BoxRec

I apologize ahead of time for what must be a terribly redundant topic, but I'm a newb. I was kinda interested to see what the concensus choices there were, if any, of favorite fight sof the past, or perhaps pick up a few ideas to expand my own DVD collection.

Mine are:

Chacon-Limon IV : The best way to describe this one is not as a fight, but as a triumph of the human spirit. Bar none, my favorite ever.

Saad-Lopez II: Features my favorite round ever (round eight of course), but the other rounds suffer only by comparison. The quintessential Saad performance. If he fought his own grandmother he'd find a way to have to come back from the brink to pull it out. He seemed to do it every time for a while.

Morales-Barrera I : While certainly good in their own right, the other two battles between these two paled by comparison. This was special.

Sanchez-Nelson : My favorite fighter's final battle. Nelson reminded me of a little banty rooster in there, skittering back and forth with his coif of hair sticking up like that. He fought an inspired fight that would be a harbinger of things to come for him. Some disparage Sanchez for having such a rough fight against so unproven an opponent, but I really don't know how much different Nelson became after that, which bolsters Sal's achievement. Better defensively and more measured perhaps, which I think would ultimately have helped Sanchez had they rematched.

Gomez-Pintor: And to think this was a "mere" undercard fight. They just don't have that kind of thing today, which saddens me.

Holyfield-Qawi I: The olympic wunderkind against the tough, sage veteran that gave no quarter. They both deserved medals.

Sathsatchawal- Monshipour: The most recent vintage of these choices, but a spectacular back-and-forth battle.

Arguello-Escalera II is great. I only saw it recently for the first time.

Ramirez-Rosario II is a nice fight, a come from behind win for Ramirez after being dropped twice and hurt badly. After the first two rounds you don't think he has a snowball's chance, and then he stuns Rosario and changes the fight.

Chacon-Limon, which you mention, is awesome, but HBO never made a documentary about their fights, so you'll never hear anyone mention them on these forums. Saad is another one. Lots of great fights, but no one ever talks about him. You'd never see Saad duck his head under the ropes trying to get out of the way of punches, which is what made him a champion.

How about Griffith-Benvenutti or Monzon-Benvenutti? Great Middleweight fights, both historically important and great to watch. Monzon's knockout of Benvenutti is something to see. You don't hear much about those fights for some reason.

Carbajal-Gonzalez is another great fight of the past two decades that doesn't come up much. And I agree with Morales-Barrera I, which is the fight of the decade in my opinion.

Castillo Corrales I
Moore Durelle I

These are my two favorites, the Marquez Vazquez trilogy has to be up there too but it isn't very "classic" yet.

IFF already mentioned Castillo-Corrales I, though I'm not sure I'd call it the fight of the decade. Not saying I wouldn't, but going back to the start of 2000 with Barrera-Morales I (& a number of other superb fights that year alone) this has been a decade of many, many great battles. Certainly, Corrales-Castillo I is among them. IFeelFine also mentioned Carbajal-Gonzalez, a brilliant battle between two courageous warriors.

Others...

Pryor-Arguello I, 1982

In all honesty, forget about Hagler-Hearns. This fight blows it out of the water. It's like a sped-up version of Corrales-Castillo I, with an even more dramatic TKO finish.

Katsidis-Earl, 2007

Seems in my experience not too many Americans are familiar with this one, but boy, what an explosion of punches this fight produced. Five of the absolute best rounds of 2007, & I won't hear from anyone who says otherwise. Four knockdowns, a point deduction, & phonebooth action from start-to-finish.

Trinidad-Vargas, 2000

Six knockdowns, two point deductions, & a dramatic stoppage ending. This one was sen-friggin'-sational.

Foreman-Lyle, 1976

Not sure if you have this one (you probably do), but if you haven't seen it, make it happen. This one is worth every cent & then some. They oughtta dedicate a museum to this fight.

De La Hoya-Quartey, 1999

You simply won't see a better finish to a fight that put people's hearts in their mouths. One of the more exciting cat-&-mouse game manner of fights of that decade, as Quartey confuses De La Hoya often. The 12th & final stanza is simply extraordinary.

Basilio-Fullmer I, 1959

Hard to find (wish I had it) but seen this was simply a tremendous, tremendous war of attrition that proves they really don't make 'em like this anymore. Big ending, too.

