like the mouthing off Twist did & fact he never thought much of McSorley, especially since they never fought. I prefer the pre roided up Twist as well.

But Twist was entertaining fighter for sure.
He was active puncher.
Hard to hate him though.
Guys scared him surely.

Both guys, Twist and Laraque are most strongest fighters ever?

[nighthawk]

Originally Posted by brad houghton

wow this is so dam confusing.....could you dum this down for us a bit and maybe put it in a comic book format with some cool pictures........and stuff

I agree Brad and was totally dumbfounded by Battleship's post along with all the others he's contributed over the years which seem to go over my head.

Maybe if he wrote in ebonics or maybe if I got drunk before I read his posts I would understand them better being we'd be on the same wavelength. While I'm very mental without alcohol I really feel that I have no choice.

[Mox MOx]

Originally Posted by GIANTSFAN

Twist never fought Domi, McSorley or Brashear.

I thought it was fairly well known that Domi ducked Twist, maybe some would say that they had an agreement of some sort not to fight each other.

And remembering what Brashear was like early in his career, I´m quite certain that he didn´t go out of his way to uneccessarily antagonize Twist when he was pounding guys silly left and right in the mid- to late-90´s.

As for McSorely, I can´t imagine Twist avoiding that pillow puncher. I can even remember Twist saying in an interview that he disliked McSorley because of his grappling style.

By all means correct me if I´wrong, but I´ve never heard of Twist running from anybody on the ice, especially during the later stages of his NHL career.