Best performance you've seen in person?

Corrales coming back to stop an undefeated Acelino Freitas.

Hopkins undressing Kelly Pavlik.

Gatti - Ward 1 leaving the crowd in awe.

Those are my favorite three. Hard to choose one.

 

May 1993 RFK Stadium, Washington, DC

Roy Jones W12 Bernard Hopkins.

It wasn't exciting but Roy Jones was virtually untouched by a very good Hopkins that day.

It was a treat to really see Jones' ring generalship, reflexes and movement on full display. The TV screen doesn't give you the same feel as live action.

 

Terry Norris KO'ing Meldrick Taylor.

Went to the fight for my 19th birthday. Break it down however you choose, but seeing it in person Norris looked awesome.

I'm biased as Norris is my all time favorite, but it's still my favorite fight and best performance I've seen in person.

I also saw a chubby old Mike McCallum outwork Jeff Harding at ringside. That actually was a very fast paced and lively fight. It was fun watching McCallum go to work.

Virgil Hill beating Frank Tate on the same card was interesting as well. A lot of people knock Virgil but he had some nice boxing skills in his prime and made Tate look lost.

 

In 1951 at the Polo grounds, sitting not far from ringside I saw a spectacular
performance when Ray Robinson in his rematch with a truly tough Randy Turpin
who was at the height of his career. At the 9th round Robinson had a very bad cut eye that the referee was looking closely at with the possibility of stopping the fight soon. When the 10th round started the desperate SRR showed the greatness he was made of, when in a Kamikaze like attack he threw the book at Turpin with all his remaining energy and gave such a beating to the truly rugged
Randy hurting him badly that the referee had to stop the fight and award SRR a tko victory...We in the crowd went bonkers at the spectacular ending...
Ray Robinson to this day remains the greatest fighter I ever saw, and poor Randy Turpin was never the same fighter again...A night to remember...

 

Ward dismantling Froch

 

San Antonio, Settembre 1993... the mighty JCC fighting above his weight and holding the great Pernell Whitaker to a draw.

 

I saw Jones vs Lacy live. That was fun because I got to see a great RJJ performance in the middle of his decline.

 

Evander-Qawi I.

The Camden Buzzsaw was buzzing, but Holyfield would not be denied. Trench warfare, start to finish, and the upstart showed he could not only hang, but overcome a highly motivated, skilled and determined opponent.

I was also at Tyson-Spinks, so I could say Tyson in that fight since it was his absolute savage peak.

(The microwave main event was, of course, disappointing in that we didn't get to see much, but was in AC for a few days leading up to it and also saw Foreman, Camacho and Azumah Nelson fight live, and Buster Douglas was on the Tyson undercard.)

 

Man, some lucky eyewitnesses in this thread. For me, it was the Barrera-Morales rematch at MGM in June 2002. The fight itself was excellent, but the brawls erupting throughout the arena before the main event were EPIC!!! No one was safe. Cops everywhere. These Hispanic fans didn't even get to see their men hook horns!

-Hopkins W12 Eastman. Staples Center February 2005. Hopkins' 20th defense of the 160
crown.

-Pacquiao KO 8 Velasquez. Staples Center September 2005.
-Zahir Raheem W12 Erik Morales. Huge upset.

-Canelo KO 6 Carlos Baldomir. Staples Center September 2010. Never seen Baldomir get face planted before but Canelo blasted him out fairly easily.

 

I'm going with Froch against Bute.

That was electric.

Another masterclass performance I really enjoyed was Afolabi against Maccarinelli. It was like Ali v Foreman but with less skilled men duking it out.

 

BB, if you mean personally up close, I had just two experiences with SRR. First time when as a very young lad my dad ,my uncle and I went to a GG semi-final card at Ridgewood Grove, Queens where the 18 year
old Ray Robinson, a Golden Glove champion was assisting in the corner of the Salem-Crescent Boxing Club. At the end of the show a few people walked over to the young sensational amateur champion Ray Robinson, including the 3 of us. I recall so vividly waiting to shake his hand when the man in front of me asked the not yet turned pro Robinson "Ray when you turn pro and become champ, buy me a beer".
Young Robby retorted these words " when I do I'll buy you two "..
A witty response I still remember... The next time I got close to Robby and shook his hand was in 1966 when SRR was in front of me
at the Concord Hotel , both of us waiting for our cars and I tapped the retired SRR on his shoulder and shook his hand once again. It was a thrill for me as Ray Robinson was the greatest fighter I ever saw hands down...cheers...