Top 10 Heavyweight Boxing Matches 1990-2015 (A Fan Documentary)

As far as Ruiz fights went, this was actually one of Ruiz's more entertaining fights. Ruiz had an uncanny ability to turn almost any match-up into a stinker, but he was dropped twice, and watching Norman Stone get ejected made for interesting viewing.

All the same, this is why (to me at least), it made even more sense to have a Byrd-Golota rematch that November.

 

Thanks FranklinDallas. :thumbsup

- I actually liked Byrd's style, personally. My feeling is he overachieved as a heavyweight, and with the exception of Wladimir, who was a stylistic nightmare for Byrd, he usually succeeded in making guys look awkward.

- As I was putting the highlights together, it never ceased to amaze me how Holy's head was almost always in perfect position for favorable type head clashes.

- I did sneak in a quick shot of the balloon! :good But to me, Mike looking so concerned about getting his mouthpiece back in his mouth still looks surreal to me, like something out of a David Lynch film.

- I know I'm in the minority opinion here, but I really believe Golota was an outstanding talent who almost always was involved in fun and entertaining match-ups.

 

Thanks UnleashtheFURY! :good

Brewster-Liakhovich was a pretty incredible fight, but as far as action goes, I definitely prefer Holy-Bowe I and Bowe-Golota II.

But all 3 of those match-ups made for extremely fun viewing, so I can accept any ordering of those depending on one's personal preference.

But to me, Brewster-Liakhovich was the last great heavyweight fight. Nothing has come close since, IMHO.

 

Thanks, Cafe!

:thumbsup

 

Yeah, the Oquendo fight caused a lot of uproar, although I thought it was still really close. If I recall correctly, this was shortly after Mosley-DLH II, and I think Big George was very upset with the decision in that fight, and also Byrd-Oquendo, and I'm pretty sure that was the beginning of the end of his career as a commentator.

Of those 3 fights, I thought Golota beat Byrd most clearly, but Byrd still made all those guys look bad at times.

The McCline fight, to me at least, was Byrd's career defining win, and one which I did have him up on the cards, after being down early, in large due to the knockdown. He fought back bravely in that one.

 

Yeah, it definitely had an "older school vibe" of entertainment value, compared to most fights the last decade. I actually recorded a brief segment of me talking about that and Wlad-Fury in the opening, but I thought my introduction to the list sucked and was less compelling than the list itself, so I never included it.

 

I totally get that. Most fans, I'd imagine, have fond memories of the era that first drew them to the sport, and although I've watched casually since the mid-80s, for me it took another 10 years before I started following regularly and began identifying myself as a big time fan of the sweet science.

While I obviously consider a handful of fights since 1990 more significant in the grand scheme of things, that was a fired-up fight for sure! Incidentally, I think that was one of my longer segments and I still didn't expand as fully on that one as I may have (and may still, at some point).

 

Thanks for the kind words. :good

Yeah, the 7th and 8th rounds were pretty brutal for Bowe. In fact, everything after the 2nd knockdown went mostly poorly for Bowe, and I think a strong justification could have been made for Cotton to stop that one anywhere around that time. But meanwhile, like you said, Bowe hung in there and was firing back every now and again. Bowe had tremendous heart and courage inside the ring. If only he had more heart and dedication outside the ring.