It's Holyfield vs Bowe for me. The performance of Holyfield in these three fights despite going against a much bigger and equally skilled opponent is just outstanding. And I've never seen such an exciting bout before.
Duran vs Davey Moore made me an ardent Duran fan, the way he dismantled and mauled Moore despite being written off was special, then he did it again vs Barkley as a midget geezer. That made me a fan.
Archie Moore in his bout against Embrel Davidson. Knew he had power but that put it in perspective. Marciano in his fight against Walcott 1 and Ali Rumble in the jungle can’t just pick one favorite fighter
This content is protected This content is protected It's the only fight, of course (uploaded by once member GreatA), but it is often forgotten how great this win is. Burley was a natural 154lb fighter in an era before that weight class existed and here he tames and befuddled a light-heavyweight with a heavyweight punch, completely controls him. Here is what Smith did to another genius of his own size: This content is protected Smith was mercurial, but he was absolutely defanged here. Smith continues to fight in the belief that he can land that one punch to turn it all around, but he can't.
I became a fan of Johnson during the Burns fight. He could quite easily have been murdered hours from the win but he had fun the whole time damn the consequence's he lived for the moments pleasure and was defined by this his entire life. Became of fan of LaMotta after seeing him walk through fire against the GOAT to try and enforce his will he had a real fighters mentality. Watching Armando Castro for the first time fight Khaosai Galaxy was surreal I got out of my chair and was just winded by the robbery after watching Galaxy get mugged in front of all his fans it gets me angry talking about that fight then I binged all of Armando Castro's other fights M A C H I NE! modern Greb.
As a kid of nearly 11 years old I was supporting my fellow Brit,Henry Cooper in his world title challenge against Muhammad Ali. Immediately afterwords I became an Ali fanatic. And still remain one.
Arguello...Can't pinpoint which just an accumulation. Franklin (Saad) against Johnson ll Benitez... against Palomino
Well it is Thomas Hearns, and it was the first Leonard/Hearns fight. I was 16 and watching it and rooting for Ray who was the popular guy. Hearns was sort of the bad guy in the promotion.. And Tommy does well but loses, and then Ray retires and plays games on and off games, and Tommy fights on and fighrts everyone including Sutherland and Minchillo and defenses. Everyone, and I respected that more. He didn't play the games and he persevered even in his losses with Hagler and Barkley. I liked that.
That fight made me a fan of Coetzer's, actually. That guy took a lot of punishment and kept trying to win while clearly outmatched.
The Cooney fight made Larry my favorite. It seemed everybody and his yee-haw white brother was rooting for Cooney to take Larry's belt, and it pissed me off. I'm Italian-German and I hated the idea of anyone rooting for someone based on colour...it was especially aggravating to know Reagan had that special phone to call Cooney with upon victory...grrrr. I already had huge admiration for Larry, saw him as easily the best heavy in the world, the heir apparent to Ali as far back as the Shavers II fight. Watching him knock down and then methodically dismantle Cooney was a cheer-fest for me. I was further impressed when Larry looked terrific beating the yeah-hoo out of Cobb, to me he looked untouchable in that fight. But my love for him deepened during the Witherspoon fight...he was all but stopped in the 9th round but he fought back as hard as he could "with the heart of a Champion"! And it was fun seeing how wise he was...he could see that Witherspoon threw the last, Championship rounds away bu hot-dogging and thinking he had the fight wrapped up. I always scored that fight two points ahead for Larry, but he had to do everything in his power to win that fight, and came across as a total ATG that night. He's been my favorite ever since, with Foreman and Ali receiving heavy honourable mentions.
