Which single fight completely changed your perception of a fighter?

Eubank vs. Thompson I. Eubank showed tons of heart and grit in that fight.

 

ricky hatton vs tsyu tito vs david reid naseem vs kelley Dirrell vs abraham cotto vs torres

 

Darchinyan, mostly because of his post-fight interview after the Donaire bout. Claiming he was okay to continue. Please.

and...

Trinidad, watching him for the first time in his bout with Oba Carr. I was like, this dude rocks.

 

ortiz vs berto for the good
ortiz vs mayweather for the worse
ortiz vs lopez for the worse
rios vs acosta for the good
rios vs peterson for the good

certain fighters i already knew were just being gassed up and were not the best in there divisions.

bute
khan

those two have been grossly overrated for years.

 

Khan vs Maidana - Made me realise Khan can tough it out when needs be

 

More like Kahn can run for dear life when he needs to.

 

Holmes/Mercer. :cry: Of course, it made me feel better that one of my favourite heavies didn't get murdered, but it really altered my ATG hopes for Mercer, slightly.

 

Nigel Benn bouncing back against Iran Barkley after the Watson defeat changed for the better.It looked like he had been exposed by Watson but truth was Watson was special himself.

Michael Grant against Lewis for the worst, we were told Lewis was facing a man mountain unbeatable juggernaut. Got embarrassed, badly.

 

Barrera vs Naz

 

Malignaggi vs Cotto -I thought Paulie was just an annoying, motor-mouth guido but he showed so much heart and toughness in that fight.

And like others have said Pac/Bradley.

 

Hamed/Barerra Barrera issued one hell of a boxing lesson on that clown. Seems one loss was one loss too many for his ego to handle.


Judah/Tszyu Mad respect for Kostya for making Judah do the "Chicken Dance". Loss of respect for the way Judah acted afterwards to the ref and anyone else that tried to explain to him how and why he lost.

Tyson/Douglas For Douglas getting up after that brutal uppercut KD and coming back and KO'ing Tyson as a 42-1 underdog in Tokyo.

Ali/Foreman An aging Ali against a much stronger, younger foe and beating him in 8 to regain the heavyweight title in Zaire.

 

Better:

Kessler vs Calzaghe - I know that Kessler lost, but he put up alot better effort than i expected. I thought Calzaghe would win a very wide decision but Kessler was level in the fight untill the late rounds and put up a great fight. The level of skill shown in that fight was very, very high and Kessler was brilliant considering his lack of sparring.

Marquez vs Pacquiao 1 - I didn't really like JMM much untill this fight and always thought of him as a bit 'safety first' for a Mexican. In an era and weight class containing Barrera and Morales, he seemed a bit boring to me. This fight was very entertaining and he showed a MASSIVE pair of testicles that night. Not many would survive 3 KD's in the first round against Pacquiao to come back and arguably win. He's now one of my favourite all-time fighters.

Worse:

Tyson Fury vs John McDermott 1 - Just awful. Fury had been bigged up by quite a few 'experts' and this was his first live opponent, albeit at domestic level. He massively came up short and clearly lost, despite another disgusting decision from Terry O'Connor. He showed heart, but a massive lack of skills against a fat bloke who isn't actually that good. Fury will be decapitated by Price if he ever fights him.

Arthur Abraham vs Lajuan Simon - Never really rated AA and couldn't understand why many thought he was a Middleweight Mike Tyson, but he looked poor in this fight. He just can't deal with height, work-rate and any kind of movement. It's why i picked Dirrell and Froch to do a number on him.

 

That's a good one. :good

 

Rios-Abril. Was really hyped on Rios but this fight showed just how limited he is.