Witherspoon v Holmes. He didn't get the W that I thought he deserved, but I thought he put on a near masterclass.
Ezzard Charles vs Joe Louis. Bernard Hopkins vs Kelly Pavlik. James McGirt vs Simon Brown. This content is protected
If the Canelo fight happened immediately afterwards when it should’ve done I’d feel the same, but Canelo’s people were ringside and even said to Frank Warren there is no chance were putting Canelo in with him, I knew BJS was past it when he got the Canelo fight because I knew people personally who were telling me the stories they’d heard of him when he ballooned up to 220, it makes Furys little story sound like a piece cake, when he came back vs the likes of Murray he was way off it, but I maintain the BJS of the Lemeiux fight would’ve beaten Canelo, only the judges would’ve beat him
Dwight Muhammad Qawi vs Leon Spinks Eddie Mustafa Muhammad vs Marvin Johnson Floyd Mayweather vs Genaro Hernandez Jose Napoles vs Curtis Cokes 1 Marlon Starling vs Lloyd Honeyghan Nicolino Locche vs Takeshi Fuji Naseem Hamed vs Steve Robinson Sumbu Kalambay vs Mike McCallum 1 Arturo Gatti vs Micky Ward 2 Ike Quartey vs Jung Oh Park Larry Holmes vs Earnie Shavers 1 Jimmy Young vs Ron Lyle 1 or 2 Jerry Quarry vs Ron Lyle Mike McCallum vs Michael Watson
Theirs been many. Especially where fighters on their way to greatness demonstrated just how good / great they could be, against competition thought could give them serious problems. Curry vs Mccory Duran vs Moore, Palomino, Cuevas and Leonard ( Montreal) Hagler vs Sibson and Minter Leonard vs Price and Green. Ali vs Williams , and Terrell. Hearns vs Shuler and Roldan Pryor vs Cervantes, Johnson Benitez vs Hope and Palomino. Whitaker vs Ramirez ( Both fights) Nelson and Chavez. Camacho vs Limom Arguello vs Mancini Gomez vs Zarate Those are some off the top of my head. But their's many.
One I haven’t seen mentioned (sorry if I missed it): Sean O’Grady W15 Hilmer Kenty. An absolute clinic in body punching — and not just the ‘body up to him and throw hooks around the sides’ type body punching. Sean punched his lungs out.
I guess Lewis vs Tua has been mentioned already. Perhaps just me but I’ve always liked Liston’s methodical, patient beat down of Besmanoff with all Liston’s boxing skills, ramrod jab included, on full display in best light. Don’t know if it’s underrated or under appreciated but Louis’ incremental destruction of Primo Carnera is a clinic in optimally efficient power punching/boxing. The film quality is awful which doesn’t help but Louis’ performance is so impressive as to still shine through. Finally, masterclass performances or putting on clinics might not necessarily entail winning by a wide margin imo, - one example might be Monzon who I feel put on many masterclass performances even in close/competitive fights - as properly viewed in their entirety and for the cool, fundamental, never fail executions therein.
Dennis Andries v Jeff Harding Fight no2 Kudos to both fighters, but an absolute masterclass of go forward, aggressive slugging from Andries. He was a good deal older than the super tough prime Harding, and was fighting in Harding’s home country Australia, and on top of all that, JH had won the first fight between them, stopping DA in the final round. Did Andries really have a hope?? Yes he did…he bludgeoned his way to a 7th round KO in a superb display of power punching against a resilient, strong and formidable opponent.
What I continue to be impressed by is how abruptly and confidently Sean took command of this fight with that 2nd round knockdown and kept command of the fight until the end. I think Sean is painfully underrated in this forum.
Triple G outboxing Canelo Alverez in their rematch. He was right in the pocket, blocking, parrying, slipping and returning fire with precision. It was a father/son type of situation. At some point I guess they changed the rules and started giving fighters rounds based on missing punches. Big showy misses are the ticket to success in current game. Anyway for being known as a slugger/Knockout fighter Golovkin's performance would have made SweetPea proud.
Salvador Sanchez TKO 13 Danny Little Red Lopez on Feb 2 1980 in Phoenix, Arizona. Sanchez takes Lopez's WBC Featherweight Title.
Good list, but I’ll see your Qawi-Spinks and raise you Michael Spinks-Dwight Braxton (he changed to Muhammad Qawi at some point after this one). Dwight was on a tear and had a difficult style that gave everyone fits. Spinks completely neutralized him and put on a clinic with that jab and hooking off of it.
