De La Hoya vs Trinidad is the obvious choice IMO. Two great unbeaten and charismatic welterweights. On paper, the best WW matchup since Hearns-Leonard. The fight of the century my ass ! Oscar outboxed him for the most part of the fight then got afraid and ran away...
Trinidad v De La Hoya by a mile. As we saw later in his career, Trinidad was lost against anyone too slick and too strong to get caught and stopped by him (DLH, B-Hop, Winky). He could be outboxed, but it was never pretty. In this one he got schooled, but it was still a shocking fight, made worse by the fact many of us were actually believing it was the Leonard v Hearns for our generation.
Lewis-Holyfield 1 With the exception of an excellent third round, and a pretty harsh beating in the 5th, this was basically a case of a safety-first Lewis boxing, and occasionally punching as he chose against a Holyfield who had very little answer. Plus...the decision stunk.
Recent fights that weren't great too watch that could be could Super Fights? Calzaghe/Kessler - I guess if you were a HUGE fan of either, you enjoyed it, but as a casual fan of both it disappointed, it just never transcended into something more, I put that more on Joe's strange style, and Kessler's lack of being able to adapt too it, but it just didn't have that "wow" factor, I got bored watching it. Tyson-Holyfield 2 - Umm.. wtf? Huge letdown. Hoya-Trindad - Just a letdown on multiple levels. Tyson - Lewis - Tyson was **** at this point, but we wanted to believe.
The Roy Jones/James Toney showdown years back; JT came in overweight, had to dash to the gym if I recall, to make weight at all that afternoon. He came in unprepared physically or mentally and a fight that should have been competitive was one sided.
I can asure you that here in the UK it was huge and I personaly found it verry exciting to watch. Not as big as Calzaghe Lacey though. Even non boxing fans were hyped up after that and talking about it around the water coolers.
:huh How the hell you found that boring I cannot comprehend? It was one of the best fights of recent years. Calzaghe's natural ring intellegence was amazing, Kessler landing sporadic huge shots (that uppercut was as big, p4p as Lewis on Klit), the Calzaghe jab, the guard resolutely NOT ready to be changed. Compared to many recent superfights this was a real winner. I think I watched it 10 times in a single week at my lowest 'Calzaghe huggery' point.
I thought Mayweather-Hatton was disapointing, but I think the ref had more to do with it than the fighters. Tyson-Lewis shouldn't be a surprise let down, but fans had their blind folds on.