Most overrated boxing matches of all time

You just have no idea what you are talking about and refuse to learn.

 

The Thrilla

Leonard-Hearns I

Most Ali fights, except Frazier I

 

Manila was the most exciting hwt championship bout I ever attended. The crowd rocked in excitement as each fighter surged round after round.

 

Were you around then? Many voiced their displeasure? I don't ever recall anything but wonderment that Ali who most thought was going to be slaughtered pulled it off against someone who was considered a monster.

 

There's some strange picks on this thread. I don't know how Ali-Foreman, or the Thrilla in Manilla could possibly make this list.

 

Ali-Foreman: Very sloppy fight in which Ali spent large chunks of time leaning back on the ropes and holding Foreman, while Foreman ineptly slugged at him like a drunk barroom brawler. Not my cup of tea.

 

The question is what is the fight of the year arose, but it depends on criteria. One of course is that it is a spectacular fight. But the other is that it has tremendous ramifications in the sports world or even in the wider world.

ESPN had an end of the century poll in 1999 on the greatest sporting events of the 20th century in the USA. The 1958 NFL championship (a close and exciting game) won, but #2 was the second Louis-Schmeling fight. In the debate afterwards there were those who felt it clearly should have been #1. But let's face it, it was a one-sided rout.

Cultural and social implications--immense.

Exciting sporting event--???

Johnson-Jeffries would be another watershed historical event which was a disappointment as a competitive sporting match.

 

That's one way to look at it.

Another is that virtually nobody gave Ali a chance to win this fight. Going into the fight, Foreman was something like 40-0 (37KO's) and had KO's Frazier and Norton is under three rounds, both gave Ali all he could handle.

Ali was thought to be over the hill at the time, being 32 while Foreman looked indestructible and was about 7 years his junior.

Ali's game plan was to try and outbox George in the middle of the ring, which made perfect sense. But Ali realized that to try and outbox George he would have to use about twice that amount of energy and that he wouldn't last the distance, so he decided to fight on the ropes.

George seeing Ali pinned along the ropes and thought he was in a position to take him out. In that vein he threw everything he had at Ali, trying to overwhelm him.

Foreman hit Ali with some terrific body shots that would have caused most other fights to quite in pain, (ie Oscar vs Hopkins) but instead he absorbed the punishment and much to the amazement of Angelo Dundee, actively encouraged George to hit him harder. Now had the ropes not been as loose as they were, this strategy may very well have resulted in Ali getting KO'd, but the ropes were loose enough that when Foreman tried hitting him in the head, he could lean back enough to either make George miss or negate most of the power on his shots. So that took away the idea of hitting Ali in the head and for the most part forced his attack strictly to the body.

Ali also realized that if he waited in between George's attacks, he could flurry and get points and maybe even hurt George, this he tended to due near the end of many of the rounds. As the fight progressed, he felt Foreman's power lessen and so he taunted Foreman with comments such as "is this all you got George?" "Someone said you could throw a powerful punch" which further aggravated Foreman and increased his desire to knock Ali out. Part of the reason Foreman was so determined to knock Ali out, was over the course of the weeks that the fight had been postponed, Ali essentially had the whole country behind him, which Foreman resented.

As the fight progressed and Ali felt the power diminish over the rounds, he saw his chance in the 8th round to not only flurry at the end of the round, but to keep on going which resulted in Foreman getting knocked out.

But the amount of punishment Ali had to absorb to make this strategy work, and the fact that he he essentially invented the "rope a dope" strategy during the fight itself, and given their records going into the fight, it was an amazing display by Ali. There probably wasn't any other fighter on the planet that could have pulled that off. In fact at one point Ali said he was out on his feet twice and George didn't realize it.

So if you want to give credit to someone like Floyd who uses his brains to win fights, why not Ali for essentially inventing a strategy during the fight to beat the most powerful puncher in the world at the time? The big difference being Floyd is almost always the favorite going into the fight, Ali was expected to last 2-3 rounds at most. And in the 2nd round when he started his "rope a dope" strategy, many thought the fight was fixed it was such an unconventional strategy.

 

Goofiness thing about this thread is that it requires answers that can be nothi b G BUT a mere opinion and those answers are mocked as being factually incorrect or some sh/t. What the fvck is wrong with some of you?

 

Klitschko-Lewis

Both guys looked like **** and looked done halfway through the fight. Lewis walking face first into punches. Vitali having his entire face smashed into bits and still holding his hands at his waist trying to lean back to avoid punches.

Wild. Sloppy. Oafish.

But hey, at least you can kinda excuse the abysmal performance put up by Lewis. Not so much for Vitali.

 

I just started reading this thread... and I really don't need to go any further. Agree.:good

 

From a boxing perspective it was indeed sloppy, but from an entertainment perspective it was extremely entertaining. I watch his fight at least 3-4 times a year simply because I find it entertaining and at the end of the day, that's what I look for in a boxing match, entertainment.

 

Yeah I agree.

I just can't get over how ridiculously bad Lewis looked that night. He looked seriously over the hill in there.

 

I agree 100% and I find it hard to listen to those Klitschko fans who keep insisting Lewis was near his prime, simply because he said he was like fine wine, that got better with age. That may have been true up to that fight, but it certainly wasn't anywhere close to a prime Lewis that Vitali fought, especially in the first couple of rounds, when his timing was clearly off. The difference between the Lewis who fought Tyson and the one who fought Vitali was night and day.

 

Lewis was trying to rip Vitalis head off with each right hand.....he was over anxious and wild. If instead he would have properly set up his right it would have been a short night.