Which Was The Most Shockingly Brilliant Performance?

Goodnight, Irene · Post by **Goodnight, Irene** » 18 Apr 2008, 02:13

A) Barrera-Hamed, 2001

B) Hopkins-Trinidad, 2001

C) Pacquiao-Barrera I, 2003

Collins2000 · Post by **Collins2000** » 18 Apr 2008, 02:51

None of those if you are going by shock value as much as brilliance.

I'd pick Honeyghan vs Curry. To get a feel, find some mags from just prior to that fight and see how highly Curry was rated by the pundits.

Borinken25 · Post by **Borinken25** » 18 Apr 2008, 10:24

Salvador Sanchez vs Wilfredo Gomez

Jaybee From The Castle · Post by **Jaybee From The Castle** » 18 Apr 2008, 11:09

Barrera - Hamed, the choice isn't even close.

Barrera put on an master class of deception that the planners of Operation Overlord themselves would have been staggered by. Nobody could have expected him to switch Boxing styles so late in his career, much less to a style so against his innate latin machismo. If that weren't already impressive enough, he imposed this style onto the MASTER at luring guys out of their rhythms and into bombing matches.

pundit · Post by **pundit** » 18 Apr 2008, 11:48

I'd say Pacman vs. Barrera.

How good Hamed and Tito really were was always subject to some doubt. But nobody ever doubted that Barrera was top notch, and Pacman just ran over him like a truck.

JAHamilton77 · Post by **JAHamilton77** » 18 Apr 2008, 13:44

Hamed vulnerabilities had already been exposed, and people know it was just a matter of time before someone beat him. So forget Hamed v Barrera.

Personally I chose Hopkins v Trinidad because it was a shocking win, Trinidad had looked like a monster upto that point, and no one gave Hopkins a great chance (there were some who figured was he might win, and a few that picked him on the chance they might look wise afterward). He not only defeated Trinidad he made him look like an amateur.

dajuggernaut · Post by **dajuggernaut** » 18 Apr 2008, 14:25

Hopkins-Trinidad. The icing on the cake was the 12th round knockout.

I Feel Fine · Post by **I Feel Fine** » 18 Apr 2008, 16:48

Maybe I'm biased because Hopkins is my favorite active fighter, but I go with that one. He shined in pretty much every facet of boxing, he out did Trinidad in every way a fighter can be out done. The knock out was perfect.

Hopkins-Trinidad and Barrera-Hamed, along with a fight like Fullmer-Basilio are kind of similar because you had the pressure fighter turning into a boxer, out boxing and dominating their opponent. Its impressive when you see a fighter totally change their style like that. Leonard-Hearns was sort of like that, where both fighters had so much versatility that they could both change styles right in the middle of a fight.

This is more of a current scene discussion, but I'll just say that Calzaghe is 36 now, which was Hopkins' age in 2001. I think that's the main thing that people need to remember about this fight Saturday, that Hopkins is so much older. If they were both 36 I'd pick Hopkins to win all day long. I still think he can win tomorrow, so we'll see.

elmersalsa · Post by **elmersalsa** » 18 Apr 2008, 17:46

I gotta say Hopkins vs Tito fight. This guy shocked me by winning almost every round of that fight and then stopped him in the last round. I thought that Tito was gonna knock him out. :( :( :(

VoiceOnTV · Post by **VoiceOnTV** » 19 Apr 2008, 00:09

In retrospect it doesn't seem as shocking, but when Terry Norris destroyed John The Beast Mugabi it seemed fairly shocking. Specially the way he did it. Now it doesn't seem as big a deal. Norris turned out to be one of the best of his era.

Goodnight, Irene · Post by **Goodnight, Irene** » 19 Apr 2008, 00:15

Collins2000 wrote:None of those if you are going by shock value as much as brilliance.

I'd pick Honeyghan vs Curry. To get a feel, find some mags from just prior to that fight and see how highly Curry was rated by the pundits.

I was just referring to these particular fights.

What hurts Barrera-Hamed is that, unlike Barrera & Trinidad, Hamed was not, & is certainly no longer considered to be, with retrospect, a great fighter. Even so, Barrera completely changed his approach (which was actually the worse thing to happen to him, IMO. That fight against Hamed was his ultimate undoing), which has to be admired. It also doesn't help that of the three fights, Hamed was the only man to hear the final bell. Even so, this was a shockingly brilliant performance, though I consider it the least impressive of the three.

