Classic Boxing Fights

I will be posting links to some classic Boxing fights as I come across them in this thread. I have been rewatching the classics recently.

Some you guys might have already seen, some you might have never heard of.

Will try to link to full fights only if they are available.

To start off:



Chacon was like the Gatti of the 80s, he had many great wars with both Boza & Limon. Shortly before this fight his wife Valerie killed herself (I heard because he promised to retire after his previous war in which he took a lot of damage but didn't do so) so he was going through a lot at that time outside the ring.



This is another great slug fest but not so well known, Holyfield vs Bowe overshadowed this fight that year.

Thanks a lot, man. I love boxing videos and discussion. We really need a group to bring some life to our boxing section. I'll be watching it soon.

You are welcome Wolfman.

The Boza-Edwards II fight is a personal favorite of mine, what guts and determination from both guys.

Sadly Chacon's life is marred by tragedy outside the ring, his health condition is really bad now thanks to all the wars he had been in.

Battles against Freddie Roach, Arturo Frias and Davey Montana were crowd-pleasing brawls, but it was clear that Chacon was paying a high price for his long career. Following his fight with Rafael Solis in 1985, he showed badly slurred speech in his post-fight interview, and his boxing career was soon over.
As the years passed, Chacon's health continued to deteriorate. He would disappear for periods at a time. He began to use crack cocaine. In the 1990s, HBO's Real Sports program found him searching for aluminum cans to make end's meet.
Presently, Chacon is monitored by a nurse employed by the state of California. His considerable fortune is gone. It is a sad story in a life defined by them. But Bobby still receives the affection of fans whenever he attends a fight or a benefit. They will never forget the savage art he produced.

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Bobby_Chacon

In 1991 his son Bobby Jr. was shot dead at age 17.

Boza was doing okay last I heard, put his daughters through private schools.

Just finished rewatching Sugar Ray Robinson vs Jake Lamotta 6th and final fight (also known as "St. Valentines Day Massacre"), the famous "Raging Bull" fight scene is within the context of this fight, though Jake never actually said the famous "you never got me down Ray" line that's in the movie.

You have to marvel at Jake's chin as to how he took that kind of a beating & still didn't go down.

This guy has rd's 1 to 10 on his profile but the vid for 11 to 13 was blocked for me:



So here are the last 2 rounds from a different uploader:



Jake is still alive and well at 90 years old (a miracle almost considering the beatings he took in the ring):

Cool man. I used to watch a lot of boxing back in the days and my interest for the sport is coming back again.

Two ATG's go toe to toe in 1931 for 15 rounds, widely regarded as one of the best LW fights of all time then.

Check out the slip, roll, and counter display Kid Chocolate puts on Canzoneri from about the 7:08 to 7:15 mark in part 4, and bear in mind this is the 14th round of a consistently high paced bout.

A tribute video to Tony:



The fight we are going to focus on is with ATG Jack Kid Berg "The Whitechapel Whirlwind." Berg had beaten Canzoneri by a split decision a year before and is the reigning 140 pound champion. Canzoneri is the reigning 135 champion. These two do something pretty cool. They agree to meet under 135 and put BOTH championships on the line. Two ATG's dead in their primes.

Go to 1:30 of this video. Berg has the Star of David on his trunks

At 1:30 Canzoneri lands a right uppercut and left hook. Remember that.

For 30 seconds watch Canzoneri's impossible quickness, reflexes, head movement and how he jars the great Berg every time he hits him. Then at 1:55 watch Canzoneri lands a left uppercut and a right cross to end the fight. Then watch it in slow motion because it is almost too fast for regular film.

Nice thread, I like those old fights.

The famous "Brawl in Montreal" with two ATG's going at it for 15 rounds.

Duran's greatest victory perhaps alongside the Barkley fight.

^ Wow! I was just about finished Grade 9 my first year of high school when that fight went down. One of the best fights in boxing history.

I have great memories of all the top fights of the 70's & 80's. Ali, Frazier, Hearns, Hagler, Leonard & Duran. Most fight were live on Free TV on ABC or CTV here in Canada. I don't think closed-circuit satellite PPV's started until the beginning of the 80's.

