Boxings Greatest Trilogies

This is what I came up with:

10 Griffith/Rodriguez: Three excellent boxing fights, Griffith loses the first, but comes back to win two split decisions, a point deduction for a low blow, stops Rodriguez getting a draw in the finale, that is how evenly matched they were.

9 Duran/DeJesus: Duran was the phenomenon, who had just beaten the brilliant Scot, Buchanan, and was having a non title defense against the unknown DeJesus; after hitting the deck in then first ten seconds, and dropping a decision, the Hands of Stone, would not forget the Puerto Rican again, in a hurry. Duran was floored early again in the rematch, with the title on the line, but got up to win in 11; and won the final bout of the trilogy, in 12, this time avoiding the early knockdown!

8 Griffith/Benvenuti: Griffith is the King of trilogies, this time though he lost two/one trading the Middleweight crown. The first fight saw both hit the deck in The Ring's fight of the year, as the Italian won the title by Unanimous decision. The rematch saw Griffith regain his title, knocking Nino down in the 14th, and wining a majority decision. The third bout saw Benvenuti knock Griffith down in the ninth, to regain the Middleweight title, on a Unanimous decision.

7 Patterson/Johansson: Three fights, that have gone down in history, their finale, was great fun.

6 Duran/Leonard: If the third bout did not suck, this trilogy may have been #2 on the list.

5 Barrera/Morales: These two hate each other with a passion, and all that hate comes pouring out in their bouts; perhaps there has never been a more intense trilogy.

4 Bowe/Holyfield: Seemingly every November in the early/mid 90s we got our latest installment of Bowe/Holyfield, and we were never disappointed.

3 Ali/Frazier: The second fight sucked, but fights one and three were truly historical.

2 Ward/Gatti: Not a weak round, let alone a weak fight, these two warriors gave it their all, it took something truly amazing to rob of them of the #1 spot but…

1 Zale/Graziano: Was the trilogy for which all other trilogies are judged, three brutal brilliant fights, that kept twisting and turning, and had two shocking endings.

The others I considered for the list were:

Nelson/Gans: Fight one was brutal, Gans winning on a 42nd round dq; a savage fight that had Nelson famously throwing up over the ropes! Nelson got his revenge in the other two bouts by 17th and 21st round KO's.

Moore/Charles: Anyone who thinks Charles is overrated needs to read up on these three bouts. The Cincinnati Cobra, made his reputation dominating this trilogy, over a near prime Moore.

Griffith/Paret: Infamous for the ring death, but these two hated each other with a passion and had three intriguing fights, trading the Welterweight title.

Ali/Norton: Three famous bouts that ended in 1977, when Ali controversially snatched the 'Clash of the Titans' by close 15 round decision.

Hagler/Monroe: The making of Hagler; The Worm dominated the Marvelous one, in their first bout (IMO, Hagler's only true defeat as a pro), but despite struggling with Willie in the rematch, Hagler eventually got on top to win in 12, and then blew Monroe away in two, in the finale.

Toney/McCallum: Two excellent fighters, who fought three superb boxing matches, McCallum was unlucky to only get a draw in their first bout, Toney came back strong to win the rematch and the third bout at Cruiserweight, showed both to be excellent boxers, despite being way past their primes, both in ability and weight.

Chavez/Randall: Two exciting and shocking bouts, started the trilogy, then much like Duran/Leonard, you had the sad final bout.

 

:rofl LOL, good one

 

The first fight was amazing; the other two bor... I mean intriguing

 

Styles make fights.

Zale and Graziano are not the two finest middles ever IMO, but together they produced great fights, ditto at Heavyweight with Floyd and Ingo.

IMO you do not necessarily need great fighters to make great fights

 

Watch Zale/Graziano; you will not be disappointed.

 

I have seen all three, indeed although not on video in full you can see clips of all three in Boxings Greatest Knockouts.

 

Well the video I quoted comes from Jacobs collection, which I think ESPN owns now...