Which fighter looked the most sensational when you started following boxing?

Leonard Hearns and Tyson

 

1983, so Hagler was thought of as The Man for sure. He was my favorite not because he was considered the best but because of the throwback aura he had. I was a student of the history of the sport, devouring everything I could at the time of older fighters and anything leading up to that time and Hagler seemed to embody the spirit of the old days in real time, which I loved. Made me feel more connected to it all.

 

I had been boxing for a number of years, but in 1976 i saved up my money and bought a book called Superfists: The Story of the World Heavyweight Champions, to see images of every champion was like looking at superheros, the 2 champions i instantly was in awe of were Dempsey, as firstly he looked like my father plus his out and out aggression was well reported and Rocky Marciano, i can picture the image of Rocky throwing a right uppercut and showed his raw power.

As the above shows i was not a student of the fancy dan defensive fighting style, wished i had been in my boxing days, as i would have had less lumps and bumps on my face with my style of taking three blows to land my one, but hoping my one heavier punch had more effect, sometimes successful but alasothertimes much less so, ah well i was young, that was my excuse

 

I remember this guy

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As an eleven year old in 1966,Muhammad Ali was in his pomp. I'd vaguely watched boxing in earlier years but I'd never seen anyone like Muhammad up to that point.

 

I'll never forget that second knockdown by Curry in the Milton McCrory fight. Don walked up to Milton and,to the casual eye,looked like he was measuring him up for a suit and landed the shot that ended the brief unification bout. Like many others I thought that the "Lone Star Cobra" would be the numero uno p4p for a long time.

 

On a local level at my younger years it was Willie The Worm Monroe…on a world level it was probably SRL

edit: spelling

 

I’m a huge Nelson fan and I was also blown away that it was a draw. Upon rewatching it was closer than I thought at the time but I still felt Fenech deserved it. I didn’t really know anything about Fenech at the time outside of his name…but he quickly became one of my favorites coming out of that fight

 

Sharmba Mitchell looked impressive then fell apart at world class level

 

NOBODY had seen anyone like Ali up to that point…or since

 

I bought the Panchito Bojado hype

 

I watched the FOTC and loved Smokin Joe, but the fighter who I thought was something very different and was the most terrifying fighter wearing gloves,,,Roberto Duran

 

I'm jealous of some of you older guys that had boxing more visible in your youth.
I wasn't wealthy and my family wasn't into boxing, so I mostly remember looking at Ring magazine at the supermarket and seeing random boxing content on late shows and whatnot.
For me George Foreman always stood out as some kinda big boxing Santa Claus figure to me. When I heard he regained the title and the reporting on that afterward, he seemed like this kinda legendary mythical figure to me.

Later when my life situation changed I remember seeing a rerun of Pacquiao vs Marquez before the Katsidis vs Casamayor fight. Pacquiao rather blew my mind from that point and continued to blow my mind for years after that.

 

Prime Ray Leonard before his post Hagler shenanigans.

 

Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr, and Oscar de la Hoya were among the very first fighters that I saw in the 90s that made me be a fan of boxing. They all possessed wicked hand speed and power that made me a huge admirer when they fought.