Bouts where a fighter who is far ahead, ups the pace to go for a KO late

Roberto Duran's '75 lightweight title defense against Leoncio Ortiz immediately comes to mind. It went into the books as a 15th round ko for Duran, but what so impressive to me was Duran's amazingly fast pace throughout the fight, and Ortiz' durability and toughness. Duran was winning nearly all the rounds and fought like a high velocity windmill, but Ortiz took it all, and seemed for all the money in the world like he was going the full 15 rounds. This seemed to infuriate Duran, and he accelerated his pace incredibly over the last 5 rounds, each round more than the last, until he took out his man in the 15th for a brutal ko win. Duran, as well as Ortiz was amazing in this bout, and it's one of the fights of Duran that has always impressed me so. He had a fiery, unbelievable punch rate that would have snuffed out most fighters much earlier than the proud Mexican Ortiz, but he finally got that ko. Unbelievable stamina Duran had.

 

I was just watching the ending of Duran against Leoncio Ortiz and this is definitely what stood out to me.

 

Hopkins vs. Trinidad

Hopkins had pretty much ground down whatever resistance Trinidad had left in a blistering tenth round, and over the last two rounds, became increasingly aggressive until he was finally able to score a stoppage.

 

Duran's stamina and work rate at lightweight was amazing.

 

Judging from a couple of Duran's fights that I've seen at lightweight, he took the idea of someone going 15 with him very personally. For example, I remember seeing the end of the fight with Lou Bizzarro, who had kept on his bicycle enough to last into the 14th. This pissed Duran off enough that after he had knocked Bizzarro down and Bizzarro got up, (not really knowing where he was) Duran loaded up and did his best to decapitate Bizzarro with one shot. (And he almost did).

 

:good