Historical Fights at 175

[Ezzard]

Beterbiev and Bivol fight soon. They are two of the best at the weight that I've seen since watching boxing for 40+ years. Their coming duel has huge significance. Two undeniably great fighters facing off.

What other era defining fights have we seen at this weight?

Recently we had Ward-Kovalev. Bith fights left a nasty taste for different reasons but were significant fights.

Spinks-Braxton was another.

Before that we had the series between Charles-Moore-Bivins-Johnson

And before that we had Tunney-Greb-Loughran-Gibbons

These all featured ATG v ATG.

Any others to throw into the mix?

[Expug]

Jimmy Braddock beats John Henry Lewis in 1934. Helps propel him to a shot at Baer. Defining fight for the Cinderella man prior to winning the big one

[bennie]

Mate Parlov's showdown with John Conteh was crunch time. Parlov had pulled off a huge shock to stop Argentina's feared Miguel Angel Cuello to win the WBC light-heavyweight title. Conteh once held the same title but was stripped for failing to fight Cuello. Conteh said the title was his. Parlov, a former Olympic champion, said the same.

[Fray Bentos]

Bob Foster vs Pierre Fourie, the first time a black fighter fought a white man in South Africa in a boxing ring. Certainly the first in a world title fight.

[Ezzard]

Jimmy Braddock beats John Henry Lewis in 1934. Helps propel him to a shot at Baer. Defining fight for the Cinderella man prior to winning the big one

That's a great one to pull back. JHL was a top fighter. Braddock went on to prove his worth.

[BroughtonRulesRefuge]

- George Gardner retired Marvin Hart, something Jack Johnson failed miserably at, and then KOed the 44-1-1 Jack Root for the first LH titles, ie the start of LH History 101.

Then the likely first ever P4P champ, the now 40yr old Bobby Fitz beat Gardner for his 3rd Division title:

Bob Fitzsimmons 168 lbs beat George Gardner 168 lbs by PTS in round 20 of 20
Date: 1903-11-25
Location: Mechanic's Pavilion, San Francisco, California, USA
Referee: Eddie Graney
World 170lbs Light Heavyweight Title

Fitzsimmons showed flashes of his skill, but while he hurt Gardner, he lacked the stamina to finish him. Still Fitzsimmons appears to have been a class above in terms of skill and cleverness

Newspaper report including a round by round description can be found here [1].

Whilst I admire Beter and Bivol as fighters, I almost feel like with Beter being just a few months short of 40 and becoming injury prone, it's not quite a fair fight, but all credit due to the fighting spirit of these guys who had to overcome much in their lives to get this far

[Ezzard]

- George Gardner retired Marvin Hart, something Jack Johnson failed miserably at, and then KOed the 44-1-1 Jack Root for the first LH titles, ie the start of LH History 101.

Then the likely first ever P4P champ, the now 40yr old Bobby Fitz beat Gardner for his 3rd Division title:

Bob Fitzsimmons 168 lbs beat George Gardner 168 lbs by PTS in round 20 of 20
Date: 1903-11-25
Location: Mechanic's Pavilion, San Francisco, California, USA
Referee: Eddie Graney
World 170lbs Light Heavyweight Title

Fitzsimmons showed flashes of his skill, but while he hurt Gardner, he lacked the stamina to finish him. Still Fitzsimmons appears to have been a class above in terms of skill and cleverness

Newspaper report including a round by round description can be found here [1].

Whilst I admire Beter and Bivol as fighters, I almost feel like with Beter being just a few months short of 40 and becoming injury prone, it's not quite a fair fight, but all credit due to the fighting spirit of these guys who had to overcome much in their lives to get this far

Another great shout! Fitz is so often overlooked.

[Ambling Alp II]

Many important ones have been mentioned. Here are some more:

Dillion-Levinsky
Tunney-Greb
Rosenbloom-Lewis
Mustapha Muhammad-Spinks

[Ezzard]

Beterbiev-Bivol is up there with Spinks-Braxton. I would say a bigger deal than Ward-Kov.

Both men have done it on foreign soil over and over.

[cfang]

It’s a huge fight. Great style contrast too. I was going to mention one of the 70s fights with conteh too. Greb Tunney also incredible lt heavy era.

[bennie]

I think you have to include Matthew Saad Muhammad's war with Marvin Johnson in 1979 in which Saad won the WBC light-heavyweight title. Saad racked up eight defences of the title, including an all-time great fight with Yaqui Lopez and a stunning one-punch demolition of Lottie Mwale. As for Johnson, he came back to win a second world title when he crushed Victor Galindez and then, many years later, picked up a third world title by stopping Leslie Stewart.

[Ezzard]

Mate Parlov's showdown with John Conteh was crunch time. Parlov had pulled off a huge shock to stop Argentina's feared Miguel Angel Cuello to win the WBC light-heavyweight title. Conteh once held the same title but was stripped for failing to fight Cuello. Conteh said the title was his. Parlov, a former Olympic champion, said the same.

That era created some fabulous sporting characters... John Conteh, Barry Sheen, Frank Worthington...

Life seems so much more serious today.

[keithmoonhangover]

Dariusz Michalczewski vs Virgil Hill for my money.

[Ezzard]

So who we got for saturday?

I can't see beyond Bivol. I think he's been the best p4p for some years now.

[elmersalsa]

Archie Moore vs Yvonne Durelle in Montreal in 1958. One of the greatest fights of the 1950s decade. One of the greatest fights ever!

Also, Moore fourth meeting with Harold Johnson in 1954. A true classic!

[Benny The Kid]

- George Gardner retired Marvin Hart, something Jack Johnson failed miserably at, and then KOed the 44-1-1 Jack Root for the first LH titles, ie the start of LH History 101.

Then the likely first ever P4P champ, the now 40yr old Bobby Fitz beat Gardner for his 3rd Division title:

Bob Fitzsimmons 168 lbs beat George Gardner 168 lbs by PTS in round 20 of 20
Date: 1903-11-25
Location: Mechanic's Pavilion, San Francisco, California, USA
Referee: Eddie Graney
World 170lbs Light Heavyweight Title

Fitzsimmons showed flashes of his skill, but while he hurt Gardner, he lacked the stamina to finish him. Still Fitzsimmons appears to have been a class above in terms of skill and cleverness

Newspaper report including a round by round description can be found here [1].

This newspaper is not quite accurate the reason Fitz failed to finish him off is because he hurt his hands which caused him problems often.

[keithmoonhangover]

So who we got for saturday?

I can't see beyond Bivol. I think he's been the best p4p for some years now.

Bivol for me too.

[Ezzard]

So who we got for saturday?

I can't see beyond Bivol. I think he's been the best p4p for some years now.

Bivol for me too.

We got a great fight. Two of the very best of any era. I thought Bivol nicked it. Maybe a draw. But it was extremely close.

Think we have to go back to Mike Spinks before either man finds an equal in the division.

Hope we get a rematch.

[keithmoonhangover]

So who we got for saturday?

I can't see beyond Bivol. I think he's been the best p4p for some years now.

Bivol for me too.

We got a great fight. Two of the very best of any era. I thought Bivol nicked it. Maybe a draw. But it was extremely close.

Think we have to go back to Mike Spinks before either man finds an equal in the division.

Hope we get a rematch.

I didn't score it properly and I was cheering for Bivol, so I was completely biased when the scores were read out. It was a close fight and Bivol slipped a lot of punches, but Beterbiev was landing damaging shots even though were blocks. A rematch would be great.