There are many fighters who's reps in my opinion are open to question based on lack of footage and poor career decisions that impact their long time place in history .. here are a few examples of fighters that proved to me more in defeat that in any victory .. John L. Sullivan: By going almost 21 M of Q rounds at a very shot age 34 years of age against a prime Corbett Sullivan showed me heart, chin, stamina , toughness and grit applicable to this version of the sport. He was not some glorified Bobby Gunn but a real could have been even if transported fifty years into the future .. Imagine the 1883 version of Sullivan actually trained and focused ? Jack Johnson: I know there are many Johnson doubters here and qet their points but I see him in a completely different light. I view Johnson as one of those extremely rare fighters that made others fight his style no mater what .. Whitaker could do it , Mayweather could do it, Byrd could do it, Hopkins could do it and Johnson may have been the best of them all ... he was a head case at times but there was no other fighter in history that came close to what he endured. That brings me to the Willard fight when an inactive, old, fat Johnson fought a brilliant fight under a hot sun against a giant best version of a highly motivated Willard, himself absurdly underrated. In that fight all the nonsense said about Jack were dispelled .. he showed an exceptional offensive skill set throwing blazing combinations, fast, sharp, hard and accurate round after round. He took monster shots along the way and did not collapse. He showed terrific heart and grit. Lost to history unless searched for are the first hand archive newspaper reports that praised and raved about Johnson's exceptional performance in defeat. Jack Johnson was an all time exceptional fighter. Jack Dempsey: I still have an incomplete on Dempsey. Of course he was tough, brave, hard hitting , ect .. however despite what anyone tries to erase he didn't fight Wills, he did not fight Greb, he was highly inactive post 1919, he struggled w Brennen, he was stung by Carpentier and he fought a style against a brutal Firpo that would have been suicidal against a more talented bigger man ... Between his manager , his promoter and the press the Dempsey legend in my opinion absurdly superseeds his actual performances .. I don't know if Dempsey was a B+ fighter given an A+ ride or if he was potentially a cruiserweight version of Manny Paq or Duran .. However, in his comeback fights against two terrific fighters, a prime Sharkey and an all time great Tunney, Dempsey showed me a ton of what could have been .. Dempsey fought the absolutely best version of Sharkey and that Sharkey was an amazing cruiserweight .. whatever you think about the KO Dempsey hung in there after taking an early beating and fought Sharkey life and death along the way .. the Tunney .. it's interesting when you review their bouts , especially the second , in as much slow motion as possible .. you see two very talented, well schooled fighters using a terrific assortment of moves, punches and skill .. yes Tunney was winning the rounds but man were many close and many time Dempsey came within fractions of inches of doing serious damage .. then of course there was round seven .. My point is that in defeat Dempsey showed a ton of heart, courage, grit, chin, stamina and his own filtered but considerable skills .. Imagine if he was himself properly trained consistently by a DeForest and stayed active ? There are many more .. Foreman vs Holyfield, Mustafa vs Spinks, GGG vs Canelo .. ect .. open to thoughts .. ( hopefully open minded and not the usual blah, blah )
The king of the ring was dempsey....not even that close.... "Dempsey never had an equal on this earth as a fighter" hype igoe who saw fitz and jeffries , johnson eleven times, through louis...after dempsey there is discussion with the great johnson, louis, ali...both johnson and dempsey had GUTS
I think Ray Mancini proved his mettle in his loss to Arguello. Mancini went toe-to-toe and wasn’t overwhelmed by an ATG even though he got taken out late. Many had considered Boom Boom to be a coddled TV creation and this showed he was made of better stuff than a lot had expected. He came back to win another version of the title, but this is the fight that ‘made’ him IMO.
I like the way Ray Boom Boom Mancini redeemed himself with that knockout of Art Frias, to win the WBA Lightweight Title. After the TKO 14 loss to WBC Lightweight champion Alexis Arguello, on Oct 3 1981, Alexis told Mancini, You Have Nothing To Be Ashamed Of, You will Be A Champion Soon. Quite a compliment coming from an all time great, which only motivated Ray further to achieve his dream.
WTF? No offence but just what the hell are you talking about here? I get the last bit about Johnson and Dempsey having guts but everything leading up to that sounds like some nonsense that you must have wrote while you were drunk.
An out of shape Tommy Ryan was very impressive against Kid McCoy, and likewise Kid McCoy gave Tom Sharkey a hell of a fight. Jem Mace did absurdly well against Charley Mitchell considering he was aged 58. A big one has to be what a 39 Fitzsimmons managed to do against Jeffries.
Wladimir Klitschko had a great one in his losing effort against Anthony Joshua. For so long he had been dogged by the label of 'boring' due to his conservative, jab and grab style, so ending his career with a heroic, breath-taking brawl in a courageous was losing effort was a poetic way to end a great career. Not only is it one of the great losing efforts ever, it's also one of the greatest last fights by an all time great. Also among the heavyweights, Ezzard Charles' first fight with Rocky Marciano is a no-brainer
Maybe. It was impressive that someone as modestly talented as Mavrovic went the distance with Lewis. But, the fight was never close despite Lennox just cruising in first gear the whole fight. There was absolutely nothing in that fight that led me to believe that Mavrovic was ever going to be a legitimate player in the heavyweight division. His early retirememt likely saved him from what was about to be a long string of losses against real competition
I’ll add Mike Weaver’s loss to Larry Holmes to the mix. It was supposed to be a stay-busy defense for Holmes, who was slated to defend against Earnie Shavers next (after Shavers had defeated Ken Norton). And Weaver was like 19-8 with his most notable wins coming over Stan Ward (to avenge a defeat) and Bernardo Mercado. Weaver was able to jab with a less-than-prepared Holmes and if you haven’t seen it in a while it’s one of the most entertaining and dramatic heavyweight title fights in my lifetime, so worth another look. The loss put Weaver in the thick of the heavyweight picture and he went on to upset John Tate for a belt and stay in the title picture for like a decade or so after his surprising (but losing) debut on the big stage vs. Larry Holmes.
Ali vs Frazier #1 or the " Fight of the Century " (It is) No one knew how tough and determined Ali was until this fight. Everyone knew about his unique and amazing skills set.
In a different sort of way, Duran’s quitting against Leonard in the rematch is about as defining as any in history. His name became synonymous with ‘No Mas’ and after a time it set up his redemption story card to storm back and defeat Davey Moore and Iran Barkley for titles. Similarly, Mike Tyson’s ear chomping defined him to the general public in ways that his greatest triumphs never did. He became the butt of jokes for comedians forever more and you can still go to fights today and hear some yokel in the audience call out ‘bite his ear!!!’ to get chuckles during an undercard bout.
