This was Merchant's characterization of the first PBF/Castillo fight. And I think it was apt. What other fights deserve this label?
Marcel-Shibata Saldivar-Laguna Harada-Jofre I Charles-Johnson Laciar-Roman I & II Zapata-Tomori/Nakajima Canto-Oguma III McCallum-Kalambay II Penalosa-Rojas
I acknowledge we did a best chess matches thread not long ago. So I appreciate ya'll playing along. Although strictly speaking, not all the best chess matches qualify as high speed chess.
Large parts of Wlad vs Joshua was HSC, with dynamite. The thing is Klitschko was actually trying to negotiate the minefield, Joshua was trying to breathe.
Oscar: Lemme plod forward all night, make no adjustments and just eat right hands. Shane: Lemme throw really flashy combos, and inexplicably switch to southpaw every 5 mins cause it seems cool.
Just watched this. Really good fight. And they said Rojas had lost his five previous fights. Some really nice exchanges. You think Rojas might have edged it?
This is one of the finest examples ever of an exciting chess match IMO. Gavilan-Graham III is another that I often bring up.
Agreed. In fact, I'd say it was an excellent fight. Plenty of action, good pace and a nice climax in the last round. Especially I can't see the fight being a disappointment since Oscar was the clear favorite and it was much closer than expected.
I seem to remember Wilfredo Vasquez vs Orlando Canizales being a good high-speed chessmatch, between two top offensive technicians.
I thought Rojas had lost 8 and Gerry had lost five. Rojas went onto win Gerry's old title at 115, as well. But nah, I had Gerry winning clearly enough. Excellent fight though. Penalosa's fight with Young Joo Cho is pretty good too. As far as I can remember, it's a bit of a dissection at times (and the only time I can recall Penalosa going down, even though it was just a flash KD) but he showed excellent movement in that one. At his flyweight peak, Penalosa was an animal.
I remember thinking it was pretty slow given where they were in their careers. Had Canziales winning big though. Gaby vs Vasquez would be a war.
I might rewatch it today if I have time. I certainly don't think Canizales won "big" though. I remember it being a fight that could have gone either way, but I thought Vasquez inched it.
I only watched it once years ago, but I had Cani winning as well. I remember being surprised at the verdict.