Hopkins-Trinidad benefits somewhat from being just about the biggest fight of the three from a hype & importance standpoint. What hurts it is Hopkins' obvious physical size advantage, & the fact that Trinidad's one major edge --- age --- was negated by Hopkins' ageless qualities. Even allowing for that, though, it was a career-defining performance for a record-breaking Middleweight champion, & as with Hamed against Barrera, the victory ruined the loser --- except that Hopkins ruined a genuine champion in terms of courage & personal drive, which cannot be said of Hamed.

The more I think of it, the more I begin to class Pacquiao-Barrera I as the best of the three. It's certainly better than Barrera-Hamed, &, IMO, just slightly shades Hopkins-Trinidad on account of the fact that Pacquiao didn't benefit from a substantial edge in size. Sans the deplorable knockdown call that went against him in the first, Pacquiao may well have won every round, & looked fantastic doing it, against a superb fighter. I did pick him to best Barrera, because of the way Barrera lost his head after boxing Hamed, but he totally destroyed Barrera, essentially shutting him out en route to the stoppage against a very tough customer. Barrera honestly looked like an amateur in there, such was Pacquiao's dominance.

Evander · Post by **Evander** » 11 May 2008, 20:34

Pacquiao v Barrera

Apart from the early knockdown.
Pacquiao dominated Barrera.

Diamond WEAPON · Post by **Diamond WEAPON** » 11 May 2008, 21:01

There are better fights than the choices you give. Out of those I'd say Pacman-Barrera. Only in retrospect it looks a lil less impressive considering their 2nd fight and the fact that his training camp was ruined for their first encounter, which put him at a greater disadvantage than he otherwise wouldve had. Hopkins on the other hand destroyed a prime Tito who wanted to take his head off after the way Hopkins dissed the PR flag...

More recently however I'd say Calzaghe-Lacy and Mijares-Arce are great candidates. Both guys absolutely bludgeoned and dominated their heavily favored high-powered opponents with remarkable showings of skill and speed.

Goodnight, Irene · Post by **Goodnight, Irene** » 11 May 2008, 23:11

To clarify, Weapon, I wasn't asking which was the biggest shocker period, or even of this decade...it was intended as being specific to these three fights.

Nice to see this thread revived, in a way. I was disappointed it didn't spark much interest.

Expug · Post by **Expug** » 11 May 2008, 23:15

I was impreesed with Barrera against Hamed.
It was an outstanding performance. Barrera boxed a bit and used some feints good footwork etc. He did much more than just bang .

Syntax Error · Post by **Syntax Error** » 12 May 2008, 07:24

It has to be Hopkins -v- Tito for me.

It was a complete performance against a monster of a fighter at that time.

theone · Post by **theone** » 12 May 2008, 09:24

Foreman vs Frazier

Not really that Foreman won, but how shockingly easy he did it.

Goodnight, Irene · Post by **Goodnight, Irene** » 12 May 2008, 09:28

theone wrote:Foreman vs Frazier

Not really that Foreman won, but how shockingly easy he did it.

It's just about these three fights.

Elton John · Post by **Elton John** » 12 May 2008, 20:12

For sheer brilliance which usually leads to dominance I have to go with the 1984 upset of the year Richard Sandoval over Jeff Chandler.

Nearky as brilliant was Gaby Canizales' knockout over Sandoval. His lethal combinations reminded me of a young Roy Jones as he wreaked havoc on the unsuspecting champion, lifting the title in a monumental upset by flailing him into a coma.

We must never forget Buster Douglas' miracle win over Tyson as a 42-1 underdog. I don't believe he lost a round up to the time it ended.

Lloyd Honeyghan's upset over Curry is yet another brilliant display of brutality. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Curry's head snap back taking blow after blow flush on the chin.

Terry Norris' dominance of Ray Leonard was nothing short of breathtaking as the man-boy taught the master a lesson, humbling him yet once more into retirement.

Hearns' two round KO of Duran and Pernell's "draw" with Chavez. Easy win over Pernell I thought.

Goodnight, Irene · Post by **Goodnight, Irene** » 12 May 2008, 20:21

Elton John wrote:For sheer brilliance which usually leads to dominance I have to go with the 1984 upset of the year Richard Sandoval over Jeff Chandler.

