Gotta say, I didn't live through any of their fights, but the first, to me, is the best from an entertainment perspective. Better than Fight III.
I'm not sure if it's necessarily the "best", but my personal favorite is Bowe-Holyfield because all 3 fights were very entertaining. People often seem to not think that highly of the third match, but I thought there was some terrific, brutal in-fighting in that one. And while we're on the subject of living through the event rather than seeing it after the fact, that 6th round was exciting and shocking as hell when Holyfield came out of nowhere with that left hook.
Holyfield wasn't on his game that night though and so this is what detracts from the third fight for me.
True. All those years of abusing his body took a hefty toll, as any nutritionist will tell you. Of course, his amateur-level defense wouldn't have helped, even allowing for the fairly soft opposition he enjoyed throughout much of his career. Still hard to believe after all these years the big fella only has the one loss --- in a fight I scored for him, frankly.
Good post... But to further your point, Ali wasn't even avenging his only loss. He had already lost to Ken Norton at that point. Agreed on Bowe/Holyfield.
One thing I really liked about that rivalry, compared to some of the others, is that the three fights happened in succession, so you really can sort of put those fights in capsule. There weren't losses or tune-ups or time coming between any of the fights, so you can sort of view all three fights as one.
Well, being fair, it does say, "Trilogies," specifically --- & Marquez-Vazquez series ain't a trilogy. Really, it shouldn't count. Sly has it right. Still a shame, though.