Excellent fighter performances that get forgotten due to controversy

Kind of like the excellent fight topics, but individual performances that just shine, but are forgotten due to something else about the fight. Mosley-Margarito - Another fight that was affected by the allegations of plaster... but, can anyone think of another fight that shows pure offensive artistry in every second of the fight? Seriously, Mosley connected with everything, and every single punch was 100% loaded up, meant to knock out an unknockoutable fighter. Mosley's power won the argument against Margarito's chin in the end. Absolutely incredible. Dirrell-Abraham - I'm not here to argue what happened with the DQ... every debate I've had on that topic transcends the level of stupidity this board is capable of it seems like. However, Dirrell came into that fight with everyone expecting him to get knocked out, and knocked out early. He boxed the perfect fight, using his range effectively, and mixing up offense and defense to perfection in his game plan. Martinez-Dzinziruk - This fight boils down to... had you seen Dzinziruk coming into this fight. If so, you knew the special fight Martinez was fighting, outjabbing the guy with the second best jab in the sport, only behind Wladimir Klitschko. Dzinziruk was legit, soundly beat a prime Daniel Santos, and he got absolutely wrecked by Martinez. This win was much more impressive than his decision over Pavlik and almost as impressive as his knockout of Williams, which was only better because of the track record of Williams's chin. Calzaghe-Kessler - People often underrate everything about this fight. It was a pretty decent fight in terms of action... both fighters were trying to hurt as well as win rounds, it was easily the most significant fight of 2007 (lineal IBF and WBO/Ring champ vs. WBA/WBC champ; truly established dominance in the division with one fight), and Calzaghe totally shut down a better technical fighter with his unorthodox game plan. I've never seen the Eubank fight, but I have problems seeing how any fight but this can't be considered the best win of Calzaghe's career. Kessler-Froch - This fight gets a lot of love, but I think both fighters' performances get underrated. Kessler came back and showed that he still had it, with a very good technical fight, and he showed tons of heart, fighting through the multiple times he was hurt. Froch's performance really impressed me though. I came into this fight thinking Froch was trash, but came out wondering how he looked like Sweet Pea Whitaker defensively sometimes (I swear to god I thought that while watching the fight in spots) and was impressed by the awkwardness and how he was able to make his punches land, even though they look slow as hell. He really is a special fighter, you just can't figure out why when watching him fight. Tarver-Johnson II - After Hopkins made Tarver to look like the most overrated fighter of the decade, people largely blew him off as a guy who was in the right place at the right time to take down a weight drained Jones... I'm not buying it, and never will, and it's because of the Glen Johnson fights. I was quite surprised that Johnson got the decision in the first one, as I thought Tarver boxed an excellent fight, but the rematch was truly special. People forget that the guy who almost beat Dawson in their first fight got completely shut down, almost as hard as he did against Hopkins back when he was a green middleweight. This fight alone validates Tarver's career past a lucky guy with a fluke win over a shot Jones in my mind. Wright-Mosley II - The myth of the majority decision, and the revisionist way HBO talks about this fight makes people forget that Wright put even more of a down south, Mississippi ass whipping on Sugar Shane, who had no business at 154. Seriously, check the compubox numbers if you don't have time to watch it, or actually watch it and have it don on you... man, I did remember this all wrong. Mosley got dominated, even though he fought a little better; Wright fought soooooooo much better, which made a bigger gap in margin of victory (or should have been in the official cards anyway). Margarito-Cintron II - Considering what Cintron has done since moving up to 154... beating Angulo, giving Martinez more trouble than Pavlik did, etc... he has kind of received the title of spoiler. He spoiled nothing for Margarito. I was in awe at the beating Margarito gave Cintron in their rematch, which really was a legitimate fight, but after it was over, it functioned the same that Cotto's tune-up against Gomez did for their fight in the summer. Excellent performance. Pacquiao-Diaz - People often think of David Diaz as a substandard champion and average fighter. He has some okay wins in his career, give some credit. Regardless, he was obviously not on the same level as Pacquiao. But, what people do forget is that, previous to this fight, Pacquiao was a come forward puncher... but he unveiled a boxer-puncher style not seen before, and that I didn't think he was capable of. Pacquiao-Morales II - People think of this in the same way that they think of the third fight. This fight was competitive, close, Morales fought quite well, and Pacquiao doesn't get credit for retooling his game plan and finding a way to break Morales down with better use of his right, and body punching. People who point to Raheem beating Morales before this fight make me laugh a little... do you really think Pacquiao fought like Raheem to win this fight? :lol1: Alright, done... I kind of went overboard with this one... post away!

Comments (4)

I agree... the first time Jones had to do anything other than show up and make the opponent look bad, he passed his test with colors that weren't flying, but did gut it out, winning the fight. However, I do think a lot of that was stupid ass Tarver taking seven rounds off, rather than Jones just outgutting him. It seemed like when Tarver wanted to fight, he did some seriously good work. this why it looks great for Roy he was there to be beaten that night announcers were all over Tarver for that it wasn't because he was carrying Roy when Roy let go, he put respect into Tarver Tarver caught on to the fatigue and attacked toward the end but Roy turned it around and shut him down in championship rounds

15y ago

Fox_McCloud

what was so special about martinez beating up a smaller fighter with no head movement who hadn't looked impressive in years? he beat santos who was coming off a gift decision against margarito who i've heard is a giant tomato can so why is that impressive? dzinziruk couldn't even beat konecy and looked very troubled by julio and all this was at 154. why would moving up to 160 make him better? if you thought this fight was going to be competitive then something is wrong. martinez looked great but he was supposed to! just like floyd looked great against ndou and berto looked great against hernandez. these are just showcase fights. Lol, at the bolded part. You do a good job showing how stupid this board is with your sarcasm, and always have. The reason why it was impressive was, even though he had no head movement, he had the Winky Wright defense, who also employed no head movement into his game, and he did it well too. I won't have anyone say this his defense wasn't top notch. Konecny is the perfect example of a bad style matchup against that defense. Wright went through the same trouble against Angel Hernandez and JC Candelo in spots, who were certainly lesser fighters than Konecny, who is one of the better fighters Europe has to offer that is below the radar. Santos was a good fighter... Two division champion, two times at 154. Actually looking at his resume again did remind me how much of it is hedged on his wins over Margarito and Alcine, who really isn't much in hindsight. Either way, slick, technical fighter who got out-teched in a big way. That counts for something at least. Roy Jones against Tarver the first time many say that Tarver was robbed, it's not true he gave Roy problems, but Roy was clearly the better man one of those fights where underdog got brownie points Roy had nothing that night and still won clearly, screw the MD call Tarver KO'd him in a rematch and Roy was a shell of a shell in the 3rd people only remember Tarver stopping Roy they forget Roy's guts in the first fight I agree... the first time Jones had to do anything other than show up and make the opponent look bad, he passed his test with colors that weren't flying, but did gut it out, winning the fight. However, I do think a lot of that was stupid ass Tarver taking seven rounds off, rather than Jones just outgutting him. It seemed like when Tarver wanted to fight, he did some seriously good work.

15y ago

Jack_Napier

Roy Jones against Tarver the first time many say that Tarver was robbed, it's not true he gave Roy problems, but Roy was clearly the better man one of those fights where underdog got brownie points Roy had nothing that night and still won clearly, screw the MD call Tarver KO'd him in a rematch and Roy was a shell of a shell in the 3rd people only remember Tarver stopping Roy they forget Roy's guts in the first fight

15y ago

daggum

15y ago