Greatest fight of the 21st century so far

Hm- Parker vs H Fury...

 

Has to be Pacquiao-Marquez IV.

Rivalry? Check.
Controversy? Check.
Knockdowns? Check.
Violence and skill? Check.
Drama? Check.
Savage KO? Check.

 

Morales Barrera I may be the best fight I've ever seen on Television. I haven't seen all the fights in boxing history. Especially the older ones that weren't even broadcast on TV. That said, Morales Barrera I was euphoric. It was like a state of drug high, well I've never been on drugs, but that's how I imagine it would be. My dopamine levels were just taking off through the roof. And it just never stopped. It was 12 rounds of non stop, high level action.

Fights usually don't live up to the hype, sometimes they do, but usually not. This was even more than you could ever possibly imagine. That standard is ridiculous to hold fighters to, it basically cannot be reached.

I don't rate fights a perfect 10/10, except when I do. And the only fights that I've considered rating a 10 were Barrera Morales I and Hagler Hearns. And I would hesitate to rate Hagler Hearns a 10 and give it a 9.5 instead. Because it only lasted 3 rounds and after the first minute of the fight it pretty much was a one sided ass kicking by Hagler. Morales Barrera I is the impossible standard. It's a solid 10/10 fight.

 

Still not as good as Izzy vs. Rafa (any installment except the farce that was IV), objectively. Get over your celeb worship instincts!

 

Izzy Rafa was a better trilogy than Marquez Pacquiao. Izzy and Rafa were still world class fighters among the very best in the world and they did have a more thrilling and entertaining trilogy. Which is pretty impressive since the Pacquiao Marquez fights were great.

 

The one area where Rafael can say he surpassed his brother is # of FOTY's/ATG fights he participated in.

 

Well...and he might have punched a bit harder p4p (although Juan Manuel did have underrated pop and was called Dimamita in his early career for a reason)

 

Vazquez Marquez 3 bloody mayhem. The only fights that compare are Pryor Arguello I, Chacon Limon IV, Ali Frazier 3, and Moore vs Durelle I.

 

I always thought that Marquez was the hardest puncher p4p of any Pacquiao opponent. Although Pacquiao never really fought a huge massive banger, the only thing that's really honestly missing from his resume, but going up 8 weight classes sort of makes that a moot point, but I digress.

If I recall correctly Marquez was a serious business kind of puncher down at Featherweight. His style just didn't highlight it since it wasn't used in an overtly aggressive nature the way you typically see from big punchers.

 

And yet the whole trilogy (again, forget the sad pathetic spectacle and cash-grab/slaughter of a half-blind lamb that was IV) remained a paragon of boxing skill, violent as it was. That's why I always put suckers in check when they attempt to compare Gatti vs. Ward or the like to it. This was a trilogy every bit as exciting as the rest of the usual nominees but fought at much higher skill levels than pretty much all (Barrera vs. Morales being the only exception that spring to mind)

THAT much action, nonstop, without it ever getting sloppy or wild (in terms of technique) or devolving into foul-laden clinch-fests or anything. Remarkable.

 

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I acknowledged that JMM had underrated power in that very post you quoted. Do you just not KSA his kid bro? Rafael had thunder in his fists.

 

From the poll I truly enjoyed Castillo Corrales.. Another fight I can remember that was pretty good and doesnt get mentioned a lot is Josel Casmayor vs Michael Katsidis..