BoxRec

I want to be precise, i dont talk about only ppv or only audience attendance or only big name vs big name or only action packed fight.

what i mean, when i say biggest fight so far, is "everything included", meaning attendance, hype, media (tv, newspapers etc), people talking about it in the streets, other extra things involving the fight, like nations fighting each other like in WW II or hype srrounding the boxer, like when Tyson used to fight, everybody from USA to Europe too Asia, everybody knew Mike Tyson, that is very very rare for boxer, even Floyd isn't much known outside the US, rarely people in germany, england or france know him, but when Tyson used to box, most people knew him, even people who would normaly watch other sports. and most importantly did the fight than deliver the anticipation!!! that is the reason why I do not put fights like Holyfield vs Tyson II or Mayweather vs Canelo into discussion, because one fight ended way to quickly with a crap end and the other was just semi boring.

Ali ko Foreman was the greatest moment in sporting history, but Ali-Frazier fights were probably more anticipated.

No sports person ever has been, or ever will be, as big time as Muhammad Ali. He transcends sport, his fame as champion was beyond that of sportsperson. He was the most famous man on the planet, more household than presidents and is now a figure in keeping with Nelson Mandela or Elvis Pressely. Even placing on a list including "delahoya vs mosley" I personally find insulting.

Ali - Frazier !
Louis - Schmeling II
Johnson - Jeffries

But, there are quite a few right answers to this one. Heck, Holmes-Cooney was quite the event.

Surely the Rumble is the most known and the most re-lived?

I'm not sure how you could have left off the obvious answer. Ali-Frazier was not just arguably the most significant fight in history, but was also a major world event, unlike any other boxing event.

fergusg wrote:I think “The Rumble in the Jungle” and the “Fight of the Century” were two of the most historically significant fights in the history of the sport, but I’m not so sure (at the time) that it had anywhere near the exposure from the media that the Mayweather Jr. & Pacquiao super-fight is currently receiving… and I think that this is because of the modern technology that wasn’t around in the early to mid-seventies.

I suspect that hundreds of millions of people have watched both the “The Rumble in the Jungle” and the “Fight of the Century” in the thirty years or so since those bouts took place, but at the time, they probably didn’t gain anywhere near the pure volume of exposure from the media that the May 2nd super-fight will receive.

I was in Jr HS when the FOTC took place and there is no way Mayweather-Pac is getting the same attention that Frazier-Ali got back then. Just about everybody knew Ali and Frazier and just about every male followed boxing then. Boxing is now a marginal sport and while there are more types of media now, outside of boxing neither of these guys has the attention of the world the way that Ali and Frazier had for the FOTC. Just about everybody knew about the FOTC during the buildup, but if you ask the average person outside of boxing, most people don’t know anything about the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. The FOTC garnered headlines in all major newspapers, and all major media had endless stories about the fight before it took place. And when the May-Pac fight actually takes place, it will NOT get headline attention in major news sources.

As sad as it is, outside of my ever shrinking circle of boxing friends it’s pretty hard to find anyone who even knows about this fight. It’s hard to understand just how much attention the FOTC got worldwide unless you lived through it, and clearly there are very few on here who were boxing fans then or there would be no one voting for anything else.

The Great John L wrote:

fergusg wrote:I think “The Rumble in the Jungle” and the “Fight of the Century” were two of the most historically significant fights in the history of the sport, but I’m not so sure (at the time) that it had anywhere near the exposure from the media that the Mayweather Jr. & Pacquiao super-fight is currently receiving… and I think that this is because of the modern technology that wasn’t around in the early to mid-seventies.

I suspect that hundreds of millions of people have watched both the “The Rumble in the Jungle” and the “Fight of the Century” in the thirty years or so since those bouts took place, but at the time, they probably didn’t gain anywhere near the pure volume of exposure from the media that the May 2nd super-fight will receive.

