BoxRec

There has been quite a few threads on here in the past about the most vicious KO's you've seen, but what about the best 12 (or 15) rounder? I couldn't really care less about seeing brutal knockouts these days, and have come to appreciate good technical fights more and more. A lot of you may feel the same, and therefore will probably have a favourite or two.

They don't have to be explosive Gatti-Ward type slugfests (though if that's what you like put it down), just fights that feature good boxing skills with little clinching.

My favourite distance fight of recent times is Hopkins - Trinidad. I must have watched this one over 100 times in the past 6 months alone. There is very little punch output in the fight, and maybe this is why every time I watch it I can still feel the tension. I love watching Hopkins take him apart so coolly and with such patient skill, even though Trinidad is one of my favourite fighters to watch.

Obviously a distance fight doesn't have to be on the world stage to be good (Booth - Robinson was a cracker this year). So what is your favourite distance fight? Can be from any era.

Wilfredo Gomez against Lupe Pintor in 1982. Gomez, his face badly swollen, finally found the key to victory in the 14th round with body shots.

Best fights that went the distance..........

Holmes W15 Norton
Frazier W15 Ali
Morales W12 Barrera


There must be more....

I've got plenty of favourite distance fights, recently though, Marquez vs Pacquiao was as good a fight as your likely to see. It had something of everything.

I'll just name a few fairly recent others:

Colin Dunne vs Billy Schwer

Spinks vs Mayorga (a masterclass in how to deal with such an awkward opponent)

Lewis vs Tua (if you want to know how to beat up a dwarf, this is the fight for you)

Morales vs Barrera

bennie wrote:Wilfredo Gomez against Lupe Pintor in 1982. Gomez, his face badly swollen, finally found the key to victory in the 14th round with body shots.

Kerching! Got this one on tape. Pintor is bossing the fight throughout, but gets broken down in a brutal encounter.

Matthew Saad Muhammed v Yaqui Lopez, another cracker.

Holmes v Norton

Marciano v Ezzard Charles (both fights went a long time, one the distance)
Marciano v Walcott
Joe Louis v Billy Conn 1
Hagler v Mugabi
Leonard v Hearns I
Duran v Barclay (spelling?)
Hagler v Duran
Duran v Benitez
Leonard v Benitez

A good one I saw for the first time only recently, and that's worth a watch, was Spinks - Judah. Two slippery southpaws putting up a real clean fight. Spinks is noticeably bigger than Judah but no way would I say he dwarfs him. Many of the rounds are very close with both fighters landing cleanly and picking off there shots with classy precision. Both go down, but Judah's is only a flash knockdown, whereas Spinks is genuinely hurt in the last seconds of the 12th. Would have been high drama watching this live!

Holyfield vs bowe 1 and 2

The old favourite, Weaver v Tate.

Tua versus Ibeabuchi. Fcking awesome

Wish I had that on tape.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Wish I had that on tape.

If you're referring to Tua v Ike I'm sure some of it is available at

http://www.BS.com/index.php

Just need to sign up - no fee.

Sorry to nitpick, but the original post did say fights that went the distance, and there are bunch up there that, although great, didn't. (Including Hopkins/Trinidad as cited by the thread starter.)

Here are a few form the past 25 years that spring to my mind which haven't been mentioned yet and which are not Ring Fights of the Year, in order of descending weight, down to 135 (I admit I simply don't follow the sub-lightweights that closely):

Holmes/Spinks 1 & 2
Holyfield/Bowe 2 (1st fight was '92 Ring FOY)
Holyfield/Lewis 2
Holyfield/Qawi 1
Toney/Jirov
Spinks/Qawi
Jones/Tarver 1
Jones/Toney
Toney/McCallum 1 & 2
De La Hoya/Quartey
De La Hoya/Whitaker
Mosley/Forrest 1 & 2
Chavez/Whitaker (despite the horrible official decision)
Chavez/Randall 1
Haugen/Pazienza 1-3

And you can take your pick of pretty much any of the Ring FOYs that went the distance:

http://boxing.about.com/library/bl_ring_fight.htm

Tua - Ike went the distance. Set the record for most punches ever thrown in a heavyweight bout, beating the previous record, which was a 15 rounder...

Missus is away this week so I've watched it twice since Sunday. Tomorrow, I plan on getting a life.

Odd choice, I know but I still love watching the two Colin Jones/Milt McCrory fights.

He definitely won the first one although it was called a draw. Definitely lost the rematch though

Slapsie

Some excellent posts here. And, Slapsie Maxie, that's a very good choice. One of the reasons I started this thread was to see if we could dig up some gems from the past that may be overlooked now, and that I can order on tape. Got a few marked down already. 8)

I know it wasn't that exciting a bout, but I really enjoyed Wright/Mosley. It was the first time I had seen Winky and it was brilliant to see someone in this day and age with such incredible boxing skills. Winky = P4P #1!

Roberta Duran v Kirkland Laing (10 rounds)

Duran v Leonard 1 - has to be top 5

Ibeabuchi v Tua was okay but there's been far better heavyweight fights. For all the shots Ike threw he could never hurt the little Samoan.

How did Ibeabuchi go off the rails so badly? In his post fight interview after the Tua fight he came across as such a big softie, going on about Jesus and all that. I thought at the time they might struggle to market him with that kind of personality. Next thing I know he's the "new Sonny Liston" with a big frown on his face.