Best Rounds between two great fighters?

Hamed vs kelly

 

So many great rounds in Leonard-Duran I--hard to choose. But take a look at round 13 when both fighters are toe-to-toe and battling trench warfare style! (To this day the "Brawl in Montreal" is the greatest fight I've seen!!)

 

Toney vs McCallum 1 really any round in that fight hard to pick just one. If I had to pick one probably either the 12th or maybe the 4th I think?

 

Manny Pacquiao vs Juan Manuel Marquez IV round 5

 

Depends if you mean great fighters as to skilled boxers with prestigious achievements or entertaining warriors that could wake up dead people just to tune in and watch them fight

 

Hi Guys.
Green / Stracey 1 .
My hands were sore, I have been to dozens of fights in my time, but few had me as excited as this one, being a Londoner I should have rooted for Stracey, but I had a liking for Green, followed him during the amateurs, he was a force, and universally feared, his reputation for unbridled aggression went before him, his fight with Terry Waller has gone down in history as one of the best ever, Green lost but he left a lasting impression, I knew he would be something special in the pro ranks.
stay safe guys.
Mike.

 

Ali Vs Frazier (1971) Round 15
Ali Vs Norton 2 (1973) Round 12
Leonard Vs Hagler (1987) Round 9
Tyson Vs Douglas (1990) Round 9
HolyField Vs Bowe (1992) Rounds 2 and 9
Fury Vs Wilder (2018) Round 12

 

any round between JMM and Pac

 

Years ago, I undertook a project to, by popular vote on this forum, determine the greatest completed rounds of all time (so no rounds where KOs/stoppages occurred were considered). We did greatest completed Round 1, Round 2, all the way through 15. Only rounds where video existed and was accessible were considered.

By my reckoning, three of those involved two greats (some had one great, some had zero, many had near-greats or super-exciting fighters, like Bobby Chacon and Bazooka Limon, but I don’t think they fit the bill here.

Those three were:

Marvin Hagler vs Thomas Hearns, Round 1

Ray Robinson vs Jake LaMotta VI, Round 11

Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier III, Round 12

So I thought I’d share those.

Here’s the complete project (there are 15 separate round threads with voting as well) for anyone interested: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/let’s-create-the-perfect-fight-round-by-round.648592/

 

Foreman Vs. Lyle round 4

 

Benn and Barkley were great enough!

 

Practically any round from Canelo vs Golovkin 2! That was an elite level war!

 

Great project - I remember it well! Was it really six years ago?! Wow.

I competely agree with you, Pat, too. There are very few fights with great rounds between objectively great fighters (if we’re using ATG as a measurement not just entertaining or near-great as a measurement).

Also, if you take it as ATGs in their primes, there are even fewer.

I’d argue round 9 between Leonard and Hagler fights the bill for ATGs but obviously neither were prime. Leonard-Hearns 1 had a couple of exciting ones with back and forth even though Leonard demonstrably dominated them so arguably weren’t great rounds by that measure and their rematch did have some great rounds (round 8 I remember being back and forth) but obviously both of them were way past their best again.

Hagler-Hearns round 1 really is the gold standard still.

 

If you consider Norton a ‘great’ fighter then round 15 with ATG heavy Larry Holmes is worth a mention. I’m not sure Norton really fits the criteria, though - more like ‘near-great’ heavyweight, I’d say.