What was the most impressive performance you've ever seen?

What was the most impressive performance you've ever seen in boxing? For this topic, please also consider the quality of the opposition. There are plenty of highlight reel efforts, but how many of them have happened against a quality opponent in his prime? For example, in fights like Tyson-Spinks, DLH-Gatti or Mayweather-Gatti, the winner looked impressive, but the opponent was seriously overmatched to begin with.

What fights have you seen that fit the bill here??

 

Was really impressed by Hopkins' mastery of Trinidad. Looked like he toyed with him.

 

As much as it pains me to say it, Hopkins-Trinidad. I went to the Garden rooting for Tito to tear his head off (not sure why I ever thought that would happen :: ) and ended the night forced to :bears: for Bernard's effort. Incredible performance.

Manny Pacquaio's drubbing of Barrera was quite possibly the most wrong (wrongest?) I ever was about a pick, well 2nd most, behind Hopkins-Trinidad.

 

Neither did I, which is why I picked Hopkins, as did Buddy Rydell, and, oh, 97.45% of the rest of Humanity.

That said...Tito was a 3-1 fave as he had been for the JOPPY fight.

Joppy...Hopkins....:dunno: :dunno: :nono:

 

Calzaghe-Lacy.

36 minutes of stuff that would scare the shit out of a groundhog. Thats how repetititve and carbon-copied it was.

 

Damn, how the fuck did I forget Calzaghe-Lacy?

 

Jones vs Toney

 

COS YA STOOPID!!!!

J/K.

 

As far as this decade goes:

My first pick would be Pacquiao over Barrera. Not only did Pacquiao dominate a great fighter in Barrera, but he was moving up to do so. He had fought just once above 122 before that.

Second would be Hopkins-Trinidad. Hopkins completely schooled an elite fighter and top p4p guy in Trinidad.

Third would be either Mayweather-Corrales or Forrest-Mosley I. Forrest-Mosley wasn't as aesthetically pleasing nor as dominating, but Corrales was a lesser fighter than Mosley.

 

Sanders-Wlad.

Wlad never won a single fucking second of that fight.

I think he got 1 jab off.:doh:

Sanders did his thing to perfection.:doh:

 

Donald Curry - Milton McCrory. This was supposed to be the second coming of Leonard-Hearns. Curry was the favorite, but McCrory was a very good Welter and he had his supporters as well. And even most of the folks who picked Curry expected a very difficult evening for him and possibly a come from behind late round win. I never expected Curry to win so easily.

 

Curry's first knockdown on McCory is the most beautiful left hook I have ever seen thrown.

 

Foreman - Frazier I
Frazier was in his prime and was the undefeated & undisputed Heavyweight Champion after his win over Ali. Foreman handled Frazier more easily than he did many of the non-contenders he defeated on the way to his title shot.

 

yeah but he'd been trying that exact left hook since the start of the round (slip the jab, fire the left) he finally landed it on his 14th attempt. ::

 

You know what they say, 14's a charm.

 

...and it's certainly better than being the one on the receiving end of it.:tease:

 

Trinidad/Reid

 

Mayweather-Corrales

Ali-Liston 1

Hopkins - Tito/Tarver

Lewis - Ruddock

 

A couple fights stick out in my mind...

1). Ali-Williams - Ali at his best. His hands were so fast and fluid, his punches kept Williams upright. That Ali beats every heavyweight in history.

2). Jones-Griffin II & Jones-Tarver II - the epitome of what a focused fighter does in a rematch. Rights a perceived wrong in brutal and dominating fashion.

3). Mayweather-Corrales - Floyd at his absolute best. The perfect mixture of not getting hit while remaining aggressive and dishing out an ass whupping at the same time.

Honorable Mention: Mayweather vs N'Dou. Floyd's the best fighter I've seen live. His footwork is incredible and he's more impressive in person than on TV. Then again, this is a fight where he stuck his head in and fought. He didn't run or attempt to run out the clock.

 

Azumah Nelson against Salvador Sanchez albeit a losing effort and Douglas vs Tyson.
He was a madman that night and gave the fight of his life no matter what people say about Tyson's troubles leading up to that fight.

 

A couple more brilliant welterweight performances of the 80s.

Hearns-Cuevas
Starling-Honeyghan

 

:bears:

 

Chavez/Rosario

Trinidad/Whitaker (even at Whitaker's old age it was still amazing how easily Trinidad out-boxed him)

 

dsimon writes:

Everybody came up with good choices and all of them could qualify IMO. But there are two that I would rank above:

In 3rd place, Toney Peter 1. Toney showed consumate skill in handling a bigger stronger opponent and should have been declared the winner.

In 2nd place would be Brewster vs Vlad. I don't generally like to see any guys take a lot of punishment in a fight because most of the time they are going to lose and it creates problems down the line. But Brewster showed tremendous forebearance in hanging in there and in following through and taking Vlad out.

In 1st Place with out a doubt. Douglas beating Tyson. This was boxing history.

 

Nunn/Kalambay?

McCallum/Kalule?

 

Good choices. I would also include Curry-Starling II. Curry showed how much he had grown as a fighter between their two fights as he defeated Starling with room to spare.

 

Roy-Toney; Mayweather-Corrales; Forrest-Mosley; Lewis-Golota;

 

More important than this is the question of:

Who the hell is N'kos Nathi?:eeeek:

 

I'm not sure I follow you here....:dunno:

 

Douglas would get my vote.