I was in Jr HS when the FOTC took place and there is no way Mayweather-Pac is getting the same attention that Frazier-Ali got back then. Just about everybody knew Ali and Frazier and just about every male followed boxing then. Boxing is now a marginal sport and while there are more types of media now, outside of boxing neither of these guys has the attention of the world the way that Ali and Frazier had for the FOTC. Just about everybody knew about the FOTC during the buildup, but if you ask the average person outside of boxing, most people don’t know anything about the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. The FOTC garnered headlines in all major newspapers, and all major media had endless stories about the fight before it took place. And when the May-Pac fight actually takes place, it will NOT get headline attention in major news sources.

As sad as it is, outside of my ever shrinking circle of boxing friends it’s pretty hard to find anyone who even knows about this fight. It’s hard to understand just how much attention the FOTC got worldwide unless you lived through it, and clearly there are very few on here who were boxing fans then or there would be no one voting for anything else.

This. Boxing no longer has the demographic/cultural reach it once had, it's that simple. But the powers that be have found a small bunch of mugs (us) is willing to pay stupid money to still watch, & we create enough noise that occasionally normal people take notice.

Therefore, in terms of loudness & empty ringing bullshit, this will be the biggest (ugh) "event" ever. But the most popular? No fvcking way.

The fact that they can rinse us for so much money is exactly what makes this fight media-worthy; a lot of people stand to make a metric fornicate-tonne of money, so of course it'll be cross-media plugged, that's the way the environment of Late Captalism works, in an endless feedback loop of spectacle (both in its concrete & diffuse forms) & hooplah.

Libertarians & crazed US right-wingers should both be happy: boxing as it is now, with less people watching it than ever & more money being made by fewer people than ever, is like some sort of paranoid science fiction reductio ad absurdum of Capitalism when no regulation or safeguards are in place.

The only people being hurt are the boxers & us--them in their brains, us in our wallets. Everyone else gets to print money. Of course they're gonna make it the biggest thing ever.

Did none of you ever stop to think about boxing's business model? How fighters who don't draw (what'd Berto do in his hometown in that WBC defence? Was it 900 paying punters?) make shitloads of money despite the fact that no-one likes them, no-one will pay to see them & nobody cares about them?

SMH.

Just to repeat myself for the hard of thinking in attendance: In terms of loudness & empty ringing bullshit, if you like media visibility, this will be the biggest (ugh) "event" ever.

But the most popular? No fvcking way. Those days have gone.

The Great John L wrote:I'm not sure how you could have left off the obvious answer. Ali-Frazier was not just arguably the most significant fight in history, but was also a major world event, unlike any other boxing event.

Because of Ali's situation, that's was probably the first time in history where there were two undefeated heavyweight champs who fought each other at a time when there was only one recognized title.

Louis vs Schmelling were huge fights at the time, but for political reasons more than anything, given Louis' skin colour and the growing tension between the US and Germany at the time.

Surprised no mention of Holmes Cooney.
They turned it into a race war in the 80's. Ronald Reagan called Cooney.

Louis-Schmeling 2
Frazier-Ali 1
Ali-Quarry 1

I think should be choices. Us old fogies remember Frazier-Ali as the fight of the century. I was only about 10 but it was huge.

Louis-Schmeling 2 was basically WW2.

And Ali-Quarry was underrated in importance as Ali comes back from a 3 year layoff to fight a white guy in Georgia with FBI and GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) snipers on the roofs looking for alleged trouble between the KKK and black Muslims. That's quite intense.

Ricky_ wrote:Ali ko Foreman was the greatest moment in sporting history, but Ali-Frazier fights were probably more anticipated.

No sports person ever has been, or ever will be, as big time as Muhammad Ali. He transcends sport, his fame as champion was beyond that of sportsperson. He was the most famous man on the planet, more household than presidents and is now a figure in keeping with Nelson Mandela or Elvis Pressely. Even placing on a list including "delahoya vs mosley" I personally find insulting.

ali frazier was more anticipated, although foreman was like the most dominant force at that time, beating up frazier and anybody and coming in as the favourite in the ring against the great ali...interresting, but you could be wrong, i am not that old, maybe you are much older than me and you witneessed the 60 and 70's....

jas80s wrote:Ali - Frazier !
Louis - Schmeling II
Johnson - Jeffries

I agree with these three and I'd also toss in Dempsey Carpentier

verballistic wrote:

The Great John L wrote:I'm not sure how you could have left off the obvious answer. Ali-Frazier was not just arguably the most significant fight in history, but was also a major world event, unlike any other boxing event.

