Though his father stopped the bout in the 12th round I would say that Felix Trinidad went out on his shield against Hopkins. He was getting picked apart and peppered for a good 8 or 9 rounds while pressing the attack. In the 10th he lets loose with everything in his arsenal. Tito lands some shots but gets the worst of it with Hopkins countering masterfully off the ropes. He was hurt bad late in 10 but kept trying to land something that would change the fight. As a fan of the guy even though he was soundly out boxed I thought he showed what made him a very good champion.
Primo Carnera. Was knocked down 11 x and got up every time. The referee mercifully rescued Carnera from Max Baer ferocious punches in 11 round in MB winning the hw title.
He also broke his ankle early in the fight and was still able to outbox Baer for several rounds. The guy definitely had a lot of heart.
duran vs hearns and joppy tyson vs douglas holmes and thomas vs tyson holyfield vs bowe 3 and toney RJJ vs tarver 3 after trying to avoid getting hit for 11 rounds frazier vs foreman
Well, not a world champion, but a unified champion who held the IBF North American and WBA Fedelatin heavyweight titles. Andrew Golota. He warrants mention. His last match came four years ago against countryman Przemyslaw Saleta in a Polish classic (a great deal of power punches landed in the six-rounder which was an action-packed, back-and-forth war as both heavyweights duked it out in front of a roaring home crowd of 14,000 in Gdansk, Poland). What a way it was to go out for Golota, whose career is viewed as that full of ups and downs, as he put forth a valiant effort reminiscent of his matches with "Merciless" Mike Mollo and "The Clones Colossus" Kevin McBride. Although Saleta stopped Golota in the 6th, the latter still went out on his shield and the loss was not one of the downs as he partook in give-and-take savagery that was being mentioned as a potential candidate for "Fight of the Year".