Definitions first. This thread is NOT counting historical significance much. This is looking primarily at thrills/back and forth/tension, which can be elevated by the stature of the fight, ie a hw title or otherwise alot of hype going into it or significance after the fact, but primarily looks at those initial qualities. So, the two greatest fights of all time imo for historical significance, Louis Schemling II and Ali Foreman, probably don't make the top ten here. But I've been watching alot of my all time favorite thrilling hw fights since this, and I really think this stacks up well. The Bowe Holyfield fights contained more landed blows, but fewer kds and except for II, Bowe always seemed to be clearly winning and there wasn't as much tension for me about who was going to win except after the kd in III. Foreman Lyle was even more brutal and tension filled than Wlad AJ, and back and forth, but less boxing and no title. I don't think anything can ever surpass Vit Lewis for me, but Wlad AJ did have more kds and boxing. Anyway, I don't think Wlad AJ is #1, but I do think it will go down comparing very well with the other at HW fights and probably makes top 5 for me under this criteria. Where do you put it?
It's tough to make consistent criteria. The thing is that part of what makes a HW contest thrilling is the stakes, the significance of the bout. For example, Whyte-Chisora was a really good fight but, since it was far less significant, it was not as dramatic or thrilling because not many people cared all that much.
It's one of the best post millenium in terms of top level HW fights but there are loads.. Brewster v Liakovich is my favourite Rahman v Maskaev Lewis v Vitali David Izon vs Derrick Jefferson Golota v Byrd Sanders v Vitali Tua v Ike Brewster v Krasniqi Floyd vs Big Show
Yes, indeed. Let's consider whether something better exists. For example, if Wlad - AJ was a domestic scrap for a minor belt, I'd have enjoyed the action a lot, but it would not have been nearly so thrilling. So it's hard to say "look at the fight regardless of the significance". But there is a counter argument regardless of significance, which is that higher skill-level contests are more exciting, at least to most real boxing fans. I don't really know, it's a difficult question. All I know is that it was more thrilling than any HW fight in recent memory, it probably is top 5 or close to that. Some other shouts for me are the Ali-Frazier matches, Ali-Foreman. More recently, of the top of my head: Sanders - Vitali Tua - Ike Lewis - Sanders edit: voted top 10 to be safe, I'm sure there are a few other fights which my very tired self has forgotten when writing this.
Yeah, that's why I said take into account as a secondary criteria. You can't remove it entirely, but if that's the main criteria, then Louis Schemling II, which wasn't really a thrilling fight would be my #1 and Ali Foreman would be #2, even though Ali was in full control throughout the fight any in that respect it wasn't thrilling. Those fights value came mostly from A Historical impact and symbolism and B Examples of great strategy and defying predictions/impact in the boxing world. I'm looking mainly at thrills and related features but as you said that can't be entirely separated from historical context, in part because it adds to the thrill. I think combining those, but looking more at the thrills, this fight will go down as top 5-10. But like you said, anyone can have a different criteria.
