Career-defining moments & fights, of your favorite fighters

Archie is already mentioned here.

Max Schmeling's win over Louis is definitely is career defining moment.

Bob Fitzsimmons winning a HW title over Jim Corbett.

George Foreman's destruction of Joe Frazier.

Joe Frazier - FOCT.

 

Oh my oh my...

Use Google. It is considered one of the best fights ever in Boxing history between two ATGs.

 

I did Google, I couldn't find anything.

Seriously, who now? Now I'm really interested.

 

What is up with you today lol. It is Billy Petrolle vs Battling Battalino. They had two vicious bouts.

 

Oh ****ing hell. God, I am slow.

There's no footage, then? I can't find any, and now I'm really interested.

 

Read the reports. I think there are images as well. They were absolutely monster bouts, which left cuts, bruises etc all over their bodies, with the action constantly swinging either way.

 

There is a great article on the fight in the victory sports magazine series after Billy died May 14, 1983. Great pics too. I have an old signed still of Billy framed in my living room from 1927.
In 1927 he fought 18 times, against quality comp and beating King Tut twice. Billy was always a family favorite as long as I remember growing up. His family was related to my Mom's in some way. So I heard about these fights like other tots heard about Joe DiMaggio.

 

I love king Tut, name and appearance looks straight out of a Tarantino film.

 

Holmes v Shavers 1 is when people realized how skilled Holmes was and started to really notice that jab.
Leonard v Andy Price and Davey Boy Green
People really saw his power and killer instinct.
Benitez v Kid Pambele
Chavez v Rosario showed a complete dominant destruction of a very very good fighter
Arguello v Escalera for me but that's debatable
Haglers quick destruction of willie the worm showed he had all the goods he just needed a break which he got then was completely robbed against Antoufermo
McGuigan v Laporte
Mancini v Ramirez
These come to mind first that is if I understand the question correctly

 

I'm going to look at this from a mainstream casual fan perspective.

Joe Frazier vs. Ali I
Holyfield vs. Tyson
Douglas vs. Tyson
Tyson vs. Spinks
Holmes vs. Cooney
Cooney vs. Norton (despite Jimmy Young being a much better win for Cooney at that stage.)
Shavers vs. Norton
Hagler vs. Hearns
Saad vs. Lopez II
Arguello vs. Mancini
Sanchez vs. Gomez
Zarate vs. Zamora
Duran vs. Leonard I
Pryor vs. Arguello I
Hopkins vs. Trinidad
Chavez vs. Taylor I
Norton vs. Ali I
Fury vs. Wilder II (time will tell...)

And how many times have we seen Ali-Liston II illustrating Ali's greatness? To fans who know the whole story (as much as can be known), that's ludicrous. But to the general public, Ali standing over Liston defines Ali as a boxer.

How about career defining fights that elevated the loser:

Klitschko vs. Lewis
Golota vs. Bowe
Nelson vs. Sanchez

 

Hatton v tszyu

Hagler v minter causing the riots

Mayorga v Forrest

 

I kind of like looking at specific moments that were defining for fighters (not necessarily all my favorites), like:

Dempsey climbing back into the ring against Firpo

Buster Douglas pounding his first on the canvas after the uppercut knockdown and getting up vs. Tyson

Duran has many but quitting against Leonard is certainly one that overshadowed everything else

Same with Tyson biting Holyfield’s ear and Holy jumping up and screaming

Larry Holmes’ uppercut out of nowhere to turn the Weaver fight

I like Naseem Hamed’s flip into the ring straight into a staredown with Kevin Kelly, kind of defined him as a performer

Arturo Gatti crumbling from the left hook to the liver and then somehow rising vs. Mickey Ward, emblematic of their series

Ali standing over LIston yelling at him to get back up

 

He's not really one of my favourite fighters to watch back, but I always had a keen interest in Froch, what with us coming from the same city, me attending a lot of his fight from his early days right up until his Wembley showdown with Groves, and a few of my family members getting to know him a little bit personally (forget the bravado - he's always been a really good bloke from everything I've seen or heard close up).

For me the Bute fight was definitely his greatest and defining night. Home town, tremendous atmosphere (honestly blew Wembley right out of the water, despite the much smaller crowd), the most dominant big-fight performance and win of his career. Some had downplayed his previous two world titles because they'd been vacant belts when he won them. This time they couldn't use that excuse, as he ripped a title from an unbeaten fighter who was the betting favourite.

I think it's far more important to his career than Kessler II or Groves II, which I suspect most people would go for. I think with Bute, it's what was on the line and what doors it opened up for him which made it so special. Froch had only had the exposure of Matchroom and Sky Sports since the summer of 2011, and hadn't yet fought in the UK with the full weight of a big promoter and network behind him. He'd still not really earned the plaudits or money his career warranted, and hadn't got great reviews for his two fights on Sky so far. If he'd have lost that Bute fight, he'd have likely retired and now we'd just be looking at him as a decent fighter who got lucky with his vacant world titles, and who lost every time he stepped up to the biggest level. That would have been very unfair on him. Even if he hadn't retired, losing to Bute would mean he'd probably never get the Kessler rematch, and certainly not on home soil or with such a big share of the money. No paydays or a post-War record crowd against Groves, either.

Still one of my best ever experiences as a fight fan.

 

Continuing:

Jake LaMotta on the ropes absorbing ungodly punishment from Ray Robinson

Trevor Berbeck going down three times from one punch against Mike Tyson

That still shot of Rocky Marciano’s right hand that felled Joe Walcott (and the jaw displacement — looks like the lower jaw is half a face over from where it should be from the impact)

George Foreman knocking Joe Frazier down. Joe Frazier getting up. Again and again and again

Alexis Arguello with his arm around a young Ray Mancini in the postfight interview, after knocking him out, telling Ray he will be a champion one day

Panama Lewis in Aaron Pryor’s corner, asking for the bottle he mixed

Hector Camacho in retreat against Edwin Rosario after getting rocked, marking the moment the Macho Man changed from a dervish who punched from all angles to a hunt-and-peck artist

Marvin Hagler huddled in the middle of his entourage in the middle of a ring in England as bottles, cans and who knows what else are hurled from the British fans after he stopped Alan Minter on cuts for the middleweight title

Thomas Hearns crumbling on the ropes under Ray Leonard’s assault