I knew a good few boxers back in my early teen days and watched a few fights, but was not hooked, as I was deeply hooked on football. I am certainly hooked now and think the one fight that made me look at the sport in a different light was probably Lewis vs Tyson back in '02. Why? because of the build up, anticipation, the ''who's gonna win between two greats of the sport'' etc. Hatton v Mayweather started my true journey into boxing, looking at past fights on the internet and wanting to gain a better understanding of the sport, to learn more about past fighters etc.
McGuigan vs Pedroza. Basically, it was a massive media event in Ireland, and that caught my attention, more than then merits of the fight itself.
Barrera-Morales I. Up at an ungodly hour, happened to watch it. I had been following boxing prior to that, but once I'd watched that live my teenage heart went: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLJ9fHqDlOA&t=0m52s
First fight I ever saw was Foreman-Moorer, as it happened. As a kid with all his fathers' mates around going crazy, that was a huge event. I'll never forget it. To this day, it is one of my top-3 favourite sporting moments.
I wish I knew. The fights were always there for me. No beginning and no end. Between my father always watching the fights and my brother beating my ass because he was an Ali fan, I just don't know anything else.:dunno:
It wasnt a fight, it was just my family that got me involved. It was always an event and my place. I was just raised to love it.
REED Grew Up in a CULTURE where Muhammad Ali was KING...& That was ALWAYS Emphasized by REED's Old Man, who WORSHIPPED Ali... N Terms of an Actual FIGHT, the 1st that REED Can VIVIDLY Recollect was Ali-Frazier III - The "Thrilla in Manilla"....REED was No More than 4 or 5 Years Old & the Fight was Shown on what was Known as CLOSED CIRCUIT "Television", Back Then...In Actuality, REED Watched the Fight in a 10-20,000 Seat ARENA, on a Giant Movie Screen... REED Stood in the Aisle & Fired Combo's as Ali Weathered Frazier's Mid Rounds Storm, w/his Old Man & Dudes he DIDN'T Even Know Patting him on the Back, Digging REED's Infantile PASSION for Boxing... REED:kidcool:
Evander Holyfield vs George Foreman After a while, I quit watching boxing since I was a kid and had no HBO, but the one that re-ignited the spark was Trinidad vs. Reid
For me it was Hamed-Kelly, up to that point I followed it casually but as I didn't have Sky/Satellite till then didn't really have the opportunity to follow it. Why Hamed-Kelly? The build up, the event, the undercard (Jones-McKinney), the entrance, and then obviously the fight itself. I wonder how anyone COULDN'T become a boxing fan after that
As a kid I would stay up late and watch Tyson. However it was ITV back in the day got me hooked with Benn and Eubank.
SRL and Dave Green (1980) the fight was in Maryland, i lived in Virgina at the time but had friends from the area of maryland where Sugar Ray lived, My father loved boxing and this was my first live fight.. i was hooked
Watched boxing and loved it from the Tyson and early Holyfield days. First PPV I bought was Holyfield-Foreman. What got me hooked forever? Lewis v Ruddock.
There a couple of related fights that got me hooked. The first was Duane Bobick beating Larry Holmes at the 72 Olympic trials. I don't know if it was Howard Cosell calling the fight on Wide World of Sports or the fact that Ali provided color commentary, but there was something that made it seem far more important than it was. Afterall, a tired Holmes was DQ'd for excessive holding so it wasn't even really a good fight. The second was Teófilo Stevenson versus Duane Bobick at the 72' Olympics. I was 7 at the time and the way my father almost had a brain embolism when Stevenson continually dropped Bobick in the 3rd hooked me on the sport. I couldn't believe how emotionally attached he was to the fight. Being a Floridian and living through the Cuban Missile crisis, my dad had a pretty deep dislike for all things Cuban. This would really bother him later in life as Cuban immigrants took over South Florida. But for this fight, he absolutely lost his mind because a boxer from a tiny Communist Island beat the USA's Duane Bobick. It was fascinating to me. I had watched many fights as well as other sports with my dad prior to this one, but none got him quite as excited as the Bobick beat down. There was something about that reaction that made me curious about the sport and it's history.
I remember back in the 90's watching some DLH fight on TV, I think it might have been against Ruelas, where he basically just demolished the guy. It really got me into it, because, like him or not, DLH had GREAT boxing skills, and it triggered something in my mind, where I saw the sport for the first time as a true skill and strategy sport, and not soley just about smashing the other guy with your fists.
I hope some kids, just getting into boxing, look back on their first fight that hooked them on boxing and say it was DeGale vs Groves. I gotta feeling it's gonna be grrreeeeeat.
The first fight to really amaze me was Benn v McClellan. But it wasn't till a couple of years later that i really got into boxing, even then it was only because of footie. I'd was playing for a young team and we were quickly becoming one of the best Sunday league teams in Liverpool. As we improved, and i got more into it, i stopped going out on Saturday nights most weeks. This led to me watching the boxing on SS1. Spencer Oliver was a great little fighter to watch back then, albeit briefly, and Calzaghe was up and coming too. So it was footie, Oliver, and a few others who got me into boxing. Sadly my interest has almost entirely waned in recent years.
