Your favourite technical battles

Usyk-Brieidis

 

Ezzard Charles vs Harold Johnson
James Toney vs Mike McCallum 1
James Toney vs Michael Nunn
Mike McCallum vs Donald Curry
Donald Curry vs Marlon Starling 2
Juan Manuel Marquez vs Marco Antonio Barrera
Pernell Whitaker vs Buddy McGirt 1
Lupe Pintor vs Alberto Davila 2
Masao Ohba vs Betulio Gonzalez
Oleksandr Usyk vs Mairis Breidis
Johnny Tapia vs Danny Romero
Gilberto Roman vs Santos Laciar 1
Yuri Arbachakov vs Chatchai Sasakul 1
Ernesto Marcel vs Kuniaki Shibata
Mike McCallum vs Sumbu Kalambay 2
Chucho Castillo vs Rafael Herrera 2

 

De La Hoya vs Mosely the first fight.

 

Great thread Jel.

Flo has named a heap of good ones so I'll try and stay away from those.

Hearns - Benitez

Benitez was a defensive freak who actually thrived on going to the ropes and corners and letting you flail away as he was one of the greatest counter punchers from such positions that ever breathed. It was boxing 101 to stay out of the corners and if you cornered someone take advantage of it. Even SRL couldn't find him at times when he thought he had him, to the extent of telling Dundee, but he's right there!!

Hearns and Steward expanded on the Dundee/SRL blueprint. Hearns barely ever followed him to the ropes (Wilfred's spider web), utilized the jab heavily, threw hard right hands at his heart, and utilized no end of feints. He'd also look to the body and punch to the head and various other tactics. Despite the scoring Hearns beat him by quite a decent margin. I seem to remember a KD counting against Hearns that was a slip and he was also penalized for pulling Benitez' head down. He busted his right hand in round 8 and had to rely even more heavily on the left hand and feints.

He outboxed the master boxer that night.

 

Spinks - Braxton/Qawi was decided on tactics and technique. Futch devised a master plan where Spinks mostly shelved his monster right hand (Qawi was a beast at countering right hands), utilized his left in a big variety of ways and often moved away from Qawi's right hand.

Maybe not as aesthetically pure as asked but it was mostly a boxing match when everyone thought it would be a brawl.

 

Leonard - Benitez featured a lot of pure boxing. Leoanrd showed an excellent jab and elite level skills that night. I was actually surprised on a rewatch to see Leonard was strongly in control but it was still an elite level skills fest.

 

Andy Cruz vs Raymond Muratalla is a great technical battle, and so far it's the fight of the year.

 

I really like the Toney- McCallum trilogy

 

Salvador Sánchez vs Azumah Nelson

 

Mike McCallum vs James Toney 1
Ken Norton vs Larry Holmes
Winky Wright vs Jermain Taylor
Sugar Ray Leonard vs Wilfred Benitez
Pernell Whitaker vs Buddy McGirt 1
Donald Curry vs Marlon Starling 2
Larry Holmes vs Tim Witherspoon
Marco Antonio Barrera vs Juan Manuel Marquez
Salvador Sanchez vs Ruben Castillo
Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury 1
Josh Taylor vs Regis Prograis

 

McCallum Vs Graham

 

Louis-Schmeling, Louis-Conn, Archer-Mims, Canzoneri-McLarnin, Canzoneri-Ambers, Canzoneri-Chocolate, Canzoneri-Berg, Walker-Hudkins, Tunney-Dempsey, Graham-Basilio, Giardello-Tiger, etc., etc.

 

Jose Napoles v Hedgemon Lewis I
Jose Napoles v Clyde Gray
EDER jofre v Jose Medel I

 

Many great mentions above, to which I add:

Sanchez - Nelson
Monzon-Benvenuti
Chavez-Rosario
Toney-McCallum (both)
McFarland - Gibbons
Klitschko - Povetkin