Fighters who had their finest hour in losing efforts

GREAT idea for a thread, John. Your third example was the first to come to mind. Although it's arguable, I do feel a good more recent example is Marquez's SD loss to Manny Pacquiao. Also, not to depress anyone with the modern heavyweight era, but arguably Vitali Klitschko's finest hour is still in his loss to Lennox Lewis.

 

Juan Manuel Marquez vs Manny Pacquiao II
Jose Luis Castillo vs Diego Corrales I
Bert Cooper vs Evander Holyfield/Michael Moorer
Rosendo Alvarez vs Ricardo Lopez II
Rocky Jaurez vs Marco Antonio Barrera I
Troy Waters vs Terry Norris
Donovan Ruddock vs Mike Tyson II
Meldrick Taylor vs Julio Cesar Chavez I

 

'Spoon against Larry Holmes

Watt against Buchanan...you could argue the Davis fight here, but i think he was sharper against Ken.

 

solid list:good how could i forget cooper?!

from the era, i'll add alex stewart against foreman

 

:good And...Michael Dokes vs Evander Holyfield? :think

 

I thought Dokes looked faster/sharper in the late 70s/early 80s. he may have been mentally clean and focused for holyfield, but physically he was not there anymore.

 

Undoubtedly, but will people remember him more for the Mike Weaver fight or the Holyfield one? :think

 

to be honest, that's a good point. the holyfield fight was AMAZING and holyfield wasn't tested like that again until bowe

 

I just assumed by finest hour we meant their best performance that people will remember them for. ...I never hear anyone even so much as reference the Weaver blowout.

 

I would say Stewart was more impressive losing his '0' to Holyfield.

 

Re-watch the fight. He looked as good from a pure boxing standpoint as he ever had before, particularly defensively. It wasn't until the later rounds where the wear and tear he'd been suffering had taken its toll that he showed signs of decline. If not for those last couple of rounds going the way they went he would've won the title back. Yes, his best years were behind him, but this was one of those cases of a fighter "turning the clock back" one last time. Unfortunately, the damage was done by the time of the rematch.

 

Fransico Daimani against Ray Mercer
Shavers against Ali or Holmes 2
Kevin Kelly against Naz

 

Eric Crumble stepping up to eight rounders and getting into the SECOND ROUND against Ralph Jones!

 

speaking of ray mercer, though the morrison fight is probably his finest hour, beating lennox lewis on A LOT of scorecards is a close second

 

That and he actually won the Davis fight, decisively.