Your favorite high skilled bouts

As far as great pure high skilled chess match goes:
JMM vs Barrera
Donald Curry vs Marlon Starling 2 / Mike McCallum
Mike McCallum vs James Toney 1 / Sunny Kalambay 2
James Toney vs Michael Nunn
Pernell Whitaker vs Buddy McGirt 1
Sugar Ray Leonard vs Wilfredo Benitez
Alberto Davila vs Lupe Pintor
Masao Ohba vs Betulio Gonzalez
Harold Johnson vs Ezzard Charles

 

Nunn vs Tate was good too. Nunn toyed with Olympic gold medalist Tate like he was nothin.

Duran vs Barkley.
Hopkins vs Trinidad
Cesar Chaves Sr vs Rosario

 

Mayweather Jr. - Canelo is a good one. Some may claim it to be boring, but in terms of skills the fight was great! Mayweather staying in the pocket and totally outboxing his much younger foe.

I also enjoy watching James Toney fight. The way he dismantled Holyfield was pretty impressive imo, especially given how durable Holyfield is and Toney not being a natural HW at all. Skills over muscle and strenght.

 

The way people talk about it, you would think Nunn was dominating and Toney said a Hail Mary and landed that left hook. It’s bull**** revisionist history. Toney had come on strong from round 7 or 8 or so, and the fight was closer than the Iowa judges had it for their hometown guy.

Nunn was super talented but never really put it together (or held it together). After that 3 fight stretch against Tate, Roldan, Kalambay), he wasn’t able to keep it together. But I would pick him at his peak to be at least competitive with probably any MW in history.

 

I think Hagler’s two fights with Briscoe and Mugabi are showcases for his versatility, and also show how he aged in 8 years. Hagler spent a good portion, particularly early on, against Briscoe on the backfoot. When they fought at close quarters, Hagler was effective there as well.

Hagler still used his jab to great effect against Mugabi, he jabbed him silly at times, but his legs and defensive reflexes had definitely slowed. I thought they had noticeably slowed against Roldan. Again, Hagler was very effective when they fought at close quarters and broke Mugabi down. But Hagler had to show his great chin and ability to absorb body punches as he took some very hard shots. They both pissed blood afterwards.