Single best performance in the ring...

Holmes-Shavers I

Textbook example of a complete shutout victory over a well-credentialed opponent. Love it.

 

Ali Vs Cleveland Williams comes to mind, However This was a Peaking Ali Vs a Diminished Williams, so whilst it looked spectacular the quality quota was uneven

I think i would have to say Joe Louis Against Max Schemling II - Joe was under a lot of (Political) Pressure to establish superiority...And against his previous Conqueror - and he did so in devastating fashion.

 

I've never seen better than Kalambay-McCallum I.

Kalambay was virtually perfect in every round, timing McCallum at will with his jab and right hands. I'd have to watch it again to recall everything in detail, but I remember coming away thinking I had seen one of the most complete boxing performances ever. Mike McCallum was a world class fighter himself, so for him to be bested to such the degree he was that night really speaks volumes for Sumbu's showing. Remarkable performance. You won't see better than that.

 

With Area I will also go with Louis-Schemling 2, I was also pondering Pep in his second go with Sadler.

 

My favorites are when fighters make tough, very good opponents look completely inept. First that come to mind are:

Camacho - Ramirez: boxed circles around him while consistently catching him with clean, hard shots without taking any in return. Looked like a cruel sparring session between a pro and a novice.

Hearns - Duran: Completely dominated and destroyed an ATG who had gone the distance against Hagler in his previous fight. Made Duran look like an inept stumblebum while keeping the distance, beating him to the punch, out-countering him, and landing flush shots.

Toney - Barkley: Went up in weight and completely dominated and outclassed Barkley. Outjabbed him, landed combinations and harder punches, even controlled with his back on the ropes.

 

Ya I remember watching the Toney - Barkley fight. One fight I think that is way underrated a rarely gets mentioned is Toney vs Jirov. That was an absolute war.

For me the single best performance is either Duran - SRL or Duran vs Barkley. Hagler's decimation of Hearns was a hell of a performance as well.

 

With the Hearns - Duran fight, it never really hurts to be 6-7 inches taller than your opponent and have a 7-10 in reach advantage. If you ever seen them side by side, Duran looks like a child besides Hearns, especially as they aged and Hearns became a heavyweight. But as you correctly say, no one else was able to do that to Duran and make it look easy, so yes, it was a tremendous display of power and boxing ability by Hearns.

Hell if Hearns had a better chin, and a bit better defense, he would have been one of the best ever. We'd probably be talking about him in the same vein we now talk about SRL, especially if he won both those fights.

 

Robinson stopping LaMotta

 

The greatest fight I've ever seen, after taking all the factors into consideration, was Chocolate-Canzoneri I. So I'm giving that Canzoneri my vote. The Kid was sublime in that fight, but I did have Tony edging it.

 

Jimmy Thunder - Crawford Grimsley

 

Tyson Tucker.

Smaller fighters take note on how to fight a mobile guy with height and reach advantage.

 

Yes, but as things currently stand he seems to rank quite far below SRL and all I'm saying is that if he had a better chin, their positions might be reversed. You don't think the majority of boxing fans rank Hearns higher than SRL do you?

 

Honeyghan-Curry.....i still can,t believe it