Gday JT, Louis showed he has a very large fighting heart as ya said, he took a pretty severe and prolonged beating against Schmeling in their first fight as well as copping pretty bad beatings in the Charles fight and the second Walcott fight yet he never stopped trying in all of them. Cheers Mate.
Hey cheers JC! He had heart for sure. As what Jel was talking about too he too had a knack for coming quite back hard if decked or hurt.
I remember Michael Carbajal looking gone in the 5th when Gonzalez flattened him, splaying his legs and leaving him needing the ropes to get up. Chiquita moved in for the kill and battered him but Carbajal brawled right back and ended up putting Chiquita away in the 7th. A great recovery by Carbajal and an epic comeback in one of the best fights between two top class little men that it's been my pleasure to see.
Holmes Shavers II by a landslide imo. Earnie actually lunged in, putting every ounce of his body behind that punch. There are horses that would have gone into a coma from that shot...even something as iconic as the punch Marciano took Walcott out with (or any of Wilder's admittedly amazing knockouts) pale in comparison. Larry should have been carried out on a stretcher. To me, the fact that Holmes not only got up but was back in control within a round might be the greatest evidence of his ATG status. I don't see any heavy ATG besides Ali and McCall actually getting up from that shot...and yeah, I include 90s Foreman. Larry's championship heart was unquestionable, only Louis, Ali, Holy, and Frazier compare imo.
Don't think its been mentioned yet, but the 1st round of the Masao Ohba v Chartchai Chionoi fight looked like Ohba's Waterloo. Not only dropped hard but it looked like he injured his ankle as well, but came back to stop Chionoi in 12.
Thanks for this, I'd forgotten about this fight. Kirkland disappointed me because I thought he could have done so much more but he never progressed past a certain level.
Holmes/Shavers and Ali getting up from Smokin' Joe's leaping left hook are the two that always spring to mind for me. Special shout out to Battling Jim Johnson for getting up from a thunderous right cross by Sam McVey.
I figured with his style and crazy ass Ann Wolfe...he wouldn't last long...But damn...he was supposed to last at least another 4-5 years ! LOL!
