You favourite displays of HEART!

For me..HEART is simply the will to win. Fighters demonstrate this by trying to win a fight even if it seems hopeless and they're getting punished badly, outboxed, injured etc.

Some fighters get injured and want out of the bout immediately...being quite happy to get a loss on their record rather than continue to try to win.

Other fighters hate losing so badly that they ignore the pain and the injuries and sometimes have to be rescued for their own good.

I, like so many of you, admire HEART!

As such here are some of my favourite examples:

Holyfield-Bowe 1.

Holyfield gives away over 30 pounds in weight, gives away reach, height, stamina and at a power disadvantage. Bowe is outboxing him, outslugging him, outfighting him at every turn and Evander can't even put a dent in him even for a second (bowe just walking through his punches). then Bowe almost takes his head off with a right uppercut as Evander is momentarily distracted by the referee and then throws everything at him including the kitchen sink. At this point..Evander would be forgiven if he were to take a knee and stay down as there is no way he can win the fight: hopelessly behind on points and no chance in hell of knocking him out. But the warrior fights back, driving on mere fumes, showing that he still wants to (and thinks he can) win the fight.

TREMENDOUS!! :bears:


Eubank Watson 2 round 11

Eubank virtually out of gas at the begining of the 11th and decided to risk it all on a knockout. Goes after Watson with everything. Completely exhausted. Has Watson in trouble but then punches himself out. Watson goes on the attack and eventually drops Eubank. Many a man would have stayed down. The fight looks unwinnable at this point. What does Eubank do? He gets up and throws an uppercut from hell..dropping Watson in the process and the rest is history...

:bears: (and i hate Eubank)

I have plenty more but would like to see your examples..

 

Lewis - Mercer. The fight is fought in a smaller ring than expected, so Lewis' battle plan to stick and move goes out of the window. He also notices that he can't keep Mercer off and his best punches are not dropping Mercer, who is far from shot as he was thought to be. Lewis however grinds his teeth, fights in Mercer's terms, takes his bruises and pounds our a close but clear decision. Lewis was all fighter when needed

 

Mercer's jab too was giving Lewis trouble, requiring Lewis, like you said, to go to plan B. I think Lewis too was fighting for fame that night.

 

Kennedy McKinney vs. Junior Jones and MAB.

 

Pacquiao in the first Morales fight. Wrong gloves, wrong socks, blood-drained, horrible cut, bad oysters and he still made it to the final bell.:fightme:

 

Gatti in the 9th round of the first fight against Mickey Ward. Dude was in PAIN from that left hook to the liver. Serious pain. Then Mickey started to pour it on hard. Amazing that Gatti survived that round.

 

PBF vs. ODH. PBF took all those jabs and kept, well, kept on pot-shotting.

 

You can just about say that about any Gatti fight, to be honest with ya.

 

Corrales on the last round of his fight with Castillo. If that is not the heart of a champion, I don't know what it is.

 

Yup....it takes serious courage to spit out your mouthpiece twice....

 

Julio Gonzalez against Letterlough. And he won the fight too.

 

and you prove your ignorance once again

 

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An underrated display of Heart was Fernando Vargas vs Shane Mosley in their first fight with his huge nasty looking swollen eye. I've seen many a fight quit or show signs of distress (E.g. Gary Mason vs Lennox Lewis) in that situation and Vargas kept on trying to win.

 

And on that note Vargas vs Tito is a huge display of heart as well...Coming from 2 first round KD's in the first 30 seconds and makin it an even fight...wow.

 

Agreed. That's why that fight is in my top 5 all time favourite fights.

incredible displays of heart from both men.

 

Its ne of the very few that have everything in one fight, KD's a KO, heart, illegal blows...skill...everything...

 

word.

 

::

 

Riddick Bowe in the rematch with Andrew Golota.

Bobby Chacon and Matthew Saad Muhammad have a few you can choose from.

PED use aside, Richard Hall against Roy Jones. My god he took a brutal beating.

 

Acelino Freitas against Corrales.

After suffering several knockdowns, getting up CLEAR eyed, he went on to turn the fight around...Oh crap! DAMN!!!!!

 

Gatti in the Rodriguez fight. Both eyes closed getting outboxed and wins by KO. David Diaz against Pacman and Santa Cruz.

 

Gatti-Rodriguez gave me goosebumps

 

Hopkins beating down Echols with one arm was pretty cool.

 

Nice one!

This is the fight that convinced me that Hopkins was a special fighter. i had overlooked him until that point.

 

Actually he was doing everything he could do to stay in there. Great courage and some sneakiness as well.

Gatti vs Ruelas. Ruelas looked like he had Gatti out on his feet...BOOM! Poor Ruelas.

Also, Tyrone Trice vs Simon Brown. Trice tried to keep going even when he had nothing left. Finally, it wasn't up to him.

 

Freddie Pendleton vs James Page.

Pendleton went beyond the call of duty. He knew he had to, because nobody is Welterweight Champ until they have beaten James Page.

 

Tito's lowblows when he was in trouble were as bad as Corrales spitting out his mouthpiece.

 

I'd say they were worse.

 

Please...

the only deliberate Tito low blow was after Vargas THUMBED him in the eye. Any smart fighter would do something to buy themselves some time after a foul like that.

vargas threw twice as many low blows in that fight but was only warned for two of them (one was a point deduction).