We move on to voting for the best Round 13 of all time. You can check the results of Round 12 voting on the master thread and nominate Rounds 14-15 here: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/let’s-create-the-perfect-fight-round-by-round.648592/ I did not create a master list of greatest rounds. Over a period of more than two months, we have taken nominations on the thread above. If your favorite (completed) Round 13 of all time isn’t here, I wish you had taken time to nominate it. This has hardly been a secret. Ground rules: This fight is going the distance, so each nominated round has to go the full three minutes — so something like the 12th round of Chavez-Taylor I is not eligible. All weight divisions are eligible. And in rounds where the participants faced each other more than once, please specific which fight. Gloved era only. And importantly, this should be about the best rounds not the most historically significant. Voting will be set to stay open for three days. Here are our nominees: Roberto Duran-Ray Leonard I (fast forward to 1:03:45) This content is protected Aaron Pryor-Alexis Arguello I (fast forward to 40:18) This content is protected Jeff Chandler-Gaby Canizales (fast forward to 58:25) This content is protected Larry Holmes-Ken Norton (fast forward to 51:30) This content is protected Ruben Olivares-Kazuyoshi Kanazawa II (fast forward to 43:30) This content is protected Bobby Chacon-Rafael “Bazooka” Limon IV (fast forward to 38:16) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ATIuLDTkJM Betulio Gonzales-Guty Espadas (fast forward to 15:12 — this is the best I can do time-stamping this one, if someone corrects me I will edit) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6_kH3LzYIKE Buster Drayton-Matthew Hilton (fast forward to 47:38) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9MSL6-qYEp8
I've actually seen all of these fights, in full, in the last few months and going from memory, I'd have told you that Betulio-Espadas and Duran-Leonard were the best. After a rewatch, I'd tell you that those two are certainly two thirds of the top 3, but Olivares-Kanazawa II is #1.
I just thought this selection was not as good as usual. None of them were bad rounds, just not great by themselves.
Five rose to the top for me. Duran-Leonard, Arguello-Pryor, Holmes-Norton, Olivares-Kanazawa and Drayton-Hilton. Man, they let it all out. Kanazawa deserves 'Heart of the year' for that round alone. But in the end up I went Holmes-Norton. It had the perfect blend of power shots from both combatants for 3 minutes to make this my pick. But I'll tell you, the other 4 were so close.
I have a day full of conference call participation so I’ll try to take a look at these tonight and vote. Looks like a good crop of rounds.
Gutted i missed the previous round.This one for me is clear cut its the Duran v Leonard classic.I swear when Duran hit Leonard with that left hook in the first minute my head jerked back 6 inches.Do not understand the love for the Holmes v Norton round for me it was very one sided.
Will try to go through these again tonight with the usual reverse order list. Tried doing this last night at 2am after my daughter woke me up but I kept falling asleep during the rounds. It was definitely tiredness (I hope).
Round 13 Tough selection again. As @scartissue has already pointed out, the rounds now lack some of the sharpness of the early ones as these fighters are relying more and more on heart the deeper into the championship rounds we go. And my winner is a round that is all about heart. 8. Gonzalez-Espadas Decent but didn't really get going until the end 7. Holmes-Norton Started watching this last night and thought it was thrilling until it was pointed out that it was round 14 I had just watched. Round 13 was not as good - just a big round for Holmes. 6. Duran-Leonard 1 Stripped of its context of the ebb and flow of this fight, this round in isolation loses something, I feel. The exchanges towards the end are dynamite but there is a lot of holding - again, speaking about this de-contextualised from the full fight. 5. Pryor-Arguello 1 Apart from one laser guided right hand that snapped Pryor's head back, this was all Hawk. 4. Chandler-Canizales Good, enertaining round this. For a 13th round, they both seem pretty fresh and there are some good exchanges. 3. Hilton-Drayton Terrific start to the roun, just ran out of steam a bit at the end. 2. Chacon-Limon 4 Suitably bonkers round in a bonkers fight. 1. Olivares-Kanazawa 2 Amazing round. This one had me smiling - Kanazawa gave his absolute last drop of effort. He had nearly nothing left but rallied after the onslaught from Olivares and managed to turn it round for a while before Olivares resumed control at the end.
I thought it came down to Olivares-Kanazawa and Leonard-Duran and I went with Olivares-Kanazawa in a fairly close call for me. The great thing about this collection of rounds, especially for so late in the fights, is that I don’t think there’s a round here without some good body work. Guys still chopping wood trying to take down the tree in front of them. Still plenty of time to vote and, again, looks like it could go down to the wire as there is no consensus pick.