I’ve been fortunate to have seen some ATGs live — not always prime, but seen them with my own eyes nonetheless — and some other notables. I’m interested to know who the best you’ve seen are, and any memories you want to share. Among mine, I saw: Roy Jones Jr. (vs. Sugar Boy Malinga — I rate Roy as the best among the guys I’ve seen) Oscar de la Hoya Larry Holmes Hector Camacho George Foreman (on the comeback trail when it was still kind of a circus attraction) Azumah Nelson Mike Tyson Michael Spinks Simon Brown Michael Nunn Oliver McCall Evander Holyfield Dwight Muhammad Qawi Bert Cooper Renaldo Snipes Julian Jackson Razor Ruddock Carl “The Truth” Williams Buster Douglas Trevor Berbick Roberto Duran Lennox Lewis Tyrell Biggs Michael Moorer John John Molina Deontay Wilder Shawn Porter Jermell Charlo Jermall Charlo Adrien Broner Jessie Vargas There’s probably more, and while that seems like a lot if you’re like me and you go to a fight — you show up for the first one in the middle of the afternoon in the empty arena and stay until the last bell. And many of those I saw three or four on the same night (especially on those long Don King cards back in the day). I’m not trying to start a competition. I was thinking about some of the fighters I’ve seen and started listing and checking boxrec for the undercards and seeing if my memory was correct (I’d forgotten about some or maybe didn’t realize that guy I saw on an undercard turned out to be Simon Brown, for instance). I’m in my mid-50s and have been going to fights since I was a kid and my dad took me to the local smokers. I’d rather be in an arena with a fight going on than just about anywhere else. I’d like to know who you’ve seen, met, whatever.
I think the one that’s impressed me the most as far as skill, talent, putting on a show etc; is Lomachenko who I’ve seen 7 times. Juan Manuel Marquez is the one I’ve seen the most (11 times) and he’s up there too. Very lucky to have been ringside for some of them and to have seen him training and sparring in Romanza gym too. Other greats I saw that were very impressive - Floyd Mayweather Manny Pacquaio Joe Calzaghe Roman Gonzalez Terence Crawford Felix Trinidad (saw the Mayorga and Wright fans so saw him look great and awful) Juan Francisco Estrada Saw Rafael Marquez, Israel Vazquez, Jose Luis Castillo, Diego Corrales, Kostya Tszyu, Ricky Hatton, Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Andre Ward, Gennady Golovkin, Sergey Kovalev, Paul Williams, Bernard Hopkins (he ended both fights by falling out of the ring) etc;
Hey SaintPat, You and I must have been at a lot of the same fights. My list overlaps substantially with yours. Although I was fortunate to also see prime versions of Julio Cesar Chavez sr, Frankie Randall, Ricardo Lopez, Felix Trinidad, Bernard Hopkins, Kostya Tszyu, Ricky Hatton,and Evander Holyfield, as well. I am envious you got to see Roberto Duran and Dwight Qawi live. I met Qawi once, but, only got to see him fight on television. Not to be a jerk, but I would not have included a hype job like Adrian Broner, even if I had seen him live. And if I had to say who impressed me the most, it would be Roy Jones. In his prime, he was absolutely spectacular. (I saw him live vs Thomas Tate and Bryant Brannon)
Best I've ever seen with my own eyes was this tiny Filipino dude that I sparred with occasionally. He was much shorter than I was, which would technically make him a midget, but fast as all hell and relentless. I was never able to duck under his blows due to the height and usually unable to keep up with his speed in mid range. I would take cover and back up slowly while this deranged wild dwarf would shift from side to side, forward back, bouncing up and down, spinning and wheeling, crazy twitchy arm and body movements, the whole works... all while throwing his 30 punch combos. My guess is he couldve been a fairly solid beltholder at around bantamweight... if title fights were four rounds max. Of course, this is in a p4p sense. The really big fat dude that always complained and ran out of breath while I held mitts for him (my hands way above my head) would probably be the best fighter Ive seen in the realistic sense. He damn near knocked me out cold while we were doing simple drills and he overextended. I was wearing gloves and he had the mitts. Imagine that
Limiting my list to HOFers only: Emile Griffith Eddie Perkins Bob Foster Carlos Monzon Ken Buchanan Roberto Duran Victor Galindez Alexis Arguello Aaron Pryor Eusebio Pedroza Barry McGuigan Mike Tyson Joe Calzaghe
I'm from NYC and have seen a good amount of fighters make their way to the Garden since the early 90's and have seen a few cards at the Barclay's in recent years. The best performance I ever saw live was in Atlantic City back in 2005 when i witnessed Floyd Mayweather Jr in his prime fighting at arguably the best weight class for him outside of the SFW division, when he was campaigning briefly at 140 lbs. he took on Arturo Gatti that night. That version of him on that night would've been a very tough fight for any man in the history of the JWW division. I remember vividly how much he was booed when he came to the ring and how quickly the crowd started to cheer for him by the 2nd round. That was a destruction of the highest order.
I've been to exactly one fight card in my life, in 1996 in Phoenix. We don't really have boxing to speak of up here. It was the Bernard Hopkins-Steve Frank fight, which lasted 24 seconds. Also saw Terry Norris blow out some nondescript Argentine or other.
Saw some great ones jn LA.Patterson/QUarry one coliseum.The two Palomino/Muniz wlter title goes. Great M ando Ramos /FRankie Crawford one at world tamous Olympic AUDITORIUM. Tony Longoria who never quite panned out Lomg Brach Aud. TONY MIGHT HAVE BEAT OUT Manuel Ramos as first Mexican title hope but ran into Memphis Al Jones. Saw Rodolfo Gonzalez in L.B. other great little feathers ,a lot of great MEXICAN FIGHTERS who made L.A. their home.
I’d trade a lot of my best boxing experiences to see the worst card ever at the Olympic. What a venue.
