Greatest Round 12 of all time

Round 12

Better set of rounds than the round 11s - there was some tough competition for the top spot.

7. De La Hoya-Quartey
Great start to the round before they both ran out of steam.
6. Ali-Frazier 3
Great fight and a tough round but better in context than as a standalone 3 minutes.
5. Vasquez-Marquez 3
Great performance from Vasquez who batters Marquez around the ring and pulls out the win. As a standalone 3 minutes, just a bit one-sided.
4. Fletcher-Jackson
Wild action with some terrific exchanges.
3. Barrera-Morales 3
Way better than I remembered it, great exchanges.
2. Duddy-Campas
This was awesome - could have been number 1.
1. Gomez-Pintor
One of my personal favourites. This had everything - continuous action, momentum swings and the unforgettable image of Gomez being carried back to his former after being battered at the end by Pintor.

 

Will get to this tomorrow, but I've just watched Bowe-Holyfield II, and that had a great 12th. Another one we missed... although there's probably 30-40 great 12th rounds we've missed, so oh well!

 

Oh, man, I always get excited when I see a new round posted. I'm going to be lost when this is over. But getting on to round 12. What is more and more obvious since round 11 is the loss of sharpness to the punch as these rounds tick by. DLH-Ike was going great and a sheer win for the first minute and a half and then stopped. Gomez-Pintor was very good as was Barrera-Morales which may be my runnerup. Vasquez-Marquez was good, albeit a bit one-sided. Ali-Frazier went a bit flat for me as they were brutally tired. Duddy-Campas was terrific and I was hemming and hawing until I saw Fletcher-Jackson. Wow! The punches were so sharp, with both fighters exchanging fortunes right down to the wire. An easy pick for me for Fletcher-Jackson. It had that 'wow' factor.

 

It's obviously in the eye of the beholder as to what you like in a round but did the people who voted for Ali-Frazier 3 really watch all 7 rounds before making their decision?

 

I was thinking that one way to do a truly exhaustive list of great rounds is to again go round by round but then go division by division to try ans capture them all. But that might take years. I'm having a stab at it at the moment just for heavyweight (as it's an easy-ish starting point) and relaxing the restriction on full 3 minutes as well.

 

I was quite stunned on that one myself. I felt it was one of the least exciting rounds we've watched. I totally respect everyone's decision - like you said it is in the eye of the beholder - but did legendary status play into this? Was the round really watched? I like to think everyone saw something in every round picked that they really enjoyed. I watch every second of every round and even if its some obscure fight, when I feel it, I tick that box. But it has to contain the elements of competitiveness, sharpness and that jolt I get that causes me to yell "whooa!" aloud. I think many of you know what I mean.

 

Better selection than round 11. Where Round 11 felt like the last stands of people down in the fight, this felt like the final push of those who felt that they may have caught up, but needed one final nudge. As such, a lot of these were perhaps a tad too one-sided (Oscar-Ike, Vasquez-Marquez) but were a lot of fun.

My three standouts were Ali-Frazier, Campus-Duddy, & Pintor-Gomez. Ali-Frazier didn't quite hit the levels of HIGH DRAMA, and while Campus-Duddy hit probably higher levels of drama (especially in the context of Campus falling behind huge after building an early lead) Pintor-Gomez was just some back and forth, high-level stuff. Robbed a bit of DRAMA because it wasn't a 'final round'.

Vote Pintor-Gomez

 

Norton - Holmes

 

Was thinking about this earlier, so I decided to make a quick one (at HW) before I got underway ranking these rounds.

R1: Moorer vs Cooper
R2: Lyle vs Shavers
R3: Holy vs Cooper
R4: Foreman vs Lyle
R5: Bowe vs Golota II
R6: Marciano vs Moore
R7: Holmes vs Snipes
R8: Tyson vs Douglas
R9: Holmes vs Witherspoon
R10: Holyfield vs Bowe I
R11: Holmes vs Weaver I
R12: Bowe vs Holyfield II
R13: Marciano vs Walcott I
R14: Ali vs Frazier III
R15: Holmes vs Norton

Edit: changed round 12, but now I'm pretty stumped since most HW fights are awful as they get late on. I guess I'll go with Bowe-Holy II.

 

No summary here, as I'd got to the fourth round and realized I hadn't wrote anything. And I couldn't be arsed going back, so I didn't. I did keep a mental note of them, so I sorta have a rough ranking.

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• #7. Ali vs Frazier III
• #6. De La Hoya vs Quartey
• #5. Campas vs Duddy
• #4. Fletcher vs Jackson
• #3. Vasquez vs Marquez III
• #2. Morales vs Barrera III
• #1. Gomez vs Pintor

Ali-Frazier III is overrated as whole IMO (although still amazing), but I saw this round as mostly holding and smothering. Not all too entertaining IMO, so I may readjust the HW list above. Hoya-Quartey was really good for about a minute and a half, then **** for the rest.

I'm quite impartial on these 4, since they're all on a similar level. All had amazing action, and some drama. Can see any order here, but I liked the order I did based on a combination of skill and 'non-sloppiness'. Also, the lower weights had a workrate and ferocity that the middleweights couldn't match.

I guess I just liked the 'well-roundedness' of Gomez-Pintor. It had the action of the last 4 I mentioned, the skill of Morales-Barrera (higher IMO) and the most drama, to boot.

 

Morales vs Pacquaio is the best 12th round I've ever seen.

Closely followed by Vasquez vs Marquez 3.