Nearky as brilliant was Gaby Canizales' knockout over Sandoval. His lethal combinations reminded me of a young Roy Jones as he wreaked havoc on the unsuspecting champion, lifting the title in a monumental upset by flailing him into a coma.

We must never forget Buster Douglas' miracle win over Tyson as a 42-1 underdog. I don't believe he lost a round up to the time it ended.

Lloyd Honeyghan's upset over Curry is yet another brilliant display of brutality. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Curry's head snap back taking blow after blow flush on the chin.

Terry Norris' dominance of Ray Leonard was nothing short of breathtaking as the man-boy taught the master a lesson, humbling him yet once more into retirement.

Hearns' two round KO of Duran and Pernell's "draw" with Chavez. Easy win over Pernell I thought.

It's just about these three fights, guys. A, B & C, not any fight through history.

Dentsun4228 · Post by **Dentsun4228** » 12 May 2008, 20:27

Goodnight, Irene wrote:A) Barrera-Hamed, 2001

B) Hopkins-Trinidad, 2001

C) Pacquiao-Barrera I, 2003

I picked Hamed, but that was only because I figured Barrera was going to come in like the baby faced assassin and try to go toe-to-toe. Instead he boxed, so I guess it was a shock...and he won.
- Hopkins was brilliant against tito, but that wasn't really a shock. We all knew Hops could fight. I mean at the time he had more defenses than any other middlewt and he had unified the title against holmes. It was really all a question of how he would hold up at his age...come to think of it that's STILL a question people are asking.
- Pac-Barrera was only a shock if you knew nothing about boxing. Fans who followed the lower weights picked Pac to win. It was obvious that he was a very fast, hard-hitting and dangerous guy. Barrera knew it too, even though he tried to play it down. Barrera was a big HBO creation and a lot of us knew it. I could see that beat-down coming a mile away.

My top candidates for this would be:
Ali- Liston I
SRL-Hagler

allworld80 · Post by **allworld80** » 12 May 2008, 21:04

Of those, I was stunned at what Pac did to Barrera. The HBO guys declared MAB fit for the pasture after the fight. And we all found out, it had way more to do with Pac tha Barrera.

Elton John · Post by **Elton John** » 13 May 2008, 04:53

Goodnight, Irene wrote:
Elton John wrote:For sheer brilliance which usually leads to dominance I have to go with the 1984 upset of the year Richard Sandoval over Jeff Chandler.

Nearky as brilliant was Gaby Canizales' knockout over Sandoval. His lethal combinations reminded me of a young Roy Jones as he wreaked havoc on the unsuspecting champion, lifting the title in a monumental upset by flailing him into a coma.

We must never forget Buster Douglas' miracle win over Tyson as a 42-1 underdog. I don't believe he lost a round up to the time it ended.

Lloyd Honeyghan's upset over Curry is yet another brilliant display of brutality. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Curry's head snap back taking blow after blow flush on the chin.

Terry Norris' dominance of Ray Leonard was nothing short of breathtaking as the man-boy taught the master a lesson, humbling him yet once more into retirement.

Hearns' two round KO of Duran and Pernell's "draw" with Chavez. Easy win over Pernell I thought.
It's just about these three fights, guys. A, B & C, not any fight through history.

Then I'd go with Hopkins-Trinidad

Ezzard · Post by **Ezzard** » 13 May 2008, 05:01

I'm shocked that Hopkins beating a welterweight is being heralded as such a great win.

My2Sense · Post by **My2Sense** » 04 Jun 2008, 17:58

I voted for Pacquiao-Barrera.

Hamed's flaws were always pretty obvious, and there was always a bit of question about Tito's flaws as well. Barrera was considered a more well rounded fighter than those two.

Conversely, most people generally agreed beforehand that Barrera and Hopkins were the best opponents that Hamed/Tito were about to face in their careers. Pacquiao was not yet considered on the level of Barrera's best opponents (although time has since proven him to be the best of them all). Not much yet had been proven about Pacquiao outside of his power. It wasn't too much earlier that he'd been made to look bad by Agapito Sanchez, and there was also some questions about his chin as well.

Also, I'd say Pacquiao fought the most aggressively out of all of them, while still being technically brilliant as well.