10 best HW fights

How da hell McCall beats Bowe? McCall lost with Holmes on my card rather fairly. I don't see any heavy in 1996 to KO Bowe, and frankly don't see many to defeat him except Lewis, Holyfield and Tyson.

Mercer had good jab but Bowe had better, in 1996 also. Mercer had great chin, Bowe also. I don't see Mercer outboxing Riddick and also I don't see him knocking him out.

In 1995 Foreman propably lost to Axel Schulz and later on he fought Savarese, Grimsley and probably won with with Briggs who wasn't and isn't a elite fighter. Foreman fought on a slow pace in the 90's and that was good for 1996 Bowe. He had a jab, power, chin and infighting to beat Foreman.

Golota had faster hands than Foreman, McCall, Mercer and was more fluid combination fighter and this speed bothered Bowe.

 

I'm starting to think that many people forgot how Golota-Bowe fights looked like. Bowe wasn't a punching bag. He hurt prime Golota several times, took his best shots and fought on. He had toughness and heart to overcome big adversity even that his youth was gone.

 

For me it was a lucky shot and pre mature stoppage. It was 1994, later McCall had a gift against Holmes, KO'd shaky chinned Maskaev and lost to past prime Bruno! Later he fought Lewis again and you know how McCall looked like.

I saw those fights and had it 97-93 Holyfield (Mercer down in 8th) and 96-94 Lewis. What's your scorecard? Mercer was game but he wasn't better fighter in this bouts. I would even say that both Holyfield and Lewis didn't fought they best.

Briggs B+ elite fighter? Aha...

 

Let's try another approach. I will try to rate top 10 HW fights based on their impact, significancy and legacy. So it's more about how BIG was the fight at that time and how the result was important for the boxing world:

1. Ali-Frazier I
2. Louis-Schmeling II
3. Tyson-Holyfield I
4. Dempsey-Tunney I or II can't decide
5. Ali-Foreman
6. Johnson-Burns
7. Ali-Frazier III
8. Holyfield-Bowe I
9. Tyson-Douglas
10. Foreman-Moorer

I wouldn't include Johnson-Jeffries as Jim was way past it. I would consider Tyson-Berbick and Tyson winning the title as the youngest fighter ever at HW.

I have trouble with Thrilla in Manilla because I'm not sure that this fight was something huge at that time. I mean they both were past prime, both had some losses earlier and the fight was in Phillipines...Fight at MSG was HUGE event before it started, I don't know if it was the same with Manilla. Any info on that?

And off course Moorer-Foreman.

How would you take it on that criteria?

 

You maybe are right. I would like to hear more opinions about the greatest HW fights and my list isn't complete, this is a some kind of research.

I think that in the first fight Louis was a little green. He admitted that it was the first time that he didn't listen to Blackburn's advices. The second fight I think was the bigger event. War was coming and Nazis were the realistic danger by then. It was something more than a boxing match and more important than the first fight. This is my view and I would like to hear yours, cause this subject is very interesting for me.

 

And what about Dempsey-Carpentier? It was the first 1 million dollar gate. Just for consideration

 

Entering prime, not prime