Another one is Mancini-Bramble, but it's been so long since I saw that scorcher, I cannot remember which fight was the classic.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:IFF already mentioned Castillo-Corrales I, though I'm not sure I'd call it the fight of the decade. Not saying I wouldn't, but going back to the start of 2000 with Barrera-Morales I (& a number of other superb fights that year alone) this has been a decade of many, many great battles. Certainly, Corrales-Castillo I is among them.

I think you misread, I said that in my opinion Morales-Barrera I was the fight of the decade, not Corrales-Castillo. I'd call Corrales-Castillo #2.

Some good picks here, thanks for the responses. Katsidis-Earl, eh? Gotta look that one up.

I have Ramirez-Rosario II in my library if you wanna call it that, and that one is indeed terrific. Rosario was a lot of fun. Hugely explosive puncher, but not one iota of an idea of how to clinch or get himself out of trouble, so once an opponent got him hurt, he was done.

Other real good ones that come to mind........

Boza- Limon: This one is never talked about, but terrific action with a couple swings in momentum. Highly underrated.

Basilio-Demarco II: Demarco empties his arsenal, but Basilio is just tough and slippery enough to ride it out, and wears his rival down for an electrifying stoppage. Must watching for the classic boxing fan.

Gavilan-Turner: Turner is a legit contender, but the savvy Gavilan pulls all the trademark stops out here......flurrying at the end of the round (he was a master at that), countering, bolo punching, you name it. He took Turner out into deep water and drowned him.

Jofre-Medel I: Kinda rare, as only three fights of Jofre exist on film that I know of, but this one is explosive. Rounds five and nine are especially thrilling. Well worth finding.

Apologies, IFF

Katsidis-Earl is definitely worth pursuing. It's one of those special heart-stoppers.

Yeah. One time on HBO they were talking about 15 rounders, and in the midst of talking about 15 rounders and how great 15 rounders were, that genius Jim Lampley, of all the fights he could have chosen, cited the Basilio-DeMarco fights as two great 15 rounders. What's funny about that of course is that, while both were scheduled for 15, they both ended in the 12th round..

What was also interesting about that is that Basilio stopped DeMarco almost at the exact moment in the 12th round that he stopped DeMarco in the first time. The rematch of course was also one of the many great fights Basilio had in that stretch where every year he was in a fight of the year.

Michael Moorer vs. Bert Cooper is a pretty good Heavyweight fight, both guys going down.

Monzon-Valdez II is an excellent fight. Monzon goes down but pulls it out in the championship rounds. Could have been scored a draw, but I think Monzon earned it with those last rounds; if Hagler and Hopkins had also had 15 rounds to work with they would have done the same in their final defenses.

Napoles-Cokes is another nice fight that isn't talked about much. Its always fun to see fighters who have been waiting a long time for a title shot finally get it and just explode on the champion; as Archie Moore did on Joey Maxim, for example. Napoles-Backus II is also a fun fight, where Napoles is looking to regain the title after losing it on a cut, and then maybe 15 seconds into the rematch he suffers another cut.

Julian Jackson against Buster Drayton is another good one, those guys threw monster shots at each other, everything that landed must have hurt a lot. Then Jackson landed a big left.

Duran-Barkley comes up a lot, and that's one of my favorites as well, but Duran's fight with Davey Moore is really something. Duran schools Moore in every facet of boxing, legal and illegal.

Another good older one is Carpentier vs. Battling Siki. I've only seen clips of it, but those guys could punch pretty well. Siki won the belt from Carpentier, who is also known for his fights with Dempsey and Tunney, and of course went on to lose his title in a fight in Ireland, in Dublin on St. Patrick's Day against an Irish fighter...

Good points, IFF. Jackson caught a little heat for raising his arm in triumph when he landed the big shot against Drayton, but later went to great pains to explain that it was just a momentary gut reaction, that he meant no disrespect and wasn't trying to showboat. In his case, I believe him.

Another geat Duran fight is his second bout with Dejesus. After the first four rounds, it was more and more one-sided, but good action throughout, and the first four rounds were outstanding.

Gavilan/Turner is a good pick-Turner was undefeated at the time, and it's one of the best defenses on film by the Hawk. Gavilan probably hit much harder than he's given credit for.

