Overrated and Underrated Big Fights?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Overrated - have a higher opinion of (someone or something) than is deserved.

Morales vs. Barrera III
Gatti vs. Ward
Corrales vs. Castillo
Tyson vs. Holyfield I
Lewis vs. Vitali Klitschko

Underrated - underestimate the extent, value, or importance of (someone or something).

Bowe vs. Golota II
Toney vs. Nunn
Ibeabuchi vs. Tua

Trying to think outside the box..

[gilgamesh]

I don't agree with any of your overrated, but I do agree that Bowe vs Golota 2 is a very underrated scrap. Really fun fight. I got the ultimate in overrated

Overrated

Hagler vs Hearns

Underrated

Leonard Dorin vs Paul Spadafora
Tim Austin vs Adan Vargas (Tim's last successful title defense, was a pretty fun fight, and the undercard to a very boring John Ruiz bout)
Teddy Reid vs Elio Ortiz
Ebo Elder vs Courtney Burton

I guess those last two weren't "Big Fights" necessarily, but they're fun.

[oogiebe]

Underrated:
Holmes/Norton (my all time underrated fight and the 15th round my all time underrated round)
Mancini/Arguello
Castillo/Olivares 1 (OMG! Non-stop!)
Gatti/Ward I


Overrated:
Ali/Frazier II (holding and grabbing for 12 rounds)
Hagler/Leanard (the fight itself sucked)
Gatti/Ward II

I'm sure there's many more.

[gilgamesh]

A really wild, and fun one that's kinda forgotten is Charles Brewer vs Antwun Echols. That's a wild 3 rounds.

[oogiebe]

A really wild, and fun one that's kinda forgotten is Charles Brewer vs Antwun Echols. That's a wild 3 rounds.

Wasn't that a weird stoppage? Echols getting knocked down several times and Brewer still on his feet when the fight was stopped?

[oogiebe]

Underrated:
Lampkins/Duran (Lampkin held his own for much of the fight and was KTFO by a from the heel left hook)
Soo-Hwan Hong/Alfonso Zamora (gritty fight; close; action packed; Zamora was a winger who got poleaxed by Zarate)

[gilgamesh]

A really wild, and fun one that's kinda forgotten is Charles Brewer vs Antwun Echols. That's a wild 3 rounds.

Wasn't that a weird stoppage? Echols getting knocked down several times and Brewer still on his feet when the fight was stopped?

Yeah it was

[oogiebe]

A really wild, and fun one that's kinda forgotten is Charles Brewer vs Antwun Echols. That's a wild 3 rounds.

Wasn't that a weird stoppage? Echols getting knocked down several times and Brewer still on his feet when the fight was stopped?

Yeah it was

I actually just youtubed it. INSANE! The fight was "all over the place." Horrible stoppage though.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Hagler vs Hearns

I was actually gonna say that myself.. that and Hagler vs. Leonard.

[oogiebe]

Hagler vs Hearns

I was actually gonna say that myself.. that and Hagler vs. Leonard.

Hagler Hearns was a great fight, but it magically became a legendary fight and I agree, it just wasn't. I listed Hagler Leanard earlier as overrated. I never watched it a second time.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Hagler vs Hearns

I was actually gonna say that myself.. that and Hagler vs. Leonard.

Hagler Hearns was a great fight, but it magically became a legendary fight and I agree, it just wasn't. I listed Hagler Leanard earlier as overrated. I never watched it a second time.

Was that partially due to the result as well?

[BitPlayer]

I watched the Patterson-Johansson trilogy recently, I think that doesn't get enough love.

[oogiebe]

I was actually gonna say that myself.. that and Hagler vs. Leonard.

Hagler Hearns was a great fight, but it magically became a legendary fight and I agree, it just wasn't. I listed Hagler Leanard earlier as overrated. I never watched it a second time.

Was that partially due to the result as well?

