The greatest title defense of all time?

FOTC gets my vote

 

Yeah there’s a ton of great ones but this takes the cake.

 

Staying in the Ali category. The Thrilla in Manila was a pretty great title defense. Leonard-Hearns 1 was also a great defense. As @Saintpat said, there are a ton of great ones.

 

Marciano beating back Charles not once but 2 times. Dempsey Firpo also gets a mention from me.

 

Benn-McClellan.

 

Louis v Schmeling 2

 

I always liked Sanchez vs Nelson.

If Sal was just ounce less skilled, mentally steeled and self believing - it could well have seen him beaten in what still would’ve been a great performance by him - but obviously not as great as the actual victory Sal secured.

It really brings into focus that while it is one thing to win a title, it’s that much harder to hold onto it.

Good to very good challengers otherwise can lift and being their A game, their absolute PB, possibly even pushing themselves into greatness via their performance, even if for one night only.

 

Hagler vs The Beast

 

Hard to argue against FOTC. Frazier was something else that night against arguably the #1 HW of all time. Im struggling to think of any successful title defenses that surpassed it.

 

The Thrilla is a good one - if similar to Sanchez vs Nelson, it might for the surprise factor of Joe’s performance, many thought Joe was shot, Ali included. Imagine how Ali felt when it became obvious Joe still had plenty of smoke left - “oh gee, do I have to be great again!”. It literally nearly killed him….and Joe too.

 

@Pugguy Very good point. I am positive this was not what Ali was expecting. I also believe that, just like in their first bout, Frazier would not have fought that well against any other man. By necessity, they truly brought the best out of each other.

 

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