What moment got you into boxing?

i first got into boxing around 1985. some of my early interest centred around larry holmes and his fights with spinks and with holmes being 48-0 and wanting him to break marciano's undefeated record, which ended in me being dissapointed.

was around that time that hagler and hearns fought each other and that was the fight that truely got me hooked. the build up was great, they truely disliked each other and i cheered hagler on as tommys spaghetti legs gave way. that fight not only got me into watching hagler and hearns but it also made me interested in leonard and duran with how they had all been linked together. i got hold of tapes and watched all the previous fights between them as leonard fought through adversity like a great champ until hearn's spaghetti legs gave way and then i saw the rest of the fights between these 4 and i was in awe of the rivalry.

my favourite fighter was ray leonard though, i loved the skills, the showboating, and above everything i loved the fact that he could fight in adversity and had plenty of heart and courage to adapt in a fight when the going got tough. soon after, leonard announced that he was to come out of retirement and fight hagler so i was over the moon. i watched the tape of the hagler v leonard fight every day for years afterwards. i always thought leonard won that fight and i couldn't understand the controversy, though if i watch it back now, its closer than i actually thought.

around the time all this was happenning, there was the emergence of mike tyson as well who looked invincible so you can see why it was pretty easy to get hooked on boxing back then, especially when the big fights were all on terrestrial tv, till leonard v hearns 2 forced us to buy a sky dish.

 

The rise and reign of Mike Tyson.

 

Rocky III has a lot of credit, too.

 

I remember when our hometown fighter Roberto Elizondo was taking on Arguello back in 1981. I believe it was on ABC . I was only 7 at the time but remember all the neighbors being pumped up. Looking back now I guess Elizondo never really had a chance against an atg.

 

Sugar Ray Leonard had me captivated as a kid. Then I got to watching boxing and seeing greats like Hagler and Hearns go at it... I was hooked at a very young age.

 

i got into boxing when i found out that boxing and football would get me out of doing as many exercises (army) than the rest of the guys lol

 

As a child watching Barry McGuigan fights. The only time we were allowed to stay up late was to watch McGuigan fight. The excitement was awesome....

 

As a kid in the eighties watching Tyson tear through the heavyweight division.

It seemed like he fought someone nearly every weekend at the time. When you look back at his record now, he virtually did!

That and the Rocky films. It's been mentioned a few times now but Rocky three and four were about that same sort of time period.
I remember seeing four at the cinema with my mum. She was convinced Drago would turn out to be a robot.

Silly *****.

 

The experts were already tipping him to possibly become the greatest fighter of all time. Sounds far fetched now but that's really how unbeatable he seemed at the time.

He was absolutely destroying good fighters (and world champions) in a way nobody had ever seen before.

When I heard at school the next morning that he'd been beaten by Buster Douglas, it genuinely didn't seem possible. I couldn't comprehend it and was desperate to see the following day's newspaper for a photo, just so I could see it with my own eyes.

 

Living in the same neighborhood as Ray Leonard in the early 80's was the treat of my life.......

Leonard Hearns I was the fight that did it for me, been hooked every since.....

Watching Mike Tyson wreck the heavyweight division in the 80s were also very cool..............

Alexis Arguello was great, and Muhammad Ali was obviously a boxing god.....

 

Foreman-Lyle is probably what brought me in initially. That's the first fight I can remember seeing around the time it happened. The fight that really cemented it for me though was Leonard-Hearns I. I've been a diehard boxing fan ever since.

 

Tyson vs Lewis