Brawling has always been a fan favorite fighting style in boxing. The approach is an all-action way of winning fights, relying on constant, non-stop aggression and throwing a lot of leather. Brawlers are not always punchers, but they are invariably strong, tough fighters, because their offense truly is their defense and brawlers are therefore an easy target for any fighter willing to risk striking at them. In brawling, ferocity is the bottom line, and by that standard these are the five most ferocious fighters in the game today:
5. Dereck Chisora: Del-Boy is big, busy, always comes to fight, and is the best swarmer in the heavyweight division today. On paper he has lost all his big fights, but stop and look at that record for a moment. He lost to Tyson Fury, but showed up fat and out of shape. That is doubly his fault, because a brawler always needs to be in tip-top condition, but it also doesn’t count against his stature as a fierce, macho fighter.
His rough, aggressive, busy style beat Robert Helenius in the minds of most observers. He lost to Vitali Klitschko, but proved tough enough to last the distance while fighting every step of the way. In July he has a rematch with Fury, and hopefully he will show up in good enough shape to take the fight to the 6’9″ giant.
4. Vic Darchinyan: This Armenian featherweight has a mixed record as of late, but none would deny he is a world class fighter (Darchinyan is our #5 super bantamweight, and his next fight is for a WBA featherweight belt). He is also a rough and tumble guy who throws punches in bunches, and putting those two things together makes him a top brawler.
3. Brandon Rios: Rios loves to go forward and throw down, and while he is currently a fringe contender in the welterweight ranks, he is 1-1 with Mike Alvarado. His other defeat was to Manny Pacquiao. The only reason he isn’t a Top 10 welterweight is because that division is so densely packed with talent, so the guy is definitely a top brawler.
2. Giovani Segura: Even among diehard fight fans, few pay any attention to the little guys in the flyweight ranks, which is probably why so few know about this veritable wolverine. The Aztec Warrior brawls in weight classes where speed and energy dominate, and he uses those assets to buzzsaw his way through his opposition. He doesn’t win every fight, but he has beaten some important guys and has 28 knockouts out of 32 victories in weight classes not known for power hitting. His last fight, a victory over Hernan Marquez, was an epic battle.
1. Marcos Maidana: Hands down, Maidana is the best brawler in the game right now. He is the strongest, toughest, and hardest hitting character in the welterweight division, and while new coaching has tightened up his offense, his approach is still to get in the other guy’s face and send endless amounts of hurt his way. Clinching Maidana’s place as the world’s reigning king of brawling is that his combination of power, muscle, durability, and aggression took Floyd Mayweather to places no one has ever seen him go. Swarmers are the antithesis to slicksters, and Maidana challenged the world’s defensive grand master as perhaps only one other man ever has.
