Most Motivated heavyweight Championship defense!

Confusing thread title so let me explain.

In which defense of the Heavyweight championship was the defending Champion at the time the most motivated? In your opinion of course (very subjective).

Challengers are usually highly motivated and so I want to get your sense of which champion was the most motivated on a given night.

Three that spring to mind in no particular order:

Frazier when he defended against Ali
Holmes when he defended against Cooney
Louis when he defended against Schmeling

Those champions would have preferred death in that ring on those nights than to lose.

Which would you rank at the top?

Any others?

 

Marciano in all of his defenses.

 

You really think he was that motivated for Don Cockell and Roland La Starza? Enough to compare with the aforementioned?

Come on be serious...

 

For Tyson, I think most people would say Spinks. But I'd say the Berbick fight. He wanted to win the title to fullfill Cus' dream for him.

 

Jack Johnson against Jeffries would be another

 

That wasn't a defense, technically neither was the Spinks fight.

 

Dude........


Tyson was NOT the champion in the Berbick fight!!

Spinks is a good one though.

Editted: Although to Whiskey's point (above) the Spinks fight was arguably not a defense for Tyson.

 

Ahhh fuck all that! It should just be most motivated performance period.

But ok ok, fine. Tyson's most motivated DEFENSE was probably against Holmes.

 

Ali - Terrell

 

Say what!??!!

I started the thread and so I dictate the rules motherfucker!:fightme: ::

Besides "most motivated performance" is boring..as most challengers are highly motivated.

Agreed on Tyson-Holmes. Tyson was motivated as a motherfucker.

 

LaStarza definitely, because he had something to prove in that one

 

Compared with Louis-Schmeling though?

 

The point is that Marciano operated at the same level, all of the time, he trained intensely and to the absolute limit, to the extent that his body gave out more from the training than from the fighting. He was always incredibly keyed up for all his title defenses. He would give Don Cockell the same notice he gave Walcott or Charles.

If you wanted an absolute peak, I would say it was the start of the 8th in the Charles rematch. I doubt there has ever been a more determined heavyweight champion than there was at that point in time. He was either going to get it done or he was going under.

Other moments which would match this would be Frazier vs Ali I or Jess Willard vs Dempsey.

Willard must have been determined to win or die in there- he would not have come out for the 2nd round otherwise. Dempsey vs Firpo is another good mention.

 

although he could've done w/o the motivation, but lewis seemed more focus than ever when he fought whatever was left of tyson.

 

What? Is that why Manny was screaming at him to "let that shit go"??:notallthere:

 

I think you're missing the point of this thread.

Fuck, I could say that Louis was motivated for all of his title defenses based upon:

a) How many consecutive successful defense he had and
b) how many times he was dropped and got up to win.

What about Patterson vs Johansson then based upon your criteria?

Patterson got up some seven times in that third round.

 

Yes, you could go with Patterson, that was some motivated shit right there.

Are you talking strictly about pre-fight motivations of what would ultimately come to be successful defenses???

Patterson and Willard displayed ridiculous motivation in desperate, losing defenses. How beaten does a man have to be??

Marciano somehow found another level of inspiration, prompted by the immediate, as in the next 3 minutes, prospect of losing his title.

The previous 22 rounds with Walcott had not produced a KO but all of a sudden he just somehow finds the power to get it done? He must have been motivated above what was an already insane level of motivation.

 

Obviously the magnitude of the fight wasn't the same, but on a personal level I imagine it would have been similar. He, like Louis, had the motivating factor of trying to prove he really was the better man, considering how close and controversial the first fight was

 

You're talking about HEART...and that's lovely. But I'm referring to pre-fight motivation which displayed itself after in the ring.

 

Not even close.

Louis was fighting for revenge as well as an ideology. The poor dude even had the weight on his country on his shoulders.

Louis entered that ring with the sole mission of fucking that German up.

 

Yes but that's more about the magnitude of the fight than purely motivation. It would be hard for any fight to compete with Louis-Schmeling II if we're gonna use that criteria.

For personal reasons, Rocky would have been very motivated to beat LaStarza.

 

Most motivated title/championship performances, period?

Douglas-Tyson
Lewis-Rahman II
Jones Jr -Griffin II
Pacquiao-Barrera I
Morales-Barrera I-III (sometimes one forgets how much these guys hated each other)
Barrera-Hamed (this might've been a defense on Barrera's part, but iirc he gave up the belt)

For most motivated defense, I'll toss one out there that hasn't been mentioned yet -

DLH - Ruelas. Lots of people thought Ruelas was going to expose Oscar, but Oscar went in there all wound up and fucked up Ruelas from the get go.

 

Bowe-Gonzalez... certainly not THE most motivated, but a fresh entry for the thread, nevertheless

 

Dude....

We're only talking about the motivations of the defending heavyweight champions in this thread.

 

nice one.

(Happy that some people understand what the topic is about :giggle:)

 

HEAVYWEIGHT ::

 

Most unmotivated for a middleweight title challenge:

Morrade Hakkar

 

If we were going that way, I'd say LL v Rahman rematch.

 

Lewis against Tyson?

 

Bowe was no longer champion, though.