Most virtuoso performance ever?

Considering style, dominance, quality of opposition, size of occasion & plain old personal enjoyment/preference.

Only one fight gets considered at this end. The incomparable sex bomb that was Nicolino Locche vs Antonio Cervantes. To pitch a 15 round shut out against an ATG HOF fighter and not only that but do so with that kind of mischievous style has him head shoulders above the rest in my book.

Who gets your vote?

 

Jones vs Toney

 

Mayweather-Corrales...



REED:kidcool:

 

Leonard vs Dave Boy Green

 

You really consider Dave Boy Green high quality opposition?

 

Haye - Valuev, masterful, intelligent boxing.

 

Jones-Toney, Hopkins-Tito

on a much lesser scale, Emmanuel Augustus beating up Jon Thaxton is one of the most impressive exhibitions of boxing I've ever seen

 

People will say that Gatti is a bum and all that....but he'd beaten a few decent fighters like Millett, Ward, Leija, Dorin, Ruelas, won titles in two divisions........and the way mayweather dismantled him....you may as well had scored all six rounds of that fight 10-8 a piece. Utter one way battering in such a manner that none of us can remember Gatti landing anything on him.

That deserves mention.

Clay-Liston is an underrated virtuoso performance. Liston was a BAAAAAAD man at the time...and Clay beat him with consumate ease.

 

Meh, Oscar beat a younger Gatti just as easily, despite experimenting with a style that clearly was never gonna work for him. Good call on Ali.

 

RJJ vs Ruiz

 

Curry-McCrory was fantastic, made McCrory look like he didnt even belong there..McGirt-Brown was also pretty virtuouso

 

My original post had a list of 'honourable mentions', but I deleted them since I didn't want to preempt the discussion. That fight was on it. As was Duran-Moore & Whitaker-Ramirez II, and REED & Sly's picks. FWIW

 

Duran - Moore. He lacked experience, but don't forget that Duran was actually a 3-1 underdog in that fight, and Duran fucking WRECKED him. Gave him a savage beating that Moore never recovered from, basically ended the guy's career. The way the sadistic Duran kept propping Moore up too, when he looked ready to go, to give him more of a prolonged beating. What a savage Duran was in the ring. It's so weird that Duran is - by all accounts - a nice guy outside the ring, unlike some people who had a clean cut image but are actually cunts (Leonard for example).

Floyd - Gatti is an impressive beating, there's no doubt about it. But at the highest level, Gatti was basically a punching bag. Despite taking a few more shots than Floyd, Oscar did put a 1 sided beating on Gatti too, as Hut Hut said.

I'm more impressed with Floyd against Corrales, in fact I still think it's Floyd's best performance, when he was at his peak at 130.

I'm fucking amazed nobody has mentioned Pacquiao - Barrera.

Again, Pacquiao was a 3 to 1 underdog at least if I recall, moving up in weight, and just beat the absolute FUCK out of Barrera, slapped him around the ring like he was a bum. And this is Barrera, not just some average titlist.

 

That was a great performance, but virtuoso IMO has to mean the opponent has to be pretty handy too...Whitaker vs Vazquez was impressive too, but Vazquez was solid to good, I would put it in the same category (even allowing for size advantage making roy's achievement more impressive, ruiz wasnt as talented as vazquez)

 

Pacquaio vs DLH---really enjoyed the beat down

 

Good call, I had a feeling Pac was gonna pull off the upset in that one but I never thought it would be that one-sided, Barrera was easily top 3-5 p4p as well at that time.

 

:atu:

That statement really made the Sly laugh out loud....

 

Yep, I think people forget that. Barrera wasn't just a solid fighter, he was on every top ten P4P list, and you're right, sometimes top 5 or above. Amazing performance, that was just when Pacman was pretty raw too, but the sheer speed, power and fury led to complete domination and an awesome beatdown.

 

Innit :kidcool:

 

Yes.....ma English bredrin.

 

Tszyu-Tackie

 

How Bout the Way Duran PURPOSELY THUMBED Moore in his Eye, EARLY in the Fight???...MOOREso, Davey was a "Whopping" 12-0 in that Bout, Mex...That's like Calling Trinidad vs. David Reid a "Virtuoso Performance"....

Duran was a Great, GREAT Fighter, Bro...But U SEVERELY OVERSTATE his Accomplishments while Simultaneously Bending Over Backwards to GLOSS OVER his LESS than Stellar Accomplishments....

REED:boohoo:

 

Duran's dominant performances against Palomino, Dejesus (rubber match), and close win over undefeated Leonard were more "virtuoso" IMO. His use of combinations, feints, upper body movement, ring-cutting, etc...were all pretty amazing.

 

Great spot- definately deserves a mention :bears:

My personal favourite is Alexis Arguello-Jim Watt. Arguello beat the living shit out of Watt for every minute of every round. It is also on my firefox favourite's list, for delectation every time the last Sky boxing broadcast finishes...

MTF :fightme:

 

Boxing fans from the UK always talk about how bad his commentary is. How bad is it? What are some of his quotables?

 

It's not so much his quotables that make him a disgrace. It is the colour of his tongue, which is almost perfectly brown.

The shameful biased nonsense he spouts about DECENT fighters like Amir Khan (who had nothing left to prove as an ammy after he won one silver medal and got blasted out in the national championship quarter finals) makes it extremely difficult for anyone with ears to root for them. His annointing of Daivd Haye as "one of the fastest heavyweigh's since Ali", along with co-commentator Ian Darke, was another particularly shameful episode.

The list goes one and on and on...

MTF :shit:

 

Whitaker-Pineda... The same Rafael who dissappeared for years and then came back to nearly beat Cory Spinks eons later

Whitaker just dismantled him, it was a laugher

Louis/Schmeling II

Chavez/Camacho

Olivares/Rose

Foster/Tiger

Ali/Williams (ok, Williams wasnt much at that point but god, Ali just sizzled)

Locche/Fujii (sure Fujii wasnt Cervantes, but just total domination)

Hearns/Cuevas

Carlos Ortiz/Len Matthews

 

Ian Darke is quality though, great commentator

 

I dunno...Haye seems to scrambling his noodles fairly comprehensively

MTF

 

There was actually a writer, I think Gavin Evans, who wrote "David Haye is easily the fastest heavyweight since a prime Muhammad Ali".

:atu:

Haye's handspeed is pretty overrated to me. Nice single shot speed with the right hand, but sloppy combinations which aren't especially quick.