MUST WATCH BOXING SURVEY - FINAL RESULTS

Thank you very much for the kind words.

Until you mentioned it, I hadn't looked, but at quick glance without double checking, looks like 21 out of 50 were indeed heavyweight contests. So 42%. I think (and I'm merely guessing here) that if I went through all 290 fights that received a mention, that percentage probably dips considerably. Maybe it would have been better to have everyone submit a Top 50 as opposed to a Top 25, and that may have been a bit "more balanced".

But, at the same time, I won't lie - the heavyweight division was the original attraction for me. Granted, Hagler was my first boxing hero. But by and large, by the time Hagler retired, I followed heavyweights almost exclusively for nearly 10 years before I started expanding my boxing horizons more. So I do understand the appeal there.

What I find interesting is there are a few heavyweight fights absent from the final result I may have there instead of some of those that did make the cut.

 

Thank you!

 

Thank you very much.

I agree with what you're saying. I didn't agree with a few fights that made the final cut, and those I did agree with I would have ordered differently (much differently in some places). And there are a handful of fights I was surprised weren't close to making the cut, and some which didn't receive any mentions at all. But still, the final list feels solid to me on the whole. I do agree with @salsanchezfan that there may have been a disproportionate number of heavyweight fights, but at the same time I understand why that's the case. Heavyweights historically have always gotten more attention, more press, more exposure, and in the case of many (like me) becoming a fan of heavyweight boxing paves the way to becoming a fan of the sport moving south.

My Top 25? Oh jeez. I haven't properly sorted out an entire Top 10 yet in my mind. But half the top 10 would have been in my Top 10, along with Foreman-Lyle and Archie-Durelle 1.

Some day I'm going to run it back and create my own lists without input from others, but now I'm more focused on locking down the next survey theme here.

 

Thank you so much, Jel. I really appreciate that.

I envisioned and figured the basic presentation would roll something like this, but once you get working on it, the momentum starts taking on a life of its own. So I'm glad to hear that the summaries/clips jived well together.

 

Thank you, Mendoza!

 

That was a long read, so I had to pace myself or risk losing my voice.

I had to take a few breaks as it was. But I think I started my final stretch at #18, and I was definitely fired-up by the time I got to Moore-Durelle 1.

 

Thanks! Will do. But, realistically, I wasn't planning that any time soon.

I have a few "bigger" projects in mind for this year, one of which I hope will be another Survey here. I'm not sure what the next Survey will be at this time, but the idea of Best Boxing Trainer is one that I'd like to tackle at some point or another. Maybe next, maybe not. But at some point.

The problem with these "bigger projects" is they take a lot of time. But I do have 2 more in mind this year, 3 if we include the next Survey.

 

Ahh yes! I seem to recall you mentioning Hagler was likewise your first boxing hero as well. And I totally get what you mean. 21 out of 50 fights being Heavyweight seems a little heavy handed. But the good thing, I think, is that at least with heavyweights, we covered a lot of different decades. The oldest fight to make the cut was Dempsey-Firpo from 1923, and the most recent fight was Wlad-AJ from 2017.

I'm not entirely sure which heavyweight fights I have "issue" with, however. I mean Tyson-Berbick? I get it. I totally understand why that would be included. And Tyson-Spinks more so. While Tyson-Spinks may only have lasted 91 seconds, it was two undefeated heavyweights, each of whom had a claim to call himself heavyweight champion. It didn't live up to the expectations of something like The Fight of the Century, of course. But historically, I definitely understand its inclusion.

Perhaps if I revisit this theme in 10 years time (after the next Survey based on rankings per division, like the previous Survey), maybe next time I'll divide it into Top 50 Heavyweight Fights and Top 50 Non-Heavyweight Fights. I'm not sure, but I think there IS something to having an episode based on this type of idea that excludes heavyweights.

That said, for this particular list, I do quite like the overall variety. Now I'm sure many of you here in the Survey have seen each and every one of these fights. But there were a few that I had never seen, which suggests to me that a lot of fans out there have probably missed out on more than I have. And even though I haven't crunched the numbers, of the 290 fights mentioned, there were many more I had never seen before, and I still plan to get through all of those as well.

 

One of them is a "surprise" of sorts, that I'd rather not share at this time.

But the other one - I was actually going to work on last December, and I got sidetracked. I still don't have the right angle/approach just yet, but I would like to dedicate a piece to SRR. I'm tentatively "planning" to do something on him this year.

On a related note, I'd love to some day dedicate something to Archie, but I can't do it with the subpar footage I have at this time.