This is not best fighter or best fight, just the most impressive performances you've seen so far since 2000, keeping in mind the level of competition and the size of the stage. In this category, I tend to favor guys who put separation between themselves and their opponent, so I probably wouldn't list the MAB/EM-type wars. But I'm curious what you guys think. Off the top of my head: 1) Hopkins vs. Trinidad 2) Pacquiao vs. Barrera I 3) Mayweather vs. Corrales 4) Calzaghe vs. Kessler 5) Barrera vs. Hamed Others: Jones vs. Ruiz Calzaghe vs. Lacy Forrest vs. Mosley I Trinidad vs. Vargas Hatton vs. Tszyu
hopkins-tarver calzaghe-lacy wright-trinidad mosley-vargas II (talk about having someone's #, jesus shane put it to him) toney-jirov
That is a brutal avatar. For some reason, the big girls bother me more than all the gay ****. Was that a JC/MK defeat, or something else?
jc/mk. it was this or like a gay dude in a rainbow tie (and nothing else) or something else i dont remember
5 more days... i like how it meshes with my quote though (used to have a pic of tyson in court the latest time as avatar, but weirdly the quote works well with this too)
For me, a lot of it is how the other guy actually fought. Lacy may have been viewed about equally in stature to Kessler (and certainly within the USA) at the time he fought Calzaghe, but he fought horribly that night. You have to credit Joe for beating him senseless, but I was far more impressed by his gutsy peformance this past weekend.
Off the top of my head: Calzaghe v Lacy Mayweather v Gatti Mayweather v Corrales Barrera v Hamed Manny Pac v Barrera
Bernard Hopkins vs. Felix Trinidad Manny Pacquiao vs. Marco Antonio Barrera Marco Antonio Barrera vs. Naseem Hamed Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Diego Corrales Joe Calzaghe vs. Mikkel Kessler I missed a lot of masterful performances, but these were the ones I was most impressed with.
Manny Pacquiao-Marco Antonio Barrera I: Pacquiao jumped in weight and completely dismantled a great fighter in Barrera. Floyd Mayweather-Diego Corrales: Going into the fight, it was even-money, close to a pick-em. After the fight ended, you wonder how it could've been so. Mayweather dominated Corrales, winning every round, dropping him 5x. Bernard Hopkins-Felix Trinidad: It's easy in retrospect to say, "Trinidad was a blown up welter". But Trinidad was a big welterweight who had actually gone to 154 back in 1997, but when back to 147 for the big fights which he eventually got. Tito had also destroyed the man considered the 2nd best MW in the world in Wiliam Joppy, but B-Hop took Trinidad to school, winning nearly every rounds (I gave Trinidad round 1 and that was it) and stopping him late. It was a think of beauty. Shane Mosley-Oscar De La Hoya I: At the time, Oscar had never clearly been beaten in a prize fight. He had a couple of very close debatble wins and a very debatable loss, but no one had clearly beaten DLH. Shane, at only his 3rd fight at welterweight (DLH had been there for 3 years and fought 10 times), overcame a fast DLH start and outfought him for the 2nd half of the fight. Oscar was very sharp and good physically, it was just that Shane was even sharper and better. Joe Calzaghe-Mikkel Kessler: Some may go with Calzaghe's domination of Jeff Lacy, but this was more impressive to me. Kessler was more proven and more skilled than Lacy. Furthermore, Kessler fought a good fight. But Calzaghe adapted to whatever Kessler did and won a clear decision. Other very good ones are Marco Antonio Barrera's wins over Naz Hamed and Erik Morales, Kostya Tszyu's rematch win over Sharmbra Mitchell, and Vernon Forrest dominating the undefeated P4P king Shane Mosley.
Cristian Mijares vs Jorge Arce Carlos Quintana vs Joel Julio Chad Dawson vs Tomasz Adamek Winky Wright vs Tito Trinidad Zahir Raheem vs Erik Morales Paul Malignaggi vs Lovemore N'dou
Of the two Calzaghe fights it has to be vs Lacy just for shear "shock the experts" value. Joe was the underdog in that fight fer cryin out loud!
Joe was a slight, very slight underdog. It was hardly a big upset, not exactly Baldomir-Judah, Rahman-Lewis I, or even Tszyu-Judah. What surprised everyone was the dominating fashion of the win.
