What are the classic fights at heavyweight where the swarmer beat the puncher?

I don't know that I would call them classics, but the first two such heavyweight fights which come to my mind are Frazier/Bonavena I & II. Ringo was the sort of puncher who really needed to get set to tee off, but Smoke successfully minimized his opportunities to do so. After Ali stopped Bonavena, Ringo intimated to Muhammad that he had found himself to be physically stronger than Joe in their two bouts.

Another such bout Smoke was in which wasn't a classic, but an excellent example of a slugger prevailing over a puncher, was his final successful title defense against Ron Stander. Big Ron had actually slugged out a knockout win over Earnie Shavers, and continually advanced on Joe in their brawl. But despite Ron's power and strength, Smoke demonstrated very underrated footwork, outmanuevering Stander, and effectively using his superior handspeed to bust Ron up. Eventually, Frazier was able to stun Ron, and drive him back to the ropes momentarily, proving that if Stander's face had been resistant to any facial damage that he would have ultimately succumbed to Joe's steadily devastating strikes anyway.

Considering Joe's excellent performance in dispatching Big Ron, it's easy to understand why most expected him to repell Foreman's challenge.

Once again, I realize these examples do not necessarily represent "classic" heavyweight examples of a swarmer beating a slugger, but I would imagine they express the sort of instances being sought after.

 

Especially considering how Foreman had looked in some of his previous fights.

Foreman performed above himself in Jamaica, compared to most of what had been seen of him in previous fights.

 

Brewster-Klitschko I ! Heh

 

Tommy Morrison vs. George Foreman. Though it should be noted that George didnt have the same snap in his punches as he did when he was younger and Tommy of course did a pernell whitaker impression fighting essentially a very different fight.

 

Good point.

Also, while Frazier got the decision in the first Bonavena fight, I do not think it was deserved.

 

Mendoza--How about Uzcudun defeating Baer?

The most successful 'swarmers' such as Dempsey and Marciano have also been big punchers which makes this question hard to answer.

What do you think about Dempsey-Firpo?

 

It is an extremely rare thing. Just the fact that the experts here fail to come up with a few good examples in over 100 years of boxing shows that.

Sharkey drew with Jeffries. I'm not really sure who would've deserved the decision (most i've read said Jeffries), but the fact that he went the 25 ronud distance with a bigger, harder puncher while being a swarmer is noteworthy. Then again, with smaller gloves and more rounds, knockouts are a bit harder because you have to conserve energy, can break your hands and combinations aren't used as much.

 

George looked down from his 6'3" vantage point into 5' 11" Fraizer's eyes and said: " I am going to whup you like I'm your daddy" and
Frazier blinked.

Then the flailing, followed by bouncing, commenced.

 

Marciano Layne perhaps??? But at that time it was just 2 big punchers going at it.

 

Holyfield-Foreman
Holyfield-Tyson
Marciano-Louis (both powerful though)

 

Holyfield was not a swarmer.

LaMotta was and he beat Satterfield, who was a puncher.