Fights of the year for the last 20 years...

1990s

• 1990 - Julio César Chávez KO 12 Meldrick Taylor I
• 1991 - Robert Quiroga W 12 Akeem Anifowoshe
• 1992 - Riddick Bowe W 12 Evander Holyfield I
• 1993 - Michael Carbajal KO 7 Humberto González I
• 1994 - Jorge Castro KO 9 John David Jackson I
• 1995 - Saman Sorjaturong KO 7 Humberto González
• 1996 - Evander Holyfield KO 11 Mike Tyson I
• 1997 - Arturo Gatti KO 5 Gabriel Ruelas
• 1998 - Ivan Robinson W 10 Arturo Gatti I
• 1999 - Paulie Ayala W 12 Johnny Tapia I

2000s

• 2000 - Erik Morales W 12 Marco Antonio Barrera I
• 2001 - Micky Ward W 10 Emanuel Augustus
• 2002 - Micky Ward W 10 Arturo Gatti I
• 2003 - Arturo Gatti W 10 Micky Ward III
• 2004 - Marco Antonio Barrera W 12 Erik Morales III
• 2005 - Diego Corrales KO 10 José Luis Castillo I
• 2006 - Somsak Sithchatchawal KO 10 Mahyar Monshipour
• 2007 - Israel Vázquez KO 6 Rafael Márquez II
• 2008 - Israel Vázquez W 12 Rafael Márquez III
• 2009 - Juan Manuel Márquez KO 9 Juan Díaz

Comments? Disagree with any? What would you put in their place? How would you rank the 20?

 

Dunne-Cordoba was better than JMM-Diaz for starters. The FOTY for 2003 is wrong to but I would have to look at other fights.

 

JMM-Diaz was Fought @ a HIGHER Level...



REED:mj:

 

I wouldn't have picked Gatti/Ward III or Ward/Augustus. Also, Holyfield/Tyson was dreadful.

 

Not by much. I'm not entirely convinced that Juan Diaz was a level higher than either Dunne or Cordoba.

Anyway, I agree with Val. Lower level or not, the Dunne-Cordoba fight was better than JMM-Diaz IMHO. I don't even think that it is close.

MTF

 

I'd pick Tito-Vargas over Morales-Barrera 1.

As mentioned before...

M-B 1 had alot of action....but the DRAMA was with Tito-Vargas. Tito Vargas was also fought on a higher level IMO and was a more meaningful matchup.

 

So? It wasn't the best fight of the year. Dunne-Cordoba was still for a title and was a MUCH better fight.

 

Holyfield - Tyson was a joke of a choise. Personally I would also remove all fights including Mickey Ward or Arturo Gatti, barring maybe Gatti-Ruelas

 

Agreed. too one-sided to be included

 

in 2003 Jirov-Toney was obviously better than Gatti-Ward III. In 2004 Parra-Sakata Iwas better than MAB-Morales III. Oh Injin Chi-Micheal Brodie was also in 2003, it was also better than Gatti-Ward III.

 

Good call. That fight was an absolute belter.

MTF

 

Let me guess....some unknown minimum weight characters...who threw a million featherfisted punches for 12 rounds and no one was hurt.

I haven't seen this "parra-Sakata" fight I must admit...but it's VERY hard for me to believe that it was better than Morales-Barrera 3...which was a superb fight..even better than their first.

 

dont like john david jackson vs. jorge castro in there.

was one sided. till the ending of course. not a big give and take fight.

 

Holyfield-Tyson 1 was a horrible choice. Barrera-McKinney, Gatti-Rodriguez, and Bowe-Golota 2 were all considerably better.

Toney-Jirov and Gomez-Arthur were better than Gatti-Ward 3.

I've never seen Ayala-Tapia 1. Was it better than Jefferson-Harris?

 

which fight was better?

 

Agreed on all.

 

Diaz IS Better than Both of them...JMM SHITS on Both of them....

Dunne-Cordoba Wasn't a "Bum" Fight or Anything, but REED Thinks the QUALITY of the Fighters Involved Should B a Factor when Proclaiming a Bout "Fight of the Year"...If Not, there's Probably HUNDREDS of 4-Round Club Fights that Provide As Much or MORE Action than Dunne-Cordoba Did....



REED:kidcool:

 

Minto-Maddalone was a BETTER Fight than Most Too...Doesn't Mean it DESRVED "Fight of the Year" when it Occured...



REED:hammert:

 

wow...Im actually agreeing with REED...

 

1995 Simon Brown vs Vincent Pettway. Greatest fight of all time. Humberto Gonzalez, one of my personal favorites, had already lost twice in very similar fights prior to the Sorjaturong fight. It was a great fight, but Brown Pettway is untouchable, imo. And if you don't know what happened in Brown Pettway, then just order the damn fight and watch it without knowing.

 

One of my favorite fights ever. Too bad the 2 rematches were stinkers.

Just looked and saw that the fight is on Youtube. Gotta love the internet.



*edit* Damn, I forgot this fight had BOTH Jimmy Lennon Jr and Michael Buffer as ring announcers.

TFK

 

You are right Holyfield-Tyson was a hugfest/headbutt fest.

 

MAB-McKinney and Gatti-Rodriguez are 2 of the best fights that i have seen.

 

The rematch was a great fight if you liked Gonzalez and hated Carbajal. And you had the USA announcers saying how the fight should be stopped and the Great Western Forum guys scoring the fight (correctly) and having Humberto up.

This fight is good example of how rare unifications were and the difficulties between Showtime and HBO back then. The early and mid 90's were a shitty time for fans if you were not in a city with cable.

 

If Diaz is better than both it isn't by much. This is the guy who just got wiped out by Paulie Mallinaggi... :shit:

Cordoba-Dunne was a hell of a lot closer to JMM-Diaz than 'a 4 round club fight' in terms of fighter quality. It was a world title fight, not a 'bum' fight.

I said this when this fight was discussed earlier, but how many of the Dunne-Cordoba naysayers have actually WATCHED the fight? At least two people in the previous thread hadn't.

MTF :dunno:

 

I don't like Dunne-Cordoba because it fucked me over in the prediction league ::

 

has anyone mentioned julio gonzalez vs. julian letterlough? that fight plus larios vs. vasquez II and augustus vs. ward were probably the most exciting fights on espn2 in the last decade and half.

 

in terms of anticipation and drama, i'd say the best fights in the last 20 years were probably chavez-taylor I, corrales-castillo I, morales-barrera I, gatti-ward I, and vasquez-marquez 3.

 

Nice list joony but I think Tito-Vargas is up there with the fights you've listed.

 

yea, i forgot about that one.

actually, looking back, the best fight i saw in my opinion was morales-pac I. i remember how everyone was calling morales shot and how pacquiao was the betting favorite, which was a rare occasion for morales.

anyways, that would be my personal pick but mostly since morales was my favorite and i hated pacquiao .