These fights were like the SuperBowl X10 as far a viewers went world-wide. Some times over a billion like the Olympics. Maybe more for some fights. If you walked down the street on fight night there was very few people out. You'd also see the glow of the TV in most every living room with people gathered round watching the fight. I don't think today's generation of sports fans can really understand how huge those big boxing fights on free TV were. I'm not sure if the World Cup finals even beat them today for world wide viewers. It was awesome.

Chacon was such a stud. He could really take a beating.

That was indeed a great era for Boxing with Hagler, Hearns, Duran, and Leonard fighting all the same time, not to mention Arguello in late 70s and early 80s.

Duran vs Arguello looked like it could happen, Arguello expressed his wishes to fight Duran and made the public challenge after defeating Escalera the 1st time around. Duran and his team seemed open to it too, and said the fight was very likely to happen in the fall of '78. It was the biggest non-heavyweight fight to be made in boxing at the time, as most viewed the two fighters as the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the game. But then a funny thing happened that summer as Arguello prepped for that huge fight with a quick little tuneup at 135...He lost to Vilomar Fernandez. End of superfight.

But 80s was also a dark period for Boxing which most people don't remember now (we are all inclined to remember the good about the old days I guess). The boom for Boxing on network lasted till 82, started off great with all the momentum it received in the late 70's (76 US Olympic team, original Rocky movie, etc) and was readily available network television. Over 70 important fights were broadcast on the networks in 1980 alone, with a significant number being primetime bouts. Tremendous ratings too, and high profile sponsors showed up in droves to get a piece of the pie. The networks were also known to pay million dollar plus fees to buy the fights at the time too, and not just for the heavyweight division. Boxing went through a pretty good boom period from 1977,78 to 1982. Then a few things happened within a month or two span at the end of '82, beginning of '83...The most popular fighter at the time, Ray Leonard, was forced to retire due to an eye injury. Possibly the 2nd most popular fighter in Alexis Arguello found himself laid out at the scary end of a fight with Pryor with people fearing for his health if not his life. Tex Cobb takes a one sided 15 round beating at the hands of Larry Holmes, which prompted "the voice of boxing" Howard Cosell to take a stand during and after the fight. Then to top it off, Duk Koo Kim dies on network television after a fight with the ultra popular Ray Mancini. The result of all that that was a tremendously loud "ban boxing" first intitiated by the American Medical Association as soon as the calendar hit 1983. The AMA just happening to be the most powerful lobbyist group in the states at the time. Led by George Lundberg, the AMA made their voices heard loud and clear, and their chant to abolish boxing was taken up by many other groups in the medical community. They were given plenty of platforms to speak their mind too, including being frequent guests on Howard Cosell's popular Sportsbeat show. Cosell supporting their stance to ban boxing by that point. Public opinion began to change in boxing and when USA Today (America's newspaper) soon after conducted a poll asking their readers if boxing should be allowed or not, they voted overwhelmingly in favour of abolishing the sport. Muhammad Ali, being paraded as a sympathetic figure to their cause didn't help boxing at all either. Within a year, boxing went from a sport that the public loved more than almost any other to a sport that the majority would rather do without. Ratings fell through the roof. Sponsors left because of the fall in ratings and the negativity surrounding the sport. By 1985 networks combined to show apx 25 fights the whole year, with those mostly being showcases for prospects or cheaper title fights at the lower weight classes. They weren't buying fights for millions anymore. Promoters were lucky if they could sell them fights for 100k at that point. The decrease in business between networks and boxing continued and thus, promoters were forced to look elsewhere to make a buck. Enter the premium channels (which was always there, but not relied upon) and the PPV route.

This was also when 15 rounds were slowly phased out, which I hate because as Mike "The Body-Snatcher" McCallum put it:

‎"The fight don't really start until the 12th. After the 12th, your balls are tight, your asshole locks up, and you want nothing more than to cry. The 13th-15th is what separates a man from a boy."