Now that you mention it I'd have to say yes to a lesser extent. SRL stole rounds by fighting hard only the last 30 seconds. It wasn't particularly exciting. I think people were just impressed that a likely Hagler KO didn't happen and time has added on layers of greatness to the fight that really weren't there.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Hagler Hearns was a great fight, but it magically became a legendary fight and I agree, it just wasn't. I listed Hagler Leanard earlier as overrated. I never watched it a second time.

Was that partially due to the result as well?

Now that you mention it I'd have to say yes to a lesser extent. SRL stole rounds by fighting hard only the last 30 seconds. It wasn't particularly exciting. I think people were just impressed that a likely Hagler KO didn't happen and time has added on layers of greatness to the fight that really weren't there.

Kinda like GGG vs. Canelo then GGG, the known KO artist, failing to KO Canelo. A victim of his own success.

[oogiebe]

Was that partially due to the result as well?

Now that you mention it I'd have to say yes to a lesser extent. SRL stole rounds by fighting hard only the last 30 seconds. It wasn't particularly exciting. I think people were just impressed that a likely Hagler KO didn't happen and time has added on layers of greatness to the fight that really weren't there.

Kinda like GGG vs. Canelo then GGG, the known KO artist, failing to KO Canelo. A victim of his own success.

Nah, at the time, it was SRL coming out of retirement; moving up in weight; and fighting an ATG middleweight. We were mostly non-believers. I give him credit but think he lost the fight. The fight itself was one where you can watch one round and pretty much you saw the fight. It just never really developed. I think SRL got into Hagler's head.

Regarding the comp to GGG v. Canelo, I had no expectations that GGG would KO Canelo. I really thought it'd be a close fight. I would like to see a third! PS: Thought GGG won first one and lost rematch.

[chrisjs1985]

I watched the Patterson-Johansson trilogy recently, I think that doesn't get enough love.

I agree, I think the third fight was a legitimately great fight with an incredible opening round. The first fight had a dramatic result, the re-match was a great re-match win and brutal all-time great KO and the third was a classic. Very underrated series.

[chrisjs1985]

Overrated

Ali-Foreman
Leonard-Hagler
Gatti-Ward II & III
De La Hoya-Quartey (2 good rounds, 10 boring rounds)

Underrated

There's so many. Toney-Jirov not being the fight of the year in 2003 and doesn't get the press it deserved. I agree with Bowe-Golota II being underrated. That's one of my favorite heavyweight bouts of all-time. Olivares-Kanazawa II is really crazy stuff but even the hardcore don't mention it as a classic fight.

[oogiebe]

Overrated

Ali-Foreman
Leonard-Hagler
Gatti-Ward II & III
De La Hoya-Quartey (2 good rounds, 10 boring rounds)

Underrated

There's so many. Toney-Jirov not being the fight of the year in 2003 and doesn't get the press it deserved. I agree with Bowe-Golota II being underrated. That's one of my favorite heavyweight bouts of all-time. Olivares-Kanazawa II is really crazy stuff but even the hardcore don't mention it as a classic fight.

Yeah in some ways Ali/Foreman was repetitious until the KO. I had Leanard/Hagler as well. Gotti/Ward II can never be overrated! I had Olivares/Chacon I over Olivares/Kanazawa II as underrated but I'll take that one too! A lot of fireworks and for the championship so it had that as well!

[chrisjs1985]

Overrated

Ali-Foreman
Leonard-Hagler
Gatti-Ward II & III
De La Hoya-Quartey (2 good rounds, 10 boring rounds)

Underrated

There's so many. Toney-Jirov not being the fight of the year in 2003 and doesn't get the press it deserved. I agree with Bowe-Golota II being underrated. That's one of my favorite heavyweight bouts of all-time. Olivares-Kanazawa II is really crazy stuff but even the hardcore don't mention it as a classic fight.

Yeah in some ways Ali/Foreman was repetitious until the KO. I had Leanard/Hagler as well. Gotti/Ward II can never be overrated! I had Olivares/Chacon I over Olivares/Kanazawa II as underrated but I'll take that one too! A lot of fireworks and for the championship so it had that as well!

