For me, Calzaghe Kessler is THE textbook match. For anyone who's never seen it, and likes the science, i strongly encourage you to watch it. the level keeps on elevating into absurdly perfect boxing.
Good to post those fights. That's why I like Calz. vs. Kessler so much. Great action, noone totally dominant, but the better man imposed his skills on the other
On thi slist I'd have to go with the last two, most specifically the nasheem Hamed Augie Sanchez fight b/c everyone always talks about the kevin kelly fight fight as being the best fight of Naz's career but this one never gets talked about.
I loved this fight. It is one of the few times that I have seen a guy fight a fantastic highly skilled fight, give the best effort he could possibly have given and still lose the fight. B/c it wasn't like Joe was nullifying the things that Kessler was doing or throwing him off in anyways, he was just doing what he does which is better then what Kessler was doing. So you got to see two great fighters put on two great performances (technically speaking) and one of them's was just better than the other guy's.
From the list Cotto vs Torres was my Favorite Other fight's that don't seem to get mentioned much: Hatton vs McGee Judah vs Cotto Bell vs Mormeck 1 Lyakhovich vs Brewster Moore vs Macklin
Here's a forgotten classic: Danny "Little Red" Lopez vs Mike Ayala. Ended in a 15th round TKO. 1979 Ring Magazine fight of the year, and strong candidate for fight of the decade.
Johnny Nelson vs James Warring. Nelson v De Leon is a close 2nd. In honesty, I think Thompson-Eubank was a fantastic fight. Backwards and forwards all night, Thompson would get hurt and comeback to hurt Eubank, a stunned Eubank would then find a way to hurt Thompson again and so on.
Naturally, the great older fights are going to get mentioned less here because less people have seen them. Saad's fights with M. Johnson, Lopez, Kates, etc... Others like Lee-Lociero, Arguello-Escalera 2, etc.. I would mention Chacon's fights, but for an older fighter who's not one of the biggest names (Ali, SRL, Duran, etc...), his classics do get mentioned. Among the more recent fights (90s and 00s), I would say these fights aren't mentioned enough: Quiroga-Anifowoshe Liles-Littles 2 Cotto-Torres Gomez-Arthur Cooper-Moorer Carbajal-Gonzalez 1 A. Gonzalez-Kelley Liakhovich-Brewster
i tell ya man one of the true forgotten classics is frank "the animal" fletcher vs slammin sammy nesmith you never here anyoe on esb mention that one