Greatest performance of the 1980s

You win.

 

He had the style to beat Ray, but not the heart. His style of putting his hands up were not like Starling who shifted them around. Bramble just put them put them up and thought it wwould be enough without much foot movement. Against Rosario that would never work.

 

Hearns KO2 Duran

Duran in his previous fight had just gone 15 rounds with Middleweight king Marvin Hagler while Hearns hadn’t scored a knockout in 2 years. Hearns was the favourite going into the fight but just about everyone thought this would be a distance fight and a points decision. Right from the start Hearns was in devastating form using a combination of his size and reach with power and speed to totally overwhelm Duran. You could literally hear the thud of the final right hand landing that left Duran pitching forward face down onto the canvas.

 

It was devastating wasn't it. Not only does it hold up at the time but it holds up with everything Duran did afterward too.

 

Pryor-Arguello I is probably the best fight I’ve ever seen but it’s never sat easily with me. It’s hard to ignore the fact Pryor got unfair help. Still a great battle but has an asterisk when talking great performance for me.

 

Do you feel the same way about Miguel Happy Lora’s win over Alberto Davila in thier 2nd fight?

 

I’ll be honest I don’t know the backstory to this fight. I watched it once many years ago and that’s it. Pryor-Arguello though is alarming in that he was tired and getting the worst of it then he wakes up. Honestly it’s possible it robbed Pryor of a fair win.

 

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/miguel-lora-vs-alberto-davila-ii-controversy.522822/

Another articl from Ring/HOF conversation

Negative Elements: Controversy swirled around his second title fight with Davila, for it was discovered that his bottle contained sugar water, an illegal stimulant. While Lora won a convincing decision, and while the WBC cleared Lora of wrongdoing following a post-fight investigation, the victory still has a cloud of doubt and begs the question of how many other fights his corner used this ploy against more inattentive inspectors.

https://www.ringtv.com/182287-hall-of-fame-ballot-deliberation/2/

Amphetamines found on first test, but not on the second

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/16/sports/sports-people-contradictory-tests.html

He apparently was cleared on a controversial 4-3 vote.

I like Lora it just always bothers me that no one talks about this one....I guess because it was not as high profile as Pryor Arguello

 

I think it’s most obvious on film that Pryor gained a huge advantage out of the blue. Like I say it’s perhaps unfair on him because I give the fighters the benefit of the doubt (as I do most often) in that they don’t know what’s going in their body. I just feel Pryor advantage looked very obvious.