[Signing] Flyers sign Chris Stewart

[Alflives]

Just now, RRypien37 said:

 

 

Also the guy you are referring to is Koci. He may have been a big 6'6 fighter but he wasn't very good. He was a punching bag for many. I still maintain Chara isn't anywhere near as skilled a fighter as most. Take away the reach and he would get fed by 90% of fighters in the league. 

I think Z is more of a wrestler than a boxer.  He tries, like you say, to use his reach to rag doll guys.  

[Elias Pettersson]

15 minutes ago, Alflives said:

I think Z is more of a wrestler than a boxer.  He tries, like you say, to use his reach to rag doll guys.  

Chara’s father was an Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Zdeno grew up as a wrestler. I’m sure he didn’t actually learn how to fight until he started playing hockey. 
 

He’s 6’9” so he has learned to use his reach to his advantage over the last 18 years. He could probably pummel guys if he really wanted to but seems to hold back on most occasions. Take a look at the fight last year with Kane. Kane had him on the ground with his cheap shot behind the back takedown but Chara was able to get up in seconds and then get his left arm out to totally neutralize Kane. After that Chara could have pounded him for days but the refs broke it up. Kane is a tough guy as well. He held his own with Reaves.
 

There is no one in the NHL who can take on Chara. Especially if he’s mad. Nobody can break his grip on his long reach and once he has you in his grasp it’s game over. These guys are lucky they are on skates. With Chara’s wrestling background if it was off the ice and he got these guys on the ground he would destroy them all. Imagine trying to wrestle a guy who is 6’9”? 

Edited October 20, 2019 by Elias Pettersson

[IBatch]

3 hours ago, RRypien37 said:

 

 

Also the guy you are referring to is Koci. He may have been a big 6'6 fighter but he wasn't very good. He was a punching bag for many. I still maintain Chara isn't anywhere near as skilled a fighter as most. Take away the reach and he would get fed by 90% of fighters in the league. 

Umm wasn’t very good.   Ok well to refresh my memory I just watched his 2010-2011 entire fight card - Parros x 2, Janssen x 2, Wesgarth, and Big Mac (who’s even bigger), and he faired fine against these guys - none of them used him as a “punching bag”.   A punching bag back then was Zortini - that kid couldn’t fight his way around Rypien until he figured out all he had to do was plow though the punches  with his forearm “shivers “.... oh yeah and John Scott too - who was also a big dude.

 

I have articles in the basement back then from the actual fighters ranking Chara as the most feared fighter, don’t buy what your selling.   He often fought Worrel early on (now there’s a big guy that was often a punching bag) and it’s hard to find very many decisive losses on his card after a certain time - Koci was an animal in the AHl too - and good enough at it to have more then a cup of coffee and lasted pretty much until they died out ... wouldn’t really call him a punching bag - won some lost some but also so did almost all the other guys.