BoxRec

1. Jack Dempsey vs. Luis Angel Firpo
2. Aaron Pryor vs. Alexis Arguello II
3. Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier III
4. Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns
5. Rocky Marciano vs. Joe Walcott I
6. Stanley Ketchel vs. Jack O'Brien I
7. Joe Gans vs. Battling Nelson I
8. Joe Louis vs. Billy Conn
9. Benny Leonard vs. Lew Tendler I
10. Rocky Graziano vs. Tony Zale II

I got these out of a book called The Boxing Companion and I agree with most of these, but how could you rank fights with Joe Gans in the top 10 when few people have even seen it, especially when there are memorable fights that could easily be placed in the top 10 such as Leonard-Hearns.

Arguello v Pryor I was better than the second fight. That must be a typo.

I honestly believe that unless you lived through the period of the fight it can never have the same impact upon you. The build up, the anticipation, the speculation all play their part.

There is a small margin. When I first became a boxing fan and was finding out about the characters and classic fights there were a few which had only been fought a few years before and not having the results they had a big imapct on me.

1) Matthew Saad Muhammad -v- Yaqui Lopez 2 (1980)

2) Sugar Ray Leonard -v- Tommy Hearns 1 (1981)

I'll have to get back to you with 3 - 8.

I know they are very recent and 3 of the 4 fighters are still active but Gatti Ward I and Castillo Corrales I should be mentioned. Im not saying that they are top 10 of all time but you know what I mean.

Pryor - Arguello (2)?????????????

That was a one-sided beating.

Chacon-Limon 4

Barrera-Morales (pick one)

In no order but here's what I can think of off the top

1) Saad-Lopez II

2) Hagler-Hearns (obvious choice)

3) Foreman-Lyle

4) Louis-Conn

5) Frazier-Ali I

6) Barrera-Morales I (still the best of the 3)

7) Ward-Augustus

8) Williams-Jack

9) Chuvalo-Patterson

10) Pryor-Johnson

Others that could be in there-Ward-Gatti I, Frazier-Ali III, Benn-Eubanks I

Where is Castillo vs Corrales I
Gomez vs. Pintor

Any fight involving Cornelius "Boza"Edwards. Danny "Little Red" Lopez Mike Ayala was a great fight. I would also rate John "The Beast Muguibi vs James "Hard Rock" Green way up there.

el tigre del sur wrote:Arguello v Pryor I was better than the second fight. That must be a typo.

Nope...that's what the book says and it goes into detail about the fights. I know nothing about Joe Gans at all, but the fight sounded like it was intense. It went 42 rounds when Nelson finally threw an intentional low blow that dropped Gans. While the ref started to count he decided to disqualify Nelson.

I couldn't imagine fighting for 42 rounds. The average punches per round must have been ridiculously low after the 15th round.

Decagon wrote:

AndreWardFan2006 wrote:The average punches per round must have been ridiculously low after the 15th round.

Sometimes, the fighters simply wouldn't engage for the first two-and-a-half minutes, so that if they got into trouble, there wasn't enough time for the other to finish them. The better 40-round fights weren't like this.

That would make sense I guess...don't empty the tank early. But still 42 rounds...damn

Pryor vs Arguello I
Hearns vs Hagler
Ali vs Frazier I
Coetzee vs Weaver
Foreman vs Lyle
Ali vs Frazier III
Benn vs McClelan
Leanord vs Hearns
Hagler vs Mugabi
Rahman vs Lewis I

I have a good hour and 14 mins of it, the fight started off fast with lots of punching, but than it turn more into a werstling match and lots of cliching and infighting. Gans was getting the better as the fight went on, and no, they were not thowing one punch at a time, but were keeping up a pretty high punch out put, even in thsos late rounds.

It was a great fight, I have it in the top ten easy. maybe top 5. I was impress with both fighters on the old crank film.

Syntax Error wrote:1) Matthew Saad Muhammad -v- Yaqui Lopez 2 (1980)

2) Sugar Ray Leonard -v- Tommy Hearns 1 (1981)

I'll have to get back to you with 3 - 8.

Here's my 3 - 8:-

3 - Marvin Hagler -v- Tommy Hearns

4 - Jack Dempsey -v- Luis Firpo

5 - Muhammad Ali -v- Joe Frazier 3 (1975)

6 - George Foreman -v- Ron Lyle

7 - Aaron Pryor -v- Alexis Arguello 2 (1983)

8 - Chris Eubank -v- Nigel Benn 1 (1990)

9 - Tommy Hearns -v- Juan Roldan

10 - Mark Kaylor -v- Errol Christie (for any Americans that didn't see this, it was fantastic 8) ).

That's my 10 favourites for today.

I'll probably have another 10 tomorrow!!!!

sockdollanger wrote:I know they are very recent and 3 of the 4 fighters are still active but Gatti Ward I and Castillo Corrales I should be mentioned. Im not saying that they are top 10 of all time but you know what I mean.

Corrales Castillo is top 10, probably top five. We are lucky to have witnessed it.

It isn't easy to select this fights, but there are any in this (may be "indispensables" between the top 30?)

Tony Zale vs Rocky Graziano III
Archie Moore vs Yvon Durelle I
Jack Dempsey vs Luis Firpo
Joe Louis vs Max Schmeling, I and II
Rocky Marciano vs Ezzard Charles II
Pascual Pérez vs Sadao Yaoita II
Nicolino Locche vs Paul Fujii
Joe Louis vs Billy Conn I
Jack Johnson vs Stanley Ketchell
Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman
George Foreman vs Ron Lyle