What would you consider the best one sided, masterclass performance of each decade going back to the 50s? I'd say: 50s: Robinson-Lamotta VI 60s: Napoles-Cokes 1 70s: Duran-DeJesus III 80s: Sanchez-Gomez 90s: Jones-Toney 00s: Mayweather-Corrales 2010s: Ward-Dawson 2020s (so far): Crawford-Spence
I'm bored enough to pick an honorable mention for each decade: 50s: Carlos Ortiz vs Battling Torres 60s: Olivares-Rose 70s: Gomez-Zarate 80s: Chavez-Rosario 90s: Toney-Barkley 00s: Pac-Barrera 2010s: Crawford-Horn 2020s (so far): Inoue-Fulton
1950s: Robinson vs Lamotta VI 1960s: Harada vs Kingpetch 1970s: Duran vs Monroe Brooks 1980s: Hearns vs Duran 1990s: Whitaker vs Nelson 2000s: Mayweather vs Corrales 2010s: Gonzalez vs Yaegashi 2020s: Crawford vs Spence
Harada-Kingpetch 1 is a strong choice for the 60s. Speaking of Harada, Rose-Harada has gotta be a top 10 virtuoso performance of the 60s. Rose boxed brilliantly.
I’m not really sure if they’re the best, but I’ll just name some new ones that should get some consideration : Ali-Williams Foreman-Frazier, Leonard-Price Starling-Honeyghan, Curry-McCrory, EM Muhammad-M. Johnson, Sanchez-Lopez 1/Gomez Toney-McCallum 1. Even though it was a close fight, I think it’s a virtuoso performance from Toney. Mike fought extremely well, but Toney fought better. So sharp, so skillful. Mayweather-Ndou, Pacquiao-Hatton, Hopkins-Trinidad
There’s too many in each decade but I’ll just bring up the ones that haven’t been mentioned yet. 50s: Archie Moore vs Yvonne Durrelle 2 Kid Gavilan vs Johnny Bratton 3 60s: Muhammad Ali vs Cleveland Williams Jose Napoles vs Emile Griffith 70s: Roberto Duran vs Carlos Palomino Sugar Ray Leonard vs Dave Boy Green Larry Holmes vs Earnie Shavers 1 Miguel Canto vs Kimio Furesawa 80s: Donald Curry vs Milton McCrory Mike McCallum vs Michael Watson Eusebio Pedroza vs Patrick Ford 90s: Bernard Hopkins vs Glen Johnson Azumah Nelson vs Jeff Fenech 2 Ricardo Lopez vs Alex Sanchez 00s: Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Arturo Gatti
I know Gatti had absolutely zero chance against Floyd, we all knew, but that was still one of the most savage beatdowns I've ever seen.
I know George said Whitaker-Nelson for the 90s, and that's a respectable choice, but that's not even my favorite Whitaker performance from the 90s. I think Pea was at his best in the Pineda fight. I know, Pineda was no great, but damn Pea put on a masterclass in that fight. Nunn-Tate deserves at least honorable mention for the 80s. It's definitely top 10.
Though I no longer like Floyd, gotta call it like it is. Floyd-Gatti, Floyd-Ndou, and Floyd-Hatton are all 3 among the best masterclasses of the 00s. Pac-Morales III has gotta rank pretty highly in the 00s as well. Also, in his very last vintage performance... you absolutely have to rank Jones-Ruiz as a top 10 virtuoso performance in the 00s. Maybe as high as top 3, given its significance. I'd put it at 3, behind Floyd-Corrales and Hopkins-Trinidad.
It's not really my favourite either, I like the fight with Harold Brazier as his best performance, but beating Nelson is definitely more impressive IMO.
The Brazier fight is what made me first realize that Whitaker was more than just a defensive fighter but a great offensive fighter as well. Really like the workrate and body punches he did in that fight. His fight against Anthony Jones also showed what a great in-fighter can be. Out of all of Whitaker fights I think Haugen was his most complete performance.
