Which fighter...

[Counter-puncher]

Nigel Benn.

Barry McGuigan and him, for me.

[Foggy]

Mine is an odd one..........Corrie Sanders !!!

When he fought Wald i'd heard of the Klitschko name but didnt know anything about him or his bro. Seeing Sanders walk to the ring, i thought this guy aint no boxer..........suprise suprise he decks Wald in 2, from then i was hooked.

[Roars Like Me]

Hagler - I saw him take Minter out and thought he looks good.
There seemed to be a lot on telly (domestically and internationally) when I was growing up.
I remember lots of fighters, some were great and others were average but I liked them all the same.
Andries, Sibson, Curry, Honeygun, Mitchell, McGuigan, Holmes - there was a great fight on all the time it seemed, happy days indeed D

[stujones]

Hagler, McGuigan, Bruno and Tyson.

Remember watching a young Mike coming through before his challenge to Berbick - ITV did a few "highlight reel" docs with him (gosh, those were the days) and I hoping him and Bruno would never fight.

Curry and Hearns also..... Leonard was too stop starty for him to be the first I really appreciated. Although kept hearing my old man mentioning him - when I was getting excited for Curry fights and then for Honeyghun fights. I kept hearing him as being the "only" (at the time) man to beat Hearns - so I knew he was mustard.... and my old man kept saying - don't write off Leonard, he's lurking in the shadows.

Then when Leonard vs Hagler was announced - my gosh I was so excited.

[Chambers2]

Eubank and Benn originally. Audleys Gold medal in Sydney rejuvenated my interest in the sport and turned me into an Anorak

[Mooresy]

First of all, quite honestly, it was...

Rocky Balboa!

I loved the Rocky movies and decided to watch real boxing off the back of them. Compared to the movies, I was a bit disappointed at first, but then I was only 11 or 12.

Ha ha that was my thought's exactly when i seen the topic.
Then my Dad started me watching Tyson and Benn. Benn was the one for me though, loved his attitude and heart.

[m1kee50]

Lewis vs Tyson was the first fight I remember watching live, was a load of us come back from a club and we had already paid for it.... I was the only one out of us who got hooked on it tho! Saying that my old man was into it, and both my uncles fought unlicensed, so its a bit in the family as it were.

[black panther]

Sugar Shane Mosley. His first fight against ODLH and knockout wins over Adrian Stone and Shannon Taylor were something else. I was gutted when I watched him take a beating at the hands of Vernon Forrest.

[Mick the Mechanic]

Taffytoon's list is similar to mine + Aaron Pryor mainly just by reading about his fights.

[stujones]

Can I ask for the people who are saying McGuigan with the likes of Benn and Eubank - is this McGuigan's second career?

[Arnie]

Joe Louis

[gasman]

Barry McGuigan, Hugh Russell and Sugar Ray Leonard.

[josh k]

Muhammad Ali

I remember watching the 1996 Olympic games opening ceremony with my dad ( i was only 9) and he explained (in awe) who Ali was and what he done for boxing and the world in general. So i started reading all the Ali books i could find and watching any old Ali tapes as well as the big fights and fighters at the time (tyson, holyfield, DLH, Kostya tszyu etc). crazy about the sport ever since.

[Poncey]

Roberto Duran

[Carbo]

You know what's really weird? I've asked myself this question many times, but for some reason I can never find an answer, because I remember feeling obsessed with boxing for as long as I remember watching boxing. Even when there were hardly an fights on tv, and I'd hardly ever watched them, I always desperately wanted to watch them, and I was always far more interested in boxing than any of the boys I played football in the street with. It's, like, looking back, the first boxing I ever had knowledge of is Frank Bruno, but even then, I always remember feeling obsessed with it.

I have no idea why, or who or what got me hooked, because I watched the boxers that could have, Bruno first, then Eubank and Benn, already hooked. I already loved it before I watched my first fight -- kind of.

It's almost like I was obsessed with something before having a knowledge that that something actually existed.

Is that comprehensible?

The only way I can think of to describe it is to say that you are attracted to women, before you've old enough to be attracted to women (or men, if you're that way inclined).

The fight that really got me into women though was Frank Bruno - Tim Witherspoon.

Sorry, I realized I loved boxing when I kissed Catherine Moore... no, wait.

Have I just got myself confused there?

[Goz]

Bruno/Mcuigan from the UK and the best US fighters from the mid-eighties that used to get a lot of space in KO magazine - so Hagler, Holmes, Curry and then the coming of Tyson.