Fisticuffa wrote:Just finished rewatching Sugar Ray Robinson vs Jake Lamotta 6th and final fight (also known as "St. Valentines Day Massacre"), the famous "Raging Bull" fight scene is within the context of this fight, though Jake never actually said the famous "you never got me down Ray" line that's in the movie.

You have to marvel at Jake's chin as to how he took that kind of a beating & still didn't go down.

This guy has rd's 1 to 10 on his profile but the vid for 11 to 13 was blocked for me:



So here are the last 2 rounds from a different uploader:



Jake is still alive and well at 90 years old (a miracle almost considering the beatings he took in the ring):

This was billed as "The War" and boy did it ever live up to the hype.

Round 1 is one of the best rounds in Boxing history too.

^

Man that fight was insane. I remember watching it, not live because it's not from my time, but later, and i was blown away. Even today when some MMA friend asks me about boxing vids that's one of the first fights i send them.

I'm not much of a expert, but i'm following the sport for some time now and i read every post here as soon as you post it too to know more. Keep the great job, man.

^Indeed. Hagler vs Hearns is one of two fights that made me a genuine boxing fan,
where before I just sort of respected it. (the other fight being Maidana vs Ortiz)

FOTY for 1990, high paced, one of the greatest come backs & one of the most controversial stoppages in Boxing history, this fight has it all.

Personally IMO there is no doubt that Taylor would have won that fight if it had not been stopped but a referee's job is first and foremost fighter safety, he should not care about a fighter's chances of winning and its not his job to keep track of the clock. So from that perspective Steele made the right call.

After this fight Taylor was never the same, Chavez's beating damaged him physically & the loss seemed to have fucked him up mentally and he got into crack. They had a rematch in 94 but Chavez TKO'd him again, this time in rd 8.

Fista is a good ass member.

Hail and praise the man La Motta. One of my favorites.....I share his hate for not being able to be a HW.

Another great war, this time between the late great Arguello & Escalera.

Unfortunately the full fight only seems to be available with Japanese commentary on youtube.

This is their 2nd fight, it was placed at 40 in the Ring Magazine's 1996 list of 100 greatest title fights of all time. Their first fight came in at 67.

Escalera was the challenger here trying to regain the WBC Junior Lightweight belt that Alexis took from him in their first fight in 1978.

Alexis was a slow starter and as the fight went on he got stronger, especially after it went past round 12.

Great stuff! I´m a George Foreman fanboy and it would be cool if you post your favourite Foreman fight.

The Foreman vs Lyle slugfest which was named FOTY for 76 by Ring magazine:



Followed by Big George's win against Moorer when he became the HW champ again at 45:

In his prime Foreman must have been one of the hardest hitters ever.

He is perhaps the second hardest hitting HW behind Shavers.

Ali who fought both said Shavers hit harder:



Sonny Liston also hit hard.

David Tua is another hard hitter.

In lighter weight classes Arguello, Hearns, and Duran (his nickname was "hands of stone" & he is supposed to have KO'd a horse!) hit pretty hard.

Here is an Arguello KO of Kevin Rooney, its like a gun shot:





In more recent times the late Edwin Valero comes to mind though I have to note that he didn't KO anyone of note before his murder-suicide but 27 fights and 27 finishes with 19 coming in round 1 does take some power.

This was billed as "The Battle of the Little Giants" with the Mexico vs Puerto Rico in the backdrop and 2 top class fighters.

Gomez was 32 wins, 0 losses, 1 draw and the Jr. FW champ moving up to fight the late Salvador Sanchez who was 40 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss and the WBC FW champ. Sanchez was not so well known & Gomez was a strong favorite coming into the fight.

This is one of Sanchez's big wins in his short but illustrious career.

I don't think this fight needs any introduction.

Fisticuffa wrote:
I don't think this fight needs any introduction.

A real classic. I wish it wasn´t so damn hot because I wanted Foreman to knock Ali the f#ck out. If Foreman won this fight he would have been considered the GOAT instead of Ali. Foreman was the better boxer imo.