I think it would be good to have a thread where people can talk about fights they missed first time round and have only just got round to watching. I'm in my 40s now and a fan from a young age, but from 18-30 my interest in the sport waned as I focused on other things. As a result there are loads of great fights from the mid 90s to noughties that completely passed me by. Not long ago someone posted a thread where people named their favourite / most brutal and dramatic fights. I noted all the ones I hadn't seen and have steadily been working my way through them on YouTube. It's been a lot of fun, I've recently watched the Ward V Gatti, & Morales V Barrera trilogies (awesome) but got blown away by what I watched last night. It was Bowe V Golota 1&2. OMFG!!! I went into both match ups with no idea about what the results were, less still the talking points! The first fight ending was so shocking, basically a riot in the ring and medics trying to get Golota's training out on a stretcher to hospital. Then the second fight.... awesome spectacle...getting into the latter rounds I was expecting Bowe to either crumple or win a dodgy points decision. Then Golota just pounds him three times to the balls! In the ensuing disqualification drama, if you have the volume up high, you can hear someone from Golota's corner (I think) asking him "Do you actually have a ******* brain?" Anyway, that made my night.
More or less the same for me. 18-30's I've missed some really great bouts, but did see the ones you've mentioned above. I agree the Bowe vs Golota I & !! shocked everyone. Golota easily should have won, only to low blow Bowe in the harry bean-bag multiple times. What a shame! Watch both of Johnny Tapia vs Paulie Ayala - great fights. Micky Ward vs Emanuel Augustus. Or any Fight of the year candidate from those years you missed.
Thanks for the recommendation, will check out the Tapia v Ayala fights tonight. Agree Golota had both fights in the bag, so to speak.
That's great you watched them without knowing what was going to happen. I remember vividly watching those fights that night. Was the version of the first fight the HBO call, where Jim Lampley is standing in the bleachers breaking into tears because his daughter is in the riot below and he didn't know where she was? Pretty wild. Also, George Foreman grabbing a guy and holding him down trying to convince him to stay out of the ring. I met Lou Duva (the trainer that was carried out on a stretcher) after a riot at a fight in Chicago. Lou tended to get invovled in events where riots broke out. We were huddled in the same locker room. (LOL) The Bowe-Golota rematch is one of the best heavyweight fights. Chaos aside. Those two guys all but ruined each other. If you're looking for brawls, the Arturo Gatti-Gabriel Ruelas fight, which was on the Lewis-Golota undercard, was also excellent.
I think it would be worth watching Mayweather and Pacquiao in their physical (if not boxing) primes and their superstar making performances. I'd watch Mayweather/Corrales and Pac/MAB I, or even Ledwaba if you would prefer him when he was globally anonymous.
Great thread, love checking out fights that are classics/wars that I missed so will be sure to watch some. The Bowe/Golota fights were amazing, remember my dad all excited talking about it so watched it for myself and couldn't believe it lol.
Damn I forgot all about the Gatti/Ruelas fight! Going to rewatch that when I finish work, respect bro.
It was kind of the opposite for me, I was a Mike Tyson fanboy in elementary school, and heard my dad talk up Hagler and Leonard and Hearns, and the coaches at my first youth gyms would drill stories of guys like Archie Moore into my head...but I was more or less a casual until my late teens, at the height of the featherweight explosion on HBO (specifically, Barrera made a hardcore fan of me) - and I haven't slowed down in two decades since. I've watched probably as many classic/obscure fights as live ones, and the latter number is at least in quintuple-digits. (hell, I've made ~2,0000 RBR threads alone here, with most of those cards averaging several bouts...) Not too much really noteworthy stuff has slipped by me. A relative handful of fights that I should've or wanted to see, but haven't.
Golota. What a head case. Watch him in that first Bowe fight. He clearly had talent. But...he somehow consistantly managed to pull defeat out of the jaws of victory. Did it many times. What the guy needed was a sports psychologist. Maybe two.
I advise anybody who hasn't to watch Marvin Johnson vs Saad Muhammad 1&2. Crazy wars involving my favourite non-atg and 2nd favourite fighter.
That one came up a few times on the best fight thread...It's on my list. Just been elevated a few places though!