I recently rewatched Gavilan/Graham III...... it's known as a controversial bout where many thought Graham won....I actually gave the edge to Keed, although I wouldn't argue vehmently with a decision to Graham. It's a great fight. The momentum see-saws back & forth.

Some middleweight gems I've come across are:

Joey Giardello/Rocky Rivero I & II
-Giardello got the decisions for both, but Rivero really rocks & socks it to him-gives him all sorts of problems by punching at odd angles. Giardello is in control early, & then Rivero comes roaring back in both fights. Giardello could sure take a punch.

Dick Tiger/Joey Giardello IV
-Tiger wins back his title from Giardello. A tactical fight, where Tiger is much more assertive than their third meeting. Again, Giardello could really take a punch! A plus is having Barney Ross as a commentator.

Dick Tiger/Henry Hank
-I think this is one of the best fights I've seen since collecting. Going from memory, I don't think I gave Hank a single round-but by no means did Hank get his ass kicked: he took a licking & gave it right back. In one sequence, which may have been the last round, he SNAPS Tiger's head back with a hook. Great fight.

Eduardo Lausse/Gene Fullmer
-If anybody wants to see Fullmer getting TEED off on, this is the fight to get. Lausse weaves in & out, & lands absolute sledge hammers w/ his lefthook. This is a silent film, but you can almost hear the kind of noise those punches were making on Fullmer's noggin'. Also showed how perfect of an execution it was by SRR when he KO'ed Fullmer, b/c I actually think Lausse was the heavier hitter.

Gene Fullmer/Florentino Fernandez
-Gruelling, gruelling fight. Fullmer wins a split decision that was very close, as Fernandez closed the gap by battering Fullmer. I believe near the end of the bout, Fernandez actually broke one of Fullmer's arms with a punch. The body shots The Ox lands on him are frightening.

Other non-middleweight favorites are....

Ike Williams/Beau Jack
Wish there was more footage on the great Ike Williams. You can assume the second Montgomery bout was similar to this judging from the pics & articles.

Nicolino Locche/ Takeshi Fuji
This is a total clinic by Locche-Fuji was a good fighter who I believe was actually the favorite going in. For the people that think Pretty Boy is the greatest boxing sensation ever, check this fight out & see if you see any similarities. The footage is excellent quality too.

There's definitely more. A favorite Saad Muhammad fight of mine was his fight against Richie Kates.

Yeah, I have Duran-Moore. It's a somewhat shocking display, if you watch Moore's prior performances. It's not hard to see why Duran was regarded the underdog. I felt sorry for him slumped on the canvas (8th round, wasn't it?) Same thing with Buchanan at the end of his fight with Duran. & DeJesus in their second encounter.

Has there ever been a fighter who so clearly inspires sympathy with his opponents than Duran? LOL.

"Another geat Duran fight is his second bout with Dejesus. After the first four rounds, it was more and more one-sided, but good action throughout, and the first four rounds were outstanding." - Chava

Ah, someone just beat me to it. Good fight.

Ah, what the hell; a few more......

Saad-Johnson II: Essentially done after that right hand at the end of the 7th, but Johnson manfully answered the call for the eighth only to get treated like a tether ball, and just fell down after an avalanche of desperation punches from a bloodied Saad.

Sanchez-Gomez: Sal does it again in spectacular fashion, outpunching the KO artist. A great display of brawn and brains against a great opponent who wouldn't quit if you sawed his arms off.

Chacon-Boza II: Despite the impassioned pleas of TV commentator Ferdie Pacheco, the fight continued past the sixth round, by which time Bobby had so many lacerations you almost couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. I actually scored this one for the equally game Boza, but Bobby is the man of the hour here, scoring yet another final-round knockdown. For those who haven't seen Chacon, just picture an exciting version of Arturo Gatti.

All three Duran-DeJesus fights were great. Duran had a lot of really good fights at that weight, the obvious being Buchanan but also fights against fighters like with Edwin Viruet and I think it was the Hector Thompson fight that was also pretty good. Duran also had a good fight before he became champion with Ernesto Marcel, who went on to become Featherweight champion and beat Alexis Arguello. The thing people forget about Duran is that he started out south of Lightweight, and yet made it all the way up to 160 to win a title.

Williams vs. Jack is a good pick, one of the most brutal KO's in boxing history. When I watch Gavilan-Graham and see the flashy, great shots Gavilan threw... I just wonder what his fights with Robinson must have looked like.

