Most heroic/admirable losing performances?

Dempsey vs. Tunney II is a bad idea.

Bowe vs. Holyfield I
Cotto vs. Margarito
Marquez vs. Pacquaio
Tarver vs. Jones I (first time Jones looked human)

 

I would say Roy Jones-Richard Hall (minus the positive drug tests), but Hall wasn't competitive nor did he do any damage to Roy other than some decent body shots. But my god, did he get the crap kicked out of him and still protested the stoppage.

Mike Tyson-Razor Ruddock 2.

Take a look at the body shots Ruddock took, and the state of his face at the end of the fight.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcVJVvDTJeo[/ame]

 

Roy Jones Jr vs Richard Hall. How in the hell Hall took that beating Ill never no. He was furious at the ref for stopping it.

 

Man I forgot how just how good a fight Ruddock-Tyson II was.:good

Tyson and his fans have some nerve whining about Holyfield head butting after watching the paint job Mike did on Ruddocks aggots though.

 

Dempsey-Tunney II was competitive?

 

Gatti vs Ward

Amazing that no one mentioned these fights yet.

 

Some heroic AND admirable performances
Buddy McGirt vs. Pernell Whitaker I
Jose Stable vs. Emile Griffith
Howard Winstone vs. Vicente Saldivar II
Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Manny Pacquiao I (Marques should have lost)
Marcel Cerdan vs. Jake Lamotta
Bobby Dykes vs. Ray Robinson
Mario Alberto DeMarco vs. Myung Woo Yuh I
Alberto Jimenez vs. Mark Johnson
Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali III

Some heroic performances
Pernell Whitaker vs. Felix Trinidad
Frankie ****** vs. Buddy McGirt II
Paulie Malignaggi vs. Miguel Cotto
Carmen Basilio vs. Gene Fullmer I
Charley Riley vs. Sandy Saddler
Johnny Bratton vs. Kid Gavilan III

 

Lou Nova copped a bad,bad beating from Tony Galento featuring all of Galento's filthy, dirty tricks but gutted it out until the 14th round until he was stopped. He was hideously disfigured and almost lost an eye from Galento's constant thumbs which for some reason the referee let him get away with.

Ahh the good old days of boxing :-(

 

Maybe not quite the calibre of some the other fights mentioned, but last year Daniel Dawson stepped in as a last minute replacement to challenge for Dzinziruk's MW title. Dawson ate Dzinzurik's jab and was quite thoroughly outboxed for 10 rounds before getting stopped. That said at no stage did he give up, he kept coming forward, kept trying to maintain pressure, kept looking for the knockout. Very gutsy performance imo.

 

Saad Muhammad v Qawi

 

Old Foreman VS Holyfield!

 

for a few seconds when Dempsey got a lucky flurry knockdown.