Agreed...Ali-Frazier I was the biggest fight so far, especially since the socio-political significance was global & beyond sports because of Ali's politics and 3-year suspension from the sport. I cant believe the guy who started this thread didnt have Ali-Frazier I even listed (must have been born after that). But I honestly believe Pac-Mayweather has the chance to rival that in global significance since Pac is Asian (with a truly global fanbase) & Floyd American plus electronic media penetrates the whole planet far more than 40+ years ago.

Boxing was more of a mainstream sport back then, but I believe there are already signs that boxers can return to being household names & Pac-Floyd is clearly going to help that process along.

i think it has something to do with "the total package" of 1 boxer.

for example mike tyson, he was the total package. while floyd wins all his fight and his outside bravado is interresting for fans, there is one big thing missing, its simply that he is boring and doesnt finish fights. that is what i mean by total package - dominant, be an interresting character, give action and finish in an extrordinary fashion. mike was all that and more.

thats why i hope we get new exciting boxers, with a litle extra. we got some interresting guys, but only in lower weights and people are most atrated to heavyweight division. wilder brings action, but the dude seems as dumb as dumb.

[quote="IKSRTFO"][quote="The Great John L"]I'm no

Even those that new nothing about boxing was hyped for 'the Fight of the Century'

In terms of literally being the biggest event in the world at the time, Johnson-Jefferies was definitely the biggest. You had like non-stop 6 month coverage of the fight in every major newspaper; everyone talked about it.

The other biggest have been the Louis-Schmeling rematch and the first Ali-Frazier bout. All three of those won't make the money Floyd-Pac will but they were bigger fights in the public mind.

It depends on how you are measuring it. Fan excitement? Dollars & cents? Audience? Hindsight of its impact for the sport?

For me I'd just go by dollars & cents cuz I wasn't around for John L. Sullivan vs James J. Corbett & I never saw a Ali fight live & I think I only saw Sugar Ray live from Hagler forward so its tough to impossible to measure most of these options. So for me Oscar De La Hoya vs Floyd Mayweather is the biggest boxing event.

Johnson -v- Jefferies but in the last 50 years, definitely Frazier -v- Ali 1.

It's unlikely we will ever see two undefeated ATGs, both with legitimate claims to the HW crown, battling it out to see who is the 'man'.

Lewis vs Klitschko, two best heavyweight boxers ever.

franio wrote:Lewis vs Klitschko, two best heavyweight boxers ever.

yeah, they might be the best ever. but it wasnt the biggest event so far.

but the action was better than ali-foreman and others, thats for sure.

Sanchez v Gomez

palooka wrote:Sanchez v Gomez

Ali vs Frazier I.
Most who were around then can still recite the exact date of the bout...March 8, 1971.
How many other fights have that unreal, unforgettable aura?

It was the most anticipated sporting event in history and remains that way still.
Ringside seats went for an unheard of $150. Sinatra shot photos at ringside

Both fighters appeared on the covers of Newsweek and Time when those magazines were the media.
"The $5 Million Fighters," Time breathlessly tagged them.

The entire world stopped and watched that night for one hour.
It's doubtful Mayweather and Pacquiao will elicit that type of fevered response.

I would have to say FOREMAN V ALI would have blown any PPV records out of the water
winning the heavyweight tittle for the second time tens years after beating Liston.
BEFORE THE FIGHT ALI SAID IT BE FITTING THAT HE GO OUT OF BOXING JUST LIKE I CAME IN BY BEATING A BIG BAD UGLY MONSTER THAT NOBODY COULD BEAT...........
But of course he didn't stop their he even went onto be in one corner in the THRILLER IN MANILLA............ ANOTHER HUGE EVENT..............