It´s funny I went over some of the cards with a friend that I saw, when I was a "boxing writer" and I saw local cards in front of 400-800 people that would be considered below ESPN standards and not in a thousand years in thought any of these fighters would become world champions eventually. Often I couldn´t remember I had seen live. I remembered stuff like that the lights were frying us, that I saw some soap stars, who obviously were paid to add some glamour to a card performed in front of 400 people in a tennis hall. Then I went over the undercard and there were like three current world champions on it. Or on other occassion I couldn´t for the hell of it remember that I saw the pro debut of the current WBC super-featherweight world champion Vitali Tajbert. Or the night Arthur Abraham defeated Kingsley Ikeke, Bernard Dunne fought on the undercard and the only things that stuck with me, where his awesome fans, who travelled to Germany to see him fight some Eastern European bum. Eventually even his fans turned away from the fight, when Laila Ali entered the arena. As for the fight itself, I thought it ended in a decision, but Dunne actually stopped the dude. :: So who are the world champs you have seen and maybe some stories attached to the cards. I was shocked it were that many, and I have never seen a Klitschko or Dariusz live: :shit: Nicolay Valuev Ruslan Chagaev Henry Akinwande (In a very awkward moment his opponent did bite one of Henry´s nipples, guess he didn´t know about the Hep.) Juan Carlos Gomez Marcelo Dominguez Zsolt Erdei Marco Huck (always turn up early if you want to be on TV. His Royness and me spend more time on TV than anyone except the fighters. Why? We were like the only two people in the arena, when he fought Rüdiger May.) Joe Calzaghe (Abraham really needs to step up, I can´t go down knowing Calzaghe was the best I ever saw live) Sven Ottke (saw his last fight and the sh*t gave me goosebumps, and I´m still upset about that) Markus Beyer Robert Stieglitz Armand Krajnc Alejandro Berrio Karoly Balszay Dimitri Sartison Arthur Abraham (first time I saw him, I knew he´d be a world champion, likely the only time I thought that about an undercard prospect with less than 10 fights) Felix Sturm Sebastian Sylvester Maselino Masoe Sergei Dzinziruk Daniel Santos (him and Dzinziruk had the best fight I ever saw live and nobody knew it would take place, until the two showed up for the press conference, three days before the fight) Carlos Baldomir (Yes, I forgot the legend, stepaside Average Joe.) :hammert: Jan Zaveck ( you could have bet me any amount of money I didn´t have at the time, that he´d never even sniff at a world title, let alone destroy a guy, who had beaten Nate Campbell) Vivian Harris Vitali Tajbert Wladimir Sidorenko Ricardo Cordoba Bernard Dunne (who would have thought it, but those loyal fans sure deserved it as much as the Irish commentators deserve a beating)
Pat Clinton, the WBO flyweight champ in 92-93. Great little fighter who was ruined by alcohol, the great problem with Scottish boxers.
Roy Jones Julio Gonzalez Erik Morales David Diaz Ricardo Mayorga 6 heads Lewis MAB Fernando Montiel Miguel Cotto Juan Ma Lopez Ulises Solis
