What is the greatest display of pure boxing skill you have ever witnessed?

[Sugar Adam Ali]

The bold, almost surreal man!

Yes Toney seemed to be in the matrix that night,,, i think it was his greatest performance

Some great ones there. If you had to pick one of the ones you listed, what would you choose?

Damn, put me on the spot,,,,,

ok, I will go with hopkins over tito,,,, because

1. Tito was a monster who had been on a terror beating pernell and oscar and everyone else at welter,

2, Then he went to jr mid and absolutley ruined the careers of 2 great young champion olympic fighters in reid and vargas,,, he RUINED THEM

3. Then went to MW and fought joppy who was considered to be either 1 or 2 best MW on the planet, and tito detonated his chin and ruined joppy...

4. Tito had just beaten olympic caliber fighers in pernell, oscar, reid, vargas and joppy,, he was the first to decisively beat pernell, made oscar run, and ruined 3 careers in reid, vargas, and joppy..

5. Hopkins was 36 yrs old, a huge underdog, going into the madhouse that was MSG for a showdown with the undefeated, prime, marathon type stamina in trinidad

6. Hopkins weathered him, schooled him, countered him, broke him down, and stopped him

7. Favorite parts are the end of the 2nd when all hopkins did was jab and move but then suddenly double jabbed and landed a hard right hand,,
then in the 9th when hopkins started throwing the straight right down the pipe on tito
then in the 11th when tito forearmed the throat of hopkins against the ropes and the ref broke them up and adjusted hopkins trunks,, hopkins the entire time just gave trinidad the death stare and then caught him with a beautiful combination and head-bobbling uppercut to end the round and continued to beat him up after the bell.
then the beautiful block of tito's vaunted left hook and hopkins coming back with his own left hook and dropping and stopping tito.....

My absolute favorite schooling of all times......

[mathed]

Calzaghe-Lacy

Cotto-Gomez

Hopkins-Tito

Jones-Pazienza

Floyd-Canelo

[-Huey-]

Floyd vs Everyone

[JmH Reborn]

Hopkins - Tito

Calderon - Cazares

Two of my most favorite fights ever. Skills, technique, heart, determination, and even more skills.

[ab4life]

Yes Toney seemed to be in the matrix that night,,, i think it was his greatest performance



Damn, put me on the spot,,,,,

ok, I will go with hopkins over tito,,,, because

1. Tito was a monster who had been on a terror beating pernell and oscar and everyone else at welter,

2, Then he went to jr mid and absolutley ruined the careers of 2 great young champion olympic fighters in reid and vargas,,, he RUINED THEM

3. Then went to MW and fought joppy who was considered to be either 1 or 2 best MW on the planet, and tito detonated his chin and ruined joppy...

4. Tito had just beaten olympic caliber fighers in pernell, oscar, reid, vargas and joppy,, he was the first to decisively beat pernell, made oscar run, and ruined 3 careers in reid, vargas, and joppy..

5. Hopkins was 36 yrs old, a huge underdog, going into the madhouse that was MSG for a showdown with the undefeated, prime, marathon type stamina in trinidad

6. Hopkins weathered him, schooled him, countered him, broke him down, and stopped him

7. Favorite parts are the end of the 2nd when all hopkins did was jab and move but then suddenly double jabbed and landed a hard right hand,,
then in the 9th when hopkins started throwing the straight right down the pipe on tito
then in the 11th when tito forearmed the throat of hopkins against the ropes and the ref broke them up and adjusted hopkins trunks,, hopkins the entire time just gave trinidad the death stare and then caught him with a beautiful combination and head-bobbling uppercut to end the round and continued to beat him up after the bell.
then the beautiful block of tito's vaunted left hook and hopkins coming back with his own left hook and dropping and stopping tito.....

My absolute favorite schooling of all times......

Great post and breakdown on the fight! Did you see it live?

[mathed]

Roy Jones jr.-Vinny Pazienza by NUBIANHUNK

[Counter Troll]

James Toney vs Mike McCallum I
'Technical' warfare of the highest order. It almost doesn't get any better than this.


Larry Holmes vs Ken Norton
A back-n-forth tactical stalemate, that devolves into an all out slugfest at the end. Probably the greatest boxing match i've ever seen. Great contrast of styles.

[_original_]

The term "pure boxing" is so vague it's hard to seriously answer.

[therealpugilist]

Great list but not sure about #1 for the simple fact it was against Gatti...let's face it, Gatti was a guy that bobbed and weaved into punches. (rip)

Gatti was never an all-time great but he was exciting and a world class fighter also a two weight titlist. I have never seen a world class fighter take such a beating. Its different when its a 1 or 2 round ko but that was 6 rounds of schooling and beating. similar to Ali vs. Williams I felt sad watching those

[luke1979]

Some classics have been mentioned already, Ali vs Foreman was special.
More recently though Rigo vs Donaire stands out to me, especially when you consider how highly rated Donaire was within the sport and how few pro bouts Rigo had had going in.