My 5 Greatest Fights

My 5 Greatest Fights

By Henry Walter 

Boxing is a brilliant yet brutal sport. No other sport on the planet demands so much from its participants. As a spectator sport it arguably has something for everyone, violent yet also tactical, a thinking mans sport that can also be enjoyed by thugs.

However some fights do not live up to the hype. Two gifted fighters will be put together who just don’t gel. A clash of styles can occur and you can end up with a fight that’s too tactical, too short or too slow paced etc.

However the opposite is also true. Certain fighters will produce magic when put together. Their styles gel perfectly and they produce a fight so brilliant it is talked about for years. Below I have compiled a list of the greatest fights I have seen.

5. Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier 3

Known as the “Thrilla in Manila” this 1975 bout pitted two of the greatest heavyweights of all time against each other for the third time.

Frazier had won their first fight in 1971 and Ali their second in 1974. By 1975 both men were past their best. Ali’s leg and hand speed had notably declined and Frazier was far easier to hit than in previous years.

Ali had marital trouble leading up to the bout and barely trained, coming into the fight at an uncharacteristically heavy 224 pounds.

As the fight began the champion Ali came rushing out, backing Frazier up with fast combinations, looking for an early knockout.

By the middle rounds Frazier had worked his way back into it with hard hooks to Ali’s body and Ali began to wilt. As the fight went on both men seemingly abandoned their defence and the exchanges began to get more and more brutal.

Ali rallied in the late rounds and by the end of the fourteenth round he was teeing off on Frazier, whose face was now so swollen he could barely see. Frazier’s trainer, Eddie Futch, wisely pulled him out but Frazier was indignant and the two never spoke again.

Ali had retained his title but would later admit it took five days before he could think clearly again.

4. Archie Moore vs Yvon Durelle 1

Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky 4 film often gets lambasted for the “unrealistic” final fight between Rocky and Drago, where Rocky is repeatedly bounced off the canvas before coming back to (*SPOILER ALERT!) win the fight.

The 1958 Moore vs Durelle bout was a real life Rocky fight. Durelle started the fight as a 4-1 underdog but quickly made a mockery of the odds by flooring Moore heavily in the first round with a vicious right hand shot. Moore briefly appeared to be out cold, hitting his head hard on the canvas as he went down. Astonishingly Moore somehow made it back up at nine, albeit on wobbly legs.

Durelle poured it on, desperate to take Moore’s light-heavyweight world title, but the 41 year old Moore had endured years of boxing politics before finally capturing the title and he wasn’t about to give it up easily.

Moore went down twice more in round one but amazingly survived the round. Durelle floored Moore again in round five but he refused to stay down. Gradually Moore began to drag his way back into the fight as Durelle began to become visibly discouraged by his incredible resilience.

By the eleventh round the tide had turned and Moore floored Durelle twice, finishing the fight with a perfect right hand. In total there were eight knockdowns in the fight. This classic almost redefined the word comeback.

3. Marvin Hagler vs Tommy Hearns

The fight was billed simply as “The War” and it lived up to its billing. Right from the off the two middleweight greats tore into each other in a savage fight where both men went straight for the knockout.

The first round saw brutal back and forth exchanges during which both men were hurt. The ferocious, fast pace stunned the crowd who roared their approval.

“Perhaps one of the best opening rounds in middleweight history!”- Al Bernstein

Hagler eventually prevailed by knockout in the third round to retain his middleweight title but the fight has gone down in boxing history as one of the best ever.

2. Diego Corrales vs Jose Luis Castillo 1

In this lightweight title fight both men stood toe to toe for virtually the entirety. Both were known as aggressive fighters and their styles gelled magnificently to produce an action packed contest.

The tenth round was one of the greatest rounds any boxing match has ever produced. Less than 30 seconds into the round, Castillo hit Corrales on the chin and knocked him down. Corrales rose but was knocked down again just seconds later. Badly hurt, he looked on the verge of being stopped, though he did buy himself crucial extra seconds by seemingly deliberately spitting his gum-shield out after both knockdowns.

Corrales was deducted a point and when the fight resumed he seemed to have recovered. He landed a flush right hand and trapped Castillo against the ropes with a ferocious rally that saw Castillo taking numerous flush hits to the face and the fight was stopped.

Corrales had somehow rescued victory from the jaws of defeat in one of the most sudden and dramatic turn arounds ever witnessed in a boxing ring.

“The hammering Diego took from Castillo’s body punches was just unbelievable. They took a urine sample after the fight and it looked like a bottle of tomato juice.”- Joe Goossen (Corrales’ trainer)

1. Arturo Gatti vs Micky Ward

Sometimes it is difficult to predict which fights will turn out to be great. The number one on this list was not a championship fight. In fact both names were known only to hardcore fans before their incredible May 2002 fight.

The fight was extremely close with both men displaying a savage intensity. Both men were come forward brawlers and neither were known for their boxing skill, but the fact that they were both hittable made their contest incredibly dramatic.

They both had periods of dominance and both were hurt several times throughout the course of the fight with both showing remarkable bravery and resilience.

The ninth round was later described by legendary trainer Emanuel Steward as the greatest round in boxing history.

Ward floored Gatti with a textbook left hook to the body just seconds into the round. The punch would have finished all but the very strongest of men and Gatti showed an incredible will to force himself, still grimacing, back to his feet at the count of nine.

Ward came forward to finish the fight as the crowd got to their feet.

Gatti kept punching back and suddenly Ward staggered and Gatti somehow managed to fight through the pain to gain the upper hand. As the round neared completion Ward again hurt Gatti, who appeared barely able to defend himself.

The last round was very even as the two exhausted warriors threw continuously until the bell sounded, thirty seconds late.

Ward won a close decision but it had been a truly awesome display from both and the fight cemented both men’s status in boxing legend.