Underrated Great Fights

[gilgamesh]

We have the "Classic Fights You Think Suck" thread so I figured let's have a thread for Great fights that everyone seems to forget.

I'll start with Leonard Dorin vs Paul Spadafora from 2003 and Courtney Burton vs Ebo Elder from ShoBox in December 2004.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Mike Weaver vs Gerrie Coetzee.

[NazNaci1]

Wally Swift Jnr v Tony Collins

Ralf Rocchiagni v Carl 'The Cat' Thompson (First one).

[witherspoon]

Salvador Sanchez v Ruben Castillo

[AngryGoon38]

The two great wins of Jesse James Hughes in his bouts with Adrian Stone in 1994 and Anthony Stephans in 1995. The outlaw was a very exciting brawler with an iron jaw and nonstop tenacity.He tragically died in July of 1995,just three months shy of turning 30.Those two very notable wins are very worthy of the very underrated list of great bouts.

Jorge Castro's miraculous come from behind Ko over John David Jackson in 1994 was an incredible bout and greatly underrated amongst the great fights list.

[Goodnight, Irene]

Michael Katsidis' clashes with both Graham Earl & Joel Casamayor dont get their due. The Earl fight didnt have exposure outside the UK, while the Casamayor bout slipped between the cracks, sandwiched between mega-fights Pacquiao-Marquez II & Vazquez-Marquez III.

Also under-rated is Casamayor's maiden encounter with Diego Corrales. Fast, furious & frenetic.

[LeedsLad]

Casamayor vs Marquez was a really good fight.

Once Marquez started to time El Cepillo it became a tad one-sided but for the most part was a really good technical affair.

[NICARAGUAN NIGHTMARE]

Michael Katsidis' clashes with both Graham Earl & Joel Casamayor dont get their due. The Earl fight didnt have exposure outside the UK, while the Casamayor bout slipped between the cracks, sandwiched between mega-fights Pacquiao-Marquez II & Vazquez-Marquez III.

Also under-rated is Casamayor's maiden encounter with Diego Corrales. Fast, furious & frenetic.

casamayor has been in some ill fights yo good action fighter imo.

[Goodnight, Irene]

I disagree. Katsidis and Corrales were very exciting to watch, but Casamayor usually stunk the joint out.

[King Carlos]

Kevin Kelley had a bunch outside of just the Hamed fight. Dorsey, Gonzalez, and Gainer being the primary ones.

[Goodnight, Irene]

Tszyu-Hurtado never gets mentioned. Either does Hatton-Tszyu in this context. Tszyu and I think it was Pineda, had a great skirmish too.

[witherspoon]

Daniel Zarragoza and Paul Banke, second fight in particular.

[Goodnight, Irene]

Bowe-Golota II. Wow.

[Ezzard]

Don Lee v Tony Sibson

Never gets brought up much...

[Datsue]

Ricardo Lopez vs Rosendo Alvarez II. Mostly ignored because it proved, incontrovertibly, that Lopez was great.

After watching this, you can nail him for lacking ATG opposition, for not moving up in weight (though why that should be a problem confuses me, if he could make the weight easy, why move up?), you can nail him for never fighting Carbajal & Chiquita. I nod slowly & acknowledge all the above. But I defy you to watch this fight & not agree that the little bastard was actually great (in whatever reduced, diluted form of the word one cares to use). Blood everywhere, fouls aplenty, Lopez gives away half a stone & still boxes the ears off Alvarez.

[Counter-puncher]

Nishioka - Veeraphol 3

[Goodnight, Irene]

Ricardo Lopez vs Rosendo Alvarez II. Mostly ignored because it proved, incontrovertibly, that Lopez was great.

After watching this, you can nail him for lacking ATG opposition, for not moving up in weight (though why that should be a problem confuses me, if he could make the weight easy, why move up?), you can nail him for never fighting Carbajal & Chiquita. I nod slowly & acknowledge all the above. But I defy you to watch this fight & not agree that the little bastard was actually great (in whatever reduced, diluted form of the word one cares to use). Blood everywhere, fouls aplenty, Lopez gives away half a stone & still boxes the ears off Alvarez.

Lopez was fukking magical.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Ricardo Lopez vs Rosendo Alvarez II. Mostly ignored because it proved, incontrovertibly, that Lopez was great.

After watching this, you can nail him for lacking ATG opposition, for not moving up in weight (though why that should be a problem confuses me, if he could make the weight easy, why move up?), you can nail him for never fighting Carbajal & Chiquita. I nod slowly & acknowledge all the above. But I defy you to watch this fight & not agree that the little bastard was actually great (in whatever reduced, diluted form of the word one cares to use). Blood everywhere, fouls aplenty, Lopez gives away half a stone & still boxes the ears off Alvarez.

This is a great post.

[gilgamesh]

I haven't seen all of these fights, but there were some good shouts with Katsidis vs Casamayor, Casamayor vs Corrales 1, and Bowe-Golota II. I know I always had low expectations of the Bowe-Golota rematch thinking that the riot following the first fight was the most noteworthy event of their 2 fights, but the rematch is definitely an awesome slugfest and far better fight than the 1st one.

I've always wanted to see Jorge Castro vs John David Jackson too, and unfortunately I've never seen any Ricardo Lopez bouts but I'd definitely love to see as many as I could, because I always like to have extensive looks at great fighters.

[Brutu]

Vitali Klitschko vs Corrie Sanders.
(I dont even think HBO had even rated this as a candidate as a fight
of the year on their own network).

[dempseyfire]

Off the top of my head:

Larry Holmes vs Bonecrusher Smith

Charley Norkus-Danny Nardico I (or basically any fight Nardico was in, the guy was 100% all action everytime out)

Erik Morales-Jesus Chavez (maybe not a 'great' fight but amazing to see Chavez tear his rotator cuff after the first 2 rounds and remain fairly competitive throughout the fight, some great exchanges)

George Chuvalo-Doug Jones (unfortunataly like Norkus-Nardico I, only a silent copy remains, but just watch this and not have your jaw drop in amazement)

Zora Folley-Doug Jones II

Sinam Samil Sam-Luan Krasniqi (an evenly matched war . .funny that Krasniqi really tarnished his career by quitting once but then was involved in two great wars afterward with Sam and Lamon Brewster)

[dempseyfire]

Vitali Klitschko vs Corrie Sanders.
(I dont even think HBO had even rated this as a candidate as a fight
of the year on their own network).

Completly disagree. About 2 rounds of solid action, and the rest of the fight was a snoozefest with fat Sanders getting beat on and not throwing punches.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

I recall Sanders landing one or two big shots. If anything, that fight is overrated. I was quite bored after 3 rounds. An exhausted out of shape guy against a guy incapable of finishing him off.

[hhaehre]

Sinam Samil Sam-Luan Krasniqi (an evenly matched war . .funny that Krasniqi really tarnished his career by quitting once but then was involved in two great wars afterward with Sam and Lamon Brewster)

Good shout. Krasniqi was in many entertaining fights, a technically good boxer/puncher with a sub-par defense and a shaky chin.

[LeedsLad]

Bowe-Golota II. Wow.

Not a bad shout.

It was just naked courage from Bowe, against a man who ought to have been able to eat him for breakfast by that point.

I hate it when people say ''oh, he ducked Lewis like a bitch'' or ''Golota hammered him'' - well, the Lewis point is probably fair enough, but it was Bowe's ability to stay in the Golota fights that forced the nutter to basically quit/foul himself out.