What was the best Heavyweight fight of 1972?

Frazier’s fight against Stander wasn’t a marquee matchup but it’s a helluva scrap.

 

Are you actually 17? Not that their's anything wrong with it. On the contrary it's quite remarkable!

 

How do you measure best fight? I would still choose to have attended Ali vs Foster even though it was a bit one sided it had some exciting moments. However I will go with Patterson vs Ali II, even though he was overmatched in defeat Patterson showed greatness.

 

1972 was kind of a dismal year -

Frazier took it easy as far as opponent quality goes.
Foreman rested on his high ranking, with 3 of 5 of his opponents having losing records.
Quarry took six months off after losing to Ali, but at least 2 out of his 3 opponents were top-10.
Patterson fought three times, too, and like Quarry 2 out of his 3 opponents were top-10.
Norton was emerging, though he did stop sometimes-contender Henry Clark at the end of the year.
Lyle was emerging, too, but had nice wins over belt holder Buster Mathis and top-10 Larry Middleton.
Bonavena only fought Patterson.
Chuvalo was sort of winding his career up; the only rated guy he fought was Ali. George would be active until 1978, but Ali was his last ranked and decent opponent.
Bugner took it pretty easy as far as opponent quality goes.
None of Ellis' opponents had winning records.
Shavers was emerging and none of his opponents were of real quality.
Mac Foster only had one fight - Ali - and seemingly gave up on himself after that.
Garcia started his downslide, losing to Terrell, though beating Florida Al Jones.
Terrell only had the Garcia fight.
Roman won all five of his bouts, but all against lower quality opponents (except possibly Jose Ibar Urtain).
Middleton went 2-2, and those losses came to Quarry and Lyle. But 1972 was the start of his downslide after a promising start.

Muhammad Ali was unquestionably the star of the year. Six fights, all against guys with winning records, and all against top-15 opponents (though Bob Foster was Light-heavy champ, not a top-15 heavyweight. Does that count?). Quarry and Patterson were top-3.

Best fights? Frazier-Stander, Ali-Quarry, Ali-Patterson, Patterson-Bonavena, Terrell-Garcia, and Quarry-Middleton. Now, I haven't seen the last two, but the reports indicate they were decent bouts.

 

Lyle knocking out Big Buster in two was his coming out party as a heavyweight to be reckoned with. Never seen it and I’m guessing it wasn’t an artistic masterpiece but very significant.

 

I knew George was young, but I didn't know you were, too. That's awesome. While I wasn't the one who commented that it was remarkable that you're 17, I do find it remarkable that you have such a deep love and understanding for the sport at that age. I guess I had that love at that age, too, although in "my day" we had to rely on newspaper columns (Jack Fiske, in the San Francisco Chronicle, had a twice weekly-boxing column that kept me up to date), boxing magazines, and live television (no VCR in my family for a few more years). I guess my love of and constant attention to boxing at that age is why I can discuss the late-70's and early-80's much better than I can the current scene. I just don't love the current scene the way that I used to.

I also want to compliment you on your writing skills. I see so many posts with spelling errors, bad grammar, and punctuation errors that it makes my head spin. When I see posters who can articulate their thoughts and opinions well, as well as understand what other folks here are saying, I find the forum much more enjoyable. I recognize that with some posters English may not be their first language, so I try to be forgiving. I see the same kind of errors on Facebook, too, though. (Straying even more from the topic, I called people out on their writing errors on Facebook once. An old friend came back at me with, "I'm sorry! I don't have an English degree!" I'm not asking for college-level writing; I'm asking people to remember and use what they learned at ages 9 or 10. But I digress...)

Back to the topic, sort of. 1979, I think, was the other slow year of the 1970's. Sure, we had Holmes-Weaver and Holmes-Shavers. But Ali was gone, Foreman was gone, Quarry was gone, Norton was gone in spirit, Lyle was pretty much done, as was Jimmy Young (though he would have a nice little streak a couple years later)... John Tate had his best year, but ultimately was a guy who wouldn't pan out. Coetzee was emerging, as was Weaver as a top-5 fighter. Shavers, against the odds, resurrected his career with the KO over Norton and the knockdown of Holmes, but he was pretty much done, too. The top-10 was filled with guys like Leon Spinks (0-1 that year), Kallie Knoetze, Lorenzo Zanon, Alfredo Evangelista, and Leroy Jones.

 

Just heavyweights. I'm one of those clods who spends much more time watching, thinking about, and analyzing heavyweight history than the other divisions. I KNOW there are tons of great fights and fighters in the lower divisions. I know the lower divisions have fabulous and fascinating histories. But the heavys are what I find interesting... Cool that you're exploring so many aspects of boxing history. BTW, Duran-DeJesus I is one of the fights I had on Super-8 silent film back when I was a teenage boxing fan.