Hearns-Roldan and Benn-Eubank I were another two great back and forth kind of fights of recent decades.

Robinson v Lamotta 1951 - my favourite fight of all time, non-stop action and how the hell jake stayed on his feet i'll never know.

Duran v Leonard 1 - Duran out-psyched and out-fought Ray brilliantly, always moving forward throwing punches and never giving Ray time to settle. this was Duran's greatest performance IMO.

nobudius wrote:Gavilan/Turner is a good pick-Turner was undefeated at the time, and it's one of the best defenses on film by the Hawk. Gavilan probably hit much harder than he's given credit for.

Gene Fullmer/Florentino Fernandez
-Gruelling, gruelling fight. Fullmer wins a split decision that was very close, as Fernandez closed the gap by battering Fullmer. I believe near the end of the bout, Fernandez actually broke one of Fullmer's arms with a punch. The body shots The Ox lands on him are frightening.

Gil Turner overtrained for the Gavilan fight, sparring 12 rounds some days, and leaving his fight in the gym.

Gavilan won on a late round stoppage after Turner won the first rounds big and then ran out of gas. Gavilan had a lot of great attributes, but his punching power was the least of them.

Later genius Emanuel Steward had Tommy Hearns overtrain in the same fashion that Gil Turner did for the first Leonard fight.
Hearns was not even sweating under the hot ring lights in the first Leonard fight because he was so dehydrated from overtraining and showing up weighing 145 pounds for that fight.

Fullmer fought with a broken elbow for a NUMBER OF ROUNDS in the Florentino Fernandez fight.
Until that happened it was all Fullmer, who had brilliant fight plan, overwhelming his big punching opponent with so many heavy punches from the start of the fight that Fernandez could get no offense of his own going.

I think Katsidis Earl is overrated. To me it looked like a one sided beating apart from one flash knockdown.

I like the mention of Lausse here as well; nice to see others are aware of him. I have the Fullmer fight too, but my favorite of his is the Marcel Pigou fight. Fo all the world it looks like he's gonna get the Frenchman out of there, but Pigou rebounds to stop Lausse. Excellent scrap.


I noticed the thread here about west-coast boxing, which reminds me of another good one from the golden era of southern California fights, the late 60's-early 70's; Mando Ramos-Sugar Ramos.......what a back and forth brawl that was. You'd never guess the two were very close friends.

Hey Chava, do I know you from somewhere were my initials are RB?

Heh; I just PM'ed ya, man. Nice to see you again.

Lausse is certainly a favorite-hope more footage of him is out there. Here's a pic of Perez, Merentino, & Lausse after Merentino defeated Smallwood in 1955 in NYC.

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granberry wrote:

nobudius wrote:Lausse is certainly a favorite-hope more footage of him is out there. Here's a pic of Perez, Merentino, & Lausse after Merentino defeated Smallwood in 1955 in NYC.

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Look at the size of Lausse's left hand.

Duran vs Leonard I: I watched this fight over 1000 times, and I always love to see two all time greats showing great skills for 15 rounds. If Leonard won 3 rounds, that was too much.

Duran vs Barkley: Action from start to finish. They threw so many blows that other middleweights would have gone down. If Duran's third fight with DeJesus was his greatest performance, this fight with Barkley was the most inspiring. This fight for me, puts Duran along with the top 5 all time pound per pound's best....No doubt about it

Leonard vs Hearns I: The best anticipated fight that I have evers seen. The puncher becomes the boxer, and the boxer becomes the puncher for 14 thrilling rounds.

Pryor vs Arguello I: A war from beginning to end.

Hagler vs Hearns: Never seen so much blows that could take a man's head off flying. It was just 9 minutes, but it was worth every penny of it.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:Yeah, I have Duran-Moore. It's a somewhat shocking display, if you watch Moore's prior performances. It's not hard to see why Duran was regarded the underdog. I felt sorry for him slumped on the canvas (8th round, wasn't it?) Same thing with Buchanan at the end of his fight with Duran. & DeJesus in their second encounter.

Has there ever been a fighter who so clearly inspires sympathy with his opponents than Duran? LOL.

I read somewhere that odds before the fight moved dramatically in Duran's favour and that Moore had some dentist work done in the week of the fight. I don't know if it's true.

Can anyone else verify?