You mean Olivares-Castillo I? I thought that was a great fight as was the return. Too bad there doesn't appear to be film of the third one out there but I heard that was more of a clinic by Olivares.

Olivares-Chacon were also good too especially the first but those fights were a lot more one sided.

[oogiebe]

Overrated

Ali-Foreman
Leonard-Hagler
Gatti-Ward II & III
De La Hoya-Quartey (2 good rounds, 10 boring rounds)

Underrated

There's so many. Toney-Jirov not being the fight of the year in 2003 and doesn't get the press it deserved. I agree with Bowe-Golota II being underrated. That's one of my favorite heavyweight bouts of all-time. Olivares-Kanazawa II is really crazy stuff but even the hardcore don't mention it as a classic fight.

Yeah in some ways Ali/Foreman was repetitious until the KO. I had Leanard/Hagler as well. Gotti/Ward II can never be overrated! I had Olivares/Chacon I over Olivares/Kanazawa II as underrated but I'll take that one too! A lot of fireworks and for the championship so it had that as well!

You mean Olivares-Castillo I? I thought that was a great fight as was the return. Too bad there doesn't appear to be film of the third one out there but I heard that was more of a clinic by Olivares.

Olivares-Chacon were also good too especially the first but those fights were a lot more one sided.

I probably mentioned Olivares/Castillo in a previous post as well. He was in some real wars.

[sweetsci]

Judging by some of the responses, I'm gathering that people are looking at Overrated / Underrated as in re-watch value. As we know, some fights are highly anticipated and tremendously exciting live, but once they're over you don't really want to watch them again.

But how about big fights that delivered and big fights that didn't? Maybe that's a different thread.

That said, judging by responses in this thread, I'd say that Hagler-Hearns is now underrated. At the time, the upcoming Hagler-Hearns match was what everyone was talking about. It was a big deal. And it delivered! Nobody was saying afterward, "Man... I expected so much more from this fight." People were talking about it for days afterward, and obviously we're still talking about it.

Perhaps it's a case of the passage of time changing our perspective. When I read that Patterson-Johansson III or Bowe-Golota II are underrated, I think, "Those are great fights! Who ever said they weren't!?!" Maybe they become underrated because people aren't talking about them all the time. And maybe Hagler-Hearns is overrated because we haven't stopped talking about it. Like, "there are other great fights, y'know."

Just rambling, I guess...

[DrDuke]

It's tough to judge on the overrated. Probably Gatti-Ward is worth mentioning, but not because it was bad or something like that. It was a decent scrap, a display of huge hearts and guts, but not a great display of boxing skills. However, the same can be said about Foreman-Lyle, but I rate it as a true masterpiece.

And some are really underrated, here it's easier to say. Patterson-Johansson trilogy was mentioned not without a reason, I agree. I'd also name the likes of Holmes-Witherspoon, Quarry-Foster, Golota-Byrd.

[elmersalsa]

Underrated:
Marco Antonio Barrera vs Kennedy McKinney
Marvin Hagler vs Vito Antuofermo I
GGG vs Canelo II
Riddick Bowe vs Evander Holyfield II and III
Kid Gavilan vs Gil Turner
Bruce Curry vs Monroe Brooks
Fighting Harada vs Eder Jofre I and I

Overrated:
Marco Antonio Barrera vs Naseem Hamed
Lennox Lewis vs Evander Holyfield I and II
Floyd Mayweather, Jr vs Shane Mosley
Floyd Mayweather, Jr vs Manny Pacquiao
Roy Jones, Jr vs James Toney

[Syntax Error]

Underrated:

Michael Moorer V Bert Cooper.

[Ruthless-RKO]

I think Hearn overrates a lot of fights.. I know he's gotta promote, but a lot of people listen to him and think he's telling the truth.

He called Groves-Froch II the biggest domestic fight ever..

The fight itself was good, not exactly over or underrated, but it's what get's said about fights.

The Ring voted it event of the year though.