Roy Jones for me. If he gotten the win over montell griffin which I think he would have instead of the DQ he would have started his career at 50-0
By his own mouth he said he'd have bowed out at 50-0. He went after Bob Fitz record instead (Re-capturing the title coming down from HW) because he wasn't "undefeated" any longer with the DQ.
Very thought out pick, Benitez was indeed a marvel, sort of shame he peaked when the likes of, Duran, Leonard, and Hearns were still in contention, them 3 always garnered more adulation and print, unjustly so in many pundits opinion, the win over Cervantes ( prob top 3/4 at LW) was no mean feat, Palomino was a very, very good champ, once again toppled by Wilfred, going up to fight Hope was, I felt at the time a tad ambitious , but no , in fact the KO was was amongst the best right handers in a generation, as I have said before in this forum, Benitez is somewhat the forgotten fighter of his time, and when you see how it has all materialised now , it adds more sadness. stay safe guys.
You can't say there's a major question mark when it comes to Jones beating Toney and bring up Toney's laziness, Toney is a grown man and that's his problem not Jones' and I much prefer Toney to Jones.
Guys like Ali and Tyson of course need to be mentioned. For me though it's usually guys like Arturo Gatti, Bobby Chacon, Ruslan Provodnikov, Matthew Saad Muhammad or Marvin Johnson for example who just amaze me because you can train someone to be a good boxer but you can't train someone to have the heart/toughness that those kind of guys had, you either got it or you don't.
My first introduction to Thunder Gatti was on a Lennox Lewis undercard if I remember correctly. Gatti was fighting Gabe Ruelas. I was watching it via sky sports, live, and I will never forget Ian Darkes commentary prior to the fight starting. Darke said ‘No one leaves the arena to buy lemonade and hot dogs when Gatti is fighting’. I remember thinking, he can’t be too bad then. What a fight it was and what an absolute warrior Gatti was. One fighter I will never forget. The Ward Gatti fights should be on every boxing fans shelf. It’s good that we as fans remember and talk about fighters who although may not be a marquee name to the casual fans, epitomise what fighting is all about and gave their absolute all come what may. God bless them all.
Obviously you're young or not very knowledgeable, maybe both. Mugabi and Leonard were at the tail end of Hagler's career. And that's literally. Hagler damn near killed Minter. He "brutalized " him. What's the point?
Lightning Lonnie Smith vs Billy Costello. Thought Smith would reign a bit longer but got stopped in his first defense.
Wow…I’ve never heard that before. What a fantastic little slice of history. Thanks for sharing that Pat! Sincerely…appreciate your insight.
I first saw Salvador Sanchez when he fought Wilfredo Gomez (great fighter btw). I was blown away by the former's poise and ring intelligence at such a young age. His dismantling of Gomez is a thing of Boxing Beauty to behold.
