Im interested in fighters, whether its champions or challengers who have given they're very best and have gone out on they're shield, fighters that have given everything they have to win but everything just wasnt enough. Like Holyfield against Bowe in they're first fight, that fight was a truly emotional experience for me, watching that fight was amazing, its truly what boxing is about, courage, heart, will-to-win, everything that boxing is about, that 'thing' that makes boxing more important than any other sport .. Like Ali against Frazier ..... Dominant champions are great and i appreciate that, but its more of a statistical thing, i always found it hard to feel any emotion about Roy Jones Jr in his prime, even though i knew he was sensational. Im talking about the fights that stirred your emotions, those fights were a guy was taking a beating but he comes back and carries the fight to his opponent, im particularly interested in fights pre 1960 as there are some guys on here that have a far superior knowledge than me on those years ........ I may not have described the subject as well as i could have but if you just watch the 10th round of Holyfield v Bowe, thats exactly what im talking about, nobody who watched that round at the time could deny experiencing an emotional 3 minutes .. Are there any rounds of any fights that have made you feel like this ?? Its a feeling that any other sport cannot replicate and it is the single thing that people love about boxing ....
i think you described your thread well, id say every fighter that fights is brave but those that are brave to the point willing to die to win are fewer, iran barkley, arturo gatti, nigel benn, meldrick taylor, israel vasquez, wayne mccullough, jerry quarry, doug dewitt, fernando vargas, mike ayala, joey gamache, marvin johnson and vinnie pazienza are just to name a random few that would go out on his sheild if you couldent win a good way of finding out which fighters would really fight untill they had nothing left is to look at in some casese the "winning fighter" and in most cases the "losing fighter" in the ring magazine fights of the year
Thats a great call, Chacon was immense, there was no way he'd 'Duck' out of a fight with 3 or 4 rounds to go like we see so much of today, a lot of fights today end up 12 rounds because 1 guy decides to try and survive after 12 rds, he has no intention of winning the fight .. That is a mentality that warriors like Chacon wouldnt understand
Danny William's might be the ultimate example of this in recent years. Dislocated shoulders, boxing corruption, absorbing sickening amounts of punishment... Mans done it all.
Diego Corrales. Usually I think fighters saying "I'm willing to die in the ring" is just talk. I truly think Corrales was one of the fighters that was crazy enough to be willing to die in there.
No mention of Troy Waters yet? Guys face was torn apart vs. Norris and he refused to quit. He needed something like 30 or 50 stitches for his face. He was a bloody mess. Not to mention all the other wars Waters got himself into.
Dempsey against Tunney. Tunney against Greb in their first fight. Ketchel against Papke in their second fight.
Michael Watson... His fight with Mike McCallum was a long hard arduous one and it took a lot out of him.. The Eubank fights were pure agony in those late rounds.. Eubank himself was a warrior too.. I respected him more in defeat than when he was a dominant victor......
Jess Willard. To go out in that second and then third round... The punishment LaMotta took towards the end of his last fight against Robinson is also impressive in a scary way. That Frazier kept coming up against Foreman is in a way even more crazy than his refusal to give up in Manilla. Razor Ruddock may have been uneven, but he sure as hell was no quitter.
One of the ballsiest heavyweights I have ever seen. Hipp was incredible in there and I have no idea why his name isn't mentioned more when this question and similar ones are asked.
