What Was The Greatest Match Ever?

Yeah... I like several fights but i am not brave enough to call it "the greatest fight ever".
Maybe for historical significance. Louis vs schmeling , johnson vs jeffries and Ali vs frazier .
Clay vs liston was part of the great history.
But i can't choose so i will not post a huge list

 

The opening post is a bit jumbled but there's nothing in it to suggest historical significance is what he's after. My best guess is he's after the two greatest fighters that fought and at a time both were prime.

 

Way pre-prime Balboa vs. Creed I. He was still a club fighter although he was coming off a tough win over Spider Rico.

Creed-Lang I is two prime guys, Creed having made several title defenses and Lang finally getting his shot after running through a series of contenders in overwhelming fashion.

 

Can you confine this crap to the General?

 

Lighten up, Francis.

 

It's surprisingly difficult to think of examples that fully fit your criteria. It seems like almost always one great catches another at least slightly in decline. Leonard's fights with Hearns and Duran would come really close if they were closer to each other in natural size. The eighties might be the best era of all time for the 140-60 pound range.

 

Arguello v Prior comes really close, but going in wasn't Arguello considered to be somewhat on the slide, just exiting his prime? (I don't mean anything like 1979-80 Ali; more like 1927 Dempsey or 1957 Robinson.)

 

I build around rankings. Pep and Saddler are probably #1 and #2 at Featherweight and top 10 and top 15 P4P. Greb is close to #1 and Walker maybe top 30. Moore and Charles are the top 2 175'ers and probably both inside the top 15 P4P. SRR close to #1 and Gavilan top #30 P4P probably. The top welter and another easily in the top 10. SRL and Duran get as high as both inside the top 10 but Leonard was in his early stages and built himself up loads more with victories over Duran, Hearns and eventually Hagler so i'm not sure the bout eclipses others.

 

I guess I was looking at it from the point of view of Arguello, as WBC lightweight champion, being the no. 1 lightweight at the time (effectively undisputed champion having beaten the WBA champ Mancini the year before) and Pryor being the no. 1 light-welterweight having beaten Cervantes a couple of years earlier.

Yeah, Arguello might have been perceived as slowing down a bit, but it was the no. 1 matchup in the sport at the time and Arguello was considered a slight favourite going in so as matchups go, it was pretty sensational. And, it was also one of those rare occasions when the fight lived up to the hype.

 

Good points about each of those fighters' placements within their divisions and p4p.

From that point of view, it's hard to top Charles-Moore, Pep-Saddler and Robinson-Gavilan. Maybe Charles-Moore is a touch below the other two, only because Pep and Saddler were the no. 1 and 2 featherweights at the time and fighting for the world title, as were Robinson and Gavilan whereas the Charles-Moore fights are matchups that possibly look greater in retrospect and I'm not sure that they were definitively 1 and 2 in the light-heavyweight rankings when they fought. I could be wrong on that though.

But there's no doubt that both were in their physical primes.

 

Good points. When i said they were the number 1 and 2 light heavyweights i mean in history. I'd dare to say they would have been the best two of their day at some point in their battles given fair ranking.

 

This isn't the place for fictional character matchups , if you want to discuss them and /or cartoon characters make a children's section.

 

Oh yeah, understood. The only distinction I was making was Pep and Saddler were both 1 and 2 all-time and 1 and 2 in the rankings at the time, whereas Charles and Moore are definitely 1 and 2 all-time but maybe not definitively 1 and 2 in the rankings at the time. Splitting hairs really!

Regardless, Charles-Moore is one of the all-time great matchups without question. I just wish there was footage of their fights, particularly the third one where Charles KO'ed Moore!

 

What i wouldn't give to have those fights on film! Along with the two SRR - Kid bouts as well.

 

regardless of whether it was his goal or not, that comes out of your imagination because he did not mention that either