Contemporary fights that you could be bothered to watch and...were actually good.

There's more room in a thread title than you think.

Criteria is that it was an important matchup between two top guys in or around the P4P list that you were hyped-up for...and they actually exceeded expectations.

For me it was.....ummmmm.

 

Calzaghe-Kessler
Morales-Pacquaio 1

 

In recent years, I enjoyed Froch-Groves II because it was a decent fight that lived up to the hype: it was a pick-em, it was an 'event', it ended great and I was in a cool pub in the city on a hot Summer night watching it.
And 1/2 drunk.

 

Probably have to go all the way back to Pavlik-Taylor 1 for a huge fight that EXCEEDED expectations. That was the last truly GREAT middleweight fight.

 

yeah, good fight.

Pacquiao vs Marquez 4 was an exceptional fight

 

Eh? What?
Pavlik was unproven at top level pre-Taylor.
Didn't even have a belt. How was he P4P??

Not even a big fight let alone huge.

 

It was big enough that boardwalk hall in AC was packed to capacity. Perhaps the last big fight in AC. It was a HUGE fight for us hardcores, and don't pretend like you don't remember the buzz on the forum before it.

 

Selling out AC does not make a fight 'big'.
Furthermore, I don't recall any hype, media, forum or otherwise: Pavlik was unproven and Taylor was known to hardcore fans.
Neither were box-office draws.

 

You must have an EXTREMELY short memory. There was a tremendous buzz in the boxing community and on this forum going into that fight. Two unbeaten middleweights, both in their in the 20s at the time and in their primes, fighting for the undisputed, lineal middleweight championship. Yeaahh.. it was kind of a big deal in boxing. I dont give a rat's ass if it wasn't a big mainstream fight... it was a big fight in the boxing community.

Furthermore, Pavlik wasn't unproven. He was coming off of destroying Miranda, in a fight where was the underdog. Miranda at the time was known as one of the most dangerous punchers in the sport, and hit Pav with his best shots, and Pav walked through him and systematically destroyed him. So don't gimme that "unproven" bullshit. I think Taylor might have been a VERY small betting favorite, but I remember for a FACT that the general feeling on this forum was that Pav was gonna win.

I picked Pav to win, and I also remember REED picking Pav. There were definitely others as well.

The writing was on the wall for Taylor. He had just come off of BARELY squeezing by Cory Spinks.