One that recently springs to mind for myself is the fight between Acelino Freitas and Joel Casamayor. Two undefeated fighters, both in the primes of their careers. Two guys that were extremely talented, and that stylistically matched up very well. Freitas came out throwing as Casamayor was on the retreat. He really punched hard and was very much looking for the early KO. After dominating the early rounds, Casa finally started to find his feet a bit and began to mount a comeback. He stood his ground more and more, and they traded blistering combinations at times. A dubious knockdown and a point deduction meant that Casa was left with no choice but to really start throwing in the final rounds to get the win. Freitas appeared to have nothing left, and Casa was explosive in his punches and combinations. Yet Freitas simply would not quit, and stood his ground time and time again. The 12th round was unreal, as both guys gave it everything they had. Freitas ended up coming away with a very hard earned decision victory. IMO, the quality of the fighters, and the action and changes in momentum made this a sensational fight to watch. Very suprised it is not spoken of more often.
One of the best HW fights the past 10 years was w/ Lawence Cley-bey vs. Cliff Ettienne on the undercard or Lewis - Tua. Definitley stole the show. This was back when Ettienne and Cley-bey were both primising prospects. Excellent all action fight.
It isn't always a close match up that is the best either. One of the fights I really really enjoyed was Mayweather v Corrales. From memory most boxing writers actually had Corrales the favourite coming in. The performance that Floyd put on was absolutely flawless. The sort of fight that people will hopefully associate a fighter like Mayweather with in years to come. He not only simply outboxed him, but totally dominated with crisp and hard counters, knocking him down something like 6 times from memory before it was stopped.
I'm going with Jones vs. Hopkins. It wasn't much for punching, but the speed and footwork -- and especially the ability to watch how two ATGs stymied each other's offense -- was beautiful.
Interesting, because a lot of people didn't enjoy this fight. in fact i have heard the HBO team make comments that they were shadow boxing for 12 rounds. I actually thought tactically this was a great fight. Hopkins with his great ability to burrow inside, brought out some fantastic combinations and defensive maneouvers from Roy. The angles that Roy would throw from were absolutely unrealy IMO.
Fantastic fight. Every round was seemingly back and forth. Then Oscar adapted to Vargas and stepped it up.
I still havent seen Jones v Hopkins. I probably couldve found it some way but I never heard it described as a must see kinda fight. I think now ill watch it. I like Arguello v Mancini and Hopkins v Trinidad. If HBO didnt hate Hops so much they would put Ex v Tito on Legendary Nights. Barrera v Mckinney was great too. As great as any Mab v Morales fight IMO.
Bobby Chacon vs. Boza Edwards 2. Right after Chacon's unreal fourth fight with Bazooka Limon, Boza Edwards is ripping Chacon's face to shreds, but then Bobby starts his amazing comeback to once again snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
hamed-ingle - cracking little fight. hamed dominates and then starts blowing a gasket from the 8th thru to the 10th. :yep starts running round the ring in the 11th and lands the one punch KO. :bbb
Just don't get your hopes up for an action fight. There aren't many clean punches landed, nor are there many attempts at combinations. What you will see is the mutual neutralization of great offense, and the speed and agility in the right that night was something to behold. And if you're really lucky, you might see a version that includes the glorious Bowe vs. Ferguson bout that was the main event.
