Carmen Basilio vs SRR fight 2....the one where Basilio's eye looks like someone used a purple patch and sewed it shut.
He wasn't hurt but his constant workman like effort was incredible how it slowly turned the tide: Chavez vs Taylor
I still wince when I see Gatti get hit with that hook to the liver, take a step back and ... just collapse. How he got up, how he kept going, I'll never know.
A buddy of mine had been in camp sparring with Ruben Olivares at the end of Ruben's career. He's fighting in some border town against a clubfighter named Rafael Gandarilla who wasn't good enough to spar with Ruben in Ruben's heyday. So my buddy is seated by Ruben's corner and is watching the goings-on. He told me that Ruben showed up for the fight severely hung over and proceeds to take a thumping from this boxing non-entity. He told me that Ruben certainly didn't need the money, his head is throbbing from the night before and is severely cut. Yet, he is absolutely crying/pleading with the doctor between rounds not to stop the fight. My buddy said he had never seen heart like that in his life.
Wonder if Jose Napoles & Ruben Olivares ever went out on the town drinking together, and got into some brawls with a some patrons at a cantina or two?
Hagler vs Hamsho 1 Hamsho absorbed Hagler best punches and cuts after fight needed over 50 stitches. Rarely has a fighter being more courageous in defeat.
Not seen that one jup, 50 stitches! Ouch. That was Hagler for you, a destructive fighting machine. That guy was made to fight!
I'm going to say Mike Tyson against Buster Douglas. To many that was just a bully getting his comeuppance from someone fighting back against him but looking back I'm impressed by Tyson not giving up and still trying to win even though he was gradually getting a beating as the rounds went on, which showed in the damage to his face. He almost did pull out the win in the 8th but then took another beating in the next round. Even when he was finally put down and out in the 10th, with his senses scrambled, he was instinctively trying to find his fallen gum shield to put back and get up.
An epic fight Joe Jennette vs Sam McVey, lasting 49 rds. Here are some quotes from that fight: "I sure did give him an awful pasting with everything I had. Jennette just wasn’t human. Every time he hit the floor thought I could pull off off my gloves an’ call it a night. At the beginning of the forty-ninth we were both badly banged up, and it was a tossup which of us was in worst shape. My legs were gone and I was dizzy. “Come on boy’ Joe said. “I am gonna knock the daylight out of you”. “No Joe”, I said. I am through for the evening. You spend the rest of it figuring how many times I knocked you down. Sam McVey-You’re not human, you win Joe, my eyes are closed and I can’t see you anymore, it’s your fight National Police Gazette: Of the victor no words of mine could speak in too high eulogy Not so much for his victory, but for the extraordinary and positively superhuman courage he displayed to the end. And that, mark you, won him the day. Exactly how many times he was floored and apparently finished I’ve almost forgotten, and yet this extraordinary mass of human fighting material would always rise and plug on and on, until I began wonder whether the man was really human. I sure did give him an awful pasting with everything I had. Jennette just wasn’t human. Every time he hit the floor thought I could pull off off my gloves an’ call it a night. At the beginning of the forty-ninth we were both badly banged up, and it was a tossup which of us was in worst shape. My legs were gone and I was dizzy. “Come on boy’ Joe said. “I am gonna knock the daylight out of you”. “No Joe”, I said. I am through for the evening. You spend the rest of it figuring how many times I knocked you down. A little background both Jennette and McVey were members of the “Big Four”. McVey was the Tyson of his day, and is included in every top punchers list. Jennette was down 24 times in that fight he got up each time and in the end he won.
Lord wouldn't you like to see a tape of that! I seem to recall reading that Jeannette was knocked down something like 17 times in the first 21 rounds ! Without question, the greatest fight nobody knows