I just flicked through the thread. I see no love yet for the best one sided fight of the modern era: Chavez/Rosario
Yes, we are trying our best to hide it at the moment, but we have evolved for the better in the last forty years.
Mike Tyson vs Larry Holmes. I rank Holmes at his best as the 2nd or 3rd greatest h2h heavyweight ever but he was a fool to come back after 2 years out of the ring and after losing his last 2 fights before that and think that he had a chance against a prime Tyson. Yeah he said later on that he only did it for the money but you know that being the arrogant egomaniac that he was, he probably believed that he really could beat Tyson. I guess there were plenty of people that waited for years to see Holmes get a helluv beating but I weren’t one of them but still it was very satisfying to see how a current great fighter should deal with a old former great fighter making a comeback.
Yeah but you still get the odd occasion when it rears it’s ugly head. Was it that long ago that Hopkins said that he would never let a white boy beat him just before he lost to white boy Calzaghe?
A subjective topic I know, but I did not class Tyson/Holmes as a one sided beat down. I always thought Tyson would win, but Holmes made it a bit easier, because he started to enjoy the fight and fancy his chances.
Tyson-Biggs: If there was a rival to 80's Tyson, Biggs was it. Wearing all white as the antithesis to Tyson's all black. RJJ-Toney: I was sure that Roy was the one to humble Lights Out but needed to see it happen with my own two eyes. After that I rooted for Toney to get back into title contention. Holmes-Mercer: Not really a beatdown but more of a scientific dissection. Great to see Larry get his just dues. "I'm not Tommy Morrison!" Pacquiao-Barrera: Wanted to see Pacman rise to the top. Loved his style and destroying the man who destroyed Hamed reassured me that Pacquiao was an ATG in the making. Hopkins-Trinidad: We almost saw Don King skip over Hopkins to face RJJ at Light Heavy. Won some money on this fight because most of my friends had never heard of Hopkins. Celebrated this outcome for months on end because I knew Hopkins couldn't be denied.
Great post. Holmes is my 2nd favorite heavyweight after Tyson. He took on Tyson for the chance at history and tried to emulate Bonecrusher's game plan. So it was good to see Holmes being humbled. It was even better hearing the fans chant "LA-REE...LA-REE" when he beat Mercer 4 years later. Holmes finally got the fan adulation he deserved!!
Forgot about that one! Great pick. Bowe did a number on Gonzalez. One of the most methodical beatdowns I had ever seen.
Maybe the word beat down means different things to different people...I don’t view Barrera vs Hamed as a beat down as much as I do a clinic...I would go more along the line of Margarito-Cotto I or even Cotto vs Malignaggi although Paulie showed a lot of heart