your earliest memories...

mike tyson's comeback fight after he was jailed for three years... i was like 8 years old and that makes me a boxing fan..

 

jg: fascinating post.

the 1st fight i remember watching is hagler leonard, it was on at stupid o'clock down to the time difference. a few of us lads at school were well looking forward to it, so i know i was already into boxing, but i don't recall any details.

 

I didn't watch this fight live, as it was from America and I was only 8 at the time but hearing and seeing the news about Lennox Lewis vs Vitali Klitschko, when Vitali needed like 70 stitches. I remember thinking: 'Wow, he must have got beaten really badly!', I had nightmares about Vitali's busted-up face, but seeing the fight soon after with my dad, I saw it was more complex than that!

 

Watching Mike Tyson bite off Holyfield's ear.

Also watching a very young and uber thin Pacquiao KO a fellow Pinoy boxer in round 1 at some local mall.

 

Ah yes, forgot about the Tyson ear-biting, of course.

 

Collins v Benn 1.

 

Leonard-Hagler as well...

 

Watching Dick Tiger on Gillette Friday Night Fights probably back in the late 1950's.

Yeah, I'm an Old fart!:yep

From a site I found about the program mentioned above.

Gillette’s Friday Night Fights and Boxing in the 1950's

I still remember watching the Friday Night Fights with my father back in the 1950’s. It was a ritual for my father. I remember the old beer commercials and the company that my father had at the house when we watched the fights, usually my uncle Gilbert and uncle Jimmy. I was young but I clearly remember. I didn’t know who was fighting but I just loved being there with my dad. I would ask my father “Who are you voting for?” he would laugh and say “You don’t vote for the fighters, son”. I didn’t quite get it yet. Sometimes I would see what appeared to be an opening and yell out to my father “How come he didn’t throw a punch” His answer was almost always. “It’s a lot harder to see those things when you’re in the ring”. I would run around the house throwing punches at imaginary opponents. I wanted to be a boxer. My father had some old leather boxing gloves and a speed bag in the garage. I would punch away at the bag without any real knowledge of what I was doing. I just wanted to feel like a boxer.

 

My earliest memories are Bugner beating Cooper, Dave Green beating Stracey and Ali beating Foreman. I remember a black lad doing the "rope a dope" in the park the next day! He had an afro more like Jimmy Ellis did against Joe Frazier, though.