Jerry Quarry vs Ron Lyle Quarry was supposed to be the "name opponent" for the up-and-coming Lyle, but he surprised everyone by outboxing the much bigger and harder punching Lyle for a convincing victory.
Cotto vs Alfonso Gomez. The way he took him apart was Cotto at his absolute best. Just systematically took him apart with a nice blend of skill and power. Kostya Tszyu vs Ben Tackie. Some nice boxing from Tszyu. Trinidad vs Zulu. Tito actually boxed well in that fight with his jab, and he unloaded seemingly every weapon in his arsenal against him before finising with two devastating short hooks.
Im not sure Id include fights where one guy is way better than the other (there are a bunch of examples here).
Mayweather - Gatti Mayweather - Mosley Mayweather - Judah Mayweather - Baldomir Mayweather - Marquez Mayweather - Ndou Mayweather's career is littered with virtuoso performances. The man is a genius.
good point. It should be performances where going in it was seen a a pretty even money fight...such as Jones-Toney, Mayweather-Corrales, Hopkins-Trinidad, Wright-Trinidad, Calzaghe-Lacy. Those are the most impressive ones.
Even though he was shitted out of the decision, I thought Felix Sturm was excellent against De la Hoya. He had Hoya eating that jab all night. I understand how they had to save the Hopkins fight but it does not take away from Sturm's performance.
Exactly. Obviously, the opponent need not be the fighter's equal, but in order for a performance to matter one bit, even a virtuoso one, it needs to come against a proven opponent. Guys like Alfonso Gomez and Richard Hall simply don't qualify. And as fans, we should be cautious about giving a fighter too much credit for looking good against crappy competition. Otherwise, promoters will continue to put on show cases, figuring it's not worth the risk to put their fighters in with anyone good if they can impress fans just the same by matching them against questionable competition.
You've got to be fucking kidding me. Gatti? You're going to call the Baldomir and Judah fights virtuoso? Even if they did qualify adequate competition, they wouldn't be virtuoso performances. Marquez doesn't count - the guy's never beaten anyone at 147. The only opponent who belongs on the list is Mosley, and it's a stretch to call that a virtuoso performance. Get real.
Baldomir was the existing undisputed 147lb champ and Judah was the recently defeated former 147lbs undisputed champ and had previously stopped Cory Spinks who had beaten Mayorga who had beaten Forrest who had beaten Mosley who had beaten De La Hoya who had beaten Whitaker and Quartey. They qualify. Gatti was WBC 140lb champion. He qualifies. Marquez just pushed the P4P #1 Pacquiao to the limit. He qualifies. Mosley's previous fight was a domination of Margarito. Floyd dominated him 11-1. He qualifies. Ya dig? :kidcool:
Wow. And to think just five minutes ago, I was convinced those fighters you listed were not credible opposition. You've just changed my mind! I now see that in your mind: 1. Sanctioning bodies are anything but labor unions for boxers 2. Weight classes don't matter 3. A fighter is always one win from being a viable opponent for PBF 4. Somehow, a win over fighter A bears mention not just those who fighter A beat (understandable), but those beaten by the fighter who fighter A beat, and even those beaten by those beaten by the one beaten by fighter A 5. Fighter's ability is frozen in time And really, even if Baldomir and Judah belong as opponents, you've not addressed the reality that neither of those wins were virtuoso.
Edwin Valero put on some real impressive performances. Recently been watching a lot of his fights. Its a shame that Valero-Pac never happened.
McCallum-Watson Ouma beat Jantuah by decision. Are you thinking of the Candelo fight? Ouma was real impressive that night. He kicked Candelo's ass.