Most overrated fights?

Hearns vs Leonard.

Yes, this is one of the greatest bouts. Yes I love it. But people talk about like it some explosive, godly firefight. It isn't. When I first watched it, I was constantly expecting fierce exhcnges. Turns out, though there were fierce moments of course, this was an extremely cagey tactical match up of positioning and set ups. That's why I like it.

Gatti vs Ward.

Again, another bout I love. However, I think there have been similar wars competed at a much higher class of boxing. Mancini vs Kim, Chang vs Tokashiki, Hatakeyama vs Sakamoto and Tatsuyoshi vs Singwacha come to my mind.

 

Dempsey vs Firpo...

Yeah, there's 9 KDs in 5 minutes, but think about it. 3 of them are actually KDs, the rest are pushes whilst Firpo is getting up and the punch which dropped Jack is literally an arm-punch type push, he wasn't knocked out of the ring, he was forced out of the ring. Furthermore, is 9 KDs that entertaining when 8 of them are suffered by one person? Combine that with the choppy, somewhat grainy footage and I just can't see what makes people think this is an ATG fire fight. It's Dempsey bullying someone not in class and getting reckless.

There's much better fights, with high skill level and more action, at HW. Let alone all time.

I agree with Rough that Gatti/Ward and Hearns/Leonard are overrated. However those are still great fights. Same with Gomez/Pintor.

 

Leonard-Duran 1

Ali-Frazier 1 ( maybe the biggest event in boxing history and a good fight, but vastly inferior to the third fight).

 

Thrilla in Manilla... Two near shot fighters going at it hammer and tongs is just sad at times.

 

Wlad AJ

 

agree on the hagler Hearns...it was good but short.

 

Gatti-Ward
Thrilla in Manilla
Ali-Foreman
Marciano-Walcott
Hagler-Hearns (exciting but I would have rather seen an extended clash of styles and strategies than a short, sloppy slugfest)

 

Sloppy?

 

*Relative to how both men usually fought. A lot of reckless swinging for the fences and headhunting from both men, even punching themselves off balance and out of position at times. Hearns keeping his hands foolishly, dangerously low, and not making much of an effort to leverage his height and length advantages. Hagler drilling him with some low blows, etc. I get why people love it, especially considering the context, but it's just not my cup of tea.

 

If you know the result of Hagler-Hearns it might be over rated. But watching it live on closed circuit and not knowing the results it's the greatest fight of all-time. The build up of the fight and the way they came out at each other nothing tops it

 

Gatti-Ward is far and away the best answer.

In recent years, Inoue-Donaire. People were acting like it was a 200 IQ back-and-forth chess match. I gave Donaire 2 rounds he won off a cut.

 

How on earth did you only give Donaire 2 rounds?

 

What'd you give him? 3? 4? lol

Looking at my card, I had 3 rounds I gave Inoue I labeled as swing.