Most Overrated Fights

Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson I: Great event, pretty good fight with some quality exchanges and a lot of clinching. The Ring called this the 1996 fight of the year. It wasn't even a top 5 fight of 1996 nor was it the best heavyweight fight in the last two months of 1996. Oscar De La Hoya-Ike Quartey: I've heard people (like Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant) describe this as a great, tremendous fight. Apparently people only remember 2 rounds and the remaining 10 when both guys spent mostly staring at each other. Posefests are not great. It was suspenseful enough to get you into it when you saw it live, but the action level for most of it sucked. I heard people describe this as "epic" and better than DLH's bouts with Vargas and Mosley 1. LOL. Boxing fans and their short memories. Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward II and III: The first fight was great (although Gatti-Robinson I was better). The 2nd fight was alright, but a shutout. The 3rd fight was good, but not FOTY material, and still too one-sided. Ward won two rounds against Gatti, who had a broken hand. One when Gatti broke his hand and the other Ward took in the last 5 seconds of the round. HBO overhyped this trilogy. Gatti-Ward 3 was the 2nd best fight of the trilogy, and wouldn't make my top 5 Gatti fights or top 5 Ward fights. Toney-Jirov and Gomez-Arthur were more worthy fights for 2003 Fight of the Year.

Comments (20)

catalinul

Froch-Kessler.

13y ago

1Assassin

it was on and off in terms of action. The moments when Hearns was in control were very dull. That and if one round would be action packed, the next was super tame. It was opposite ends. bull****! hearns boxing leonards ears off was one of the best and most classic moments ever. arguably the single best clash of two technicians in history, the sweet science in all its glory. the skill, fighting intelligence and physical talent was through the roof and they gave a display of BOXING at its very best, it was a master piece. if you think that was "very dull" and "super tame" you must not like boxing very much.

13y ago

sicko

Ward vs Gatti HANDS DOWN! Only reason why it was exciting is because neither of them had much boxing skills, they was slow and their footwork was terrible, so yeah your going to get an exciting fight when it is two fighters who have no clue what the word "DEFENSE" means RIP to Gatti and respect to Ward but as soon as these guys was put in with BOXERS WITH SKILLS, they got PICKED APART EVERY TIME!

13y ago

Elotero

Barrera - Pac 1. I get how significant this fight was, how it re-ignited boxing and brought it back to the spotlight but it seriously is a crappy fight. Barrera just kind of gives up after the first 2 minutes of the first round. Not a typical Barrera fight at all. Wolak vs Rodriguez 1 I have heard too many folks who should know better call this the type of fight "Fight Fans" want to see. All I seen was Wolak walk into punches all night and Delvin get exhausted from beating Wolaks face. The first half was OK but the second half Wolak turned a beating into a crappy MMA wrestling match -- visibly tired, constantly tying up and throwing punches with no gas. Zack Padilla vs Sucra Ray Olivera OK. It broke the record for most punches in a fight. Most of those punches were so light and tired that I wouldn't even consider them punches. Im a big Zack Padilla fan but for having the most punches thrown in a fight this was a pretty boring fight

13y ago

110110110

Seriously the Amir Kahn vs Maidana fight is one of the best fights I have seen.

13y ago

kendom

Pryor- Arguello I 1982- Hyped up as an incredible exciting fight. Didnt find it that way, too one-sided for my liking. Benn-McCllenan 1995- Overhyped in my opinion, too one sided at some points for my liking, I think it was mainly the tragedy that gives this fight that special lure because I dint find it that intriguing.

13y ago

mrpain81

Young vs. Foreman was boring as $het for the first 6 rounds I think, don't know how that got FOTY.

13y ago

transportcd

how can no 1 mention barrera - morales 3 that fight was exciting bt only the last 2 rounds had foty material

13y ago

El_Angel

Berto Ortiz got hyped up post fight as an epic battle... Besides the opposing knockdowns, it was a simple case of Berto holding on for his life after 3 rounds. This. The second half of the bout was sloppy and their fatigue showed. Ortiz won mostly on activity the second half of the bout.

13y ago

warp1432

What??!!! that was ATG fight, the evolution of style from the 2 fighter was 1 of a kind. it was on and off in terms of action. The moments when Hearns was in control were very dull. That and if one round would be action packed, the next was super tame. It was opposite ends.

13y ago

Thread_Stealer

the first six rounds/half of that fight were pretty damn wild the second half was much more tame Yeah, the second half had a lot of clinching. First half was great, especially the 6th round. Manny Steward went nuts!

13y ago

miron_lang

I cant think of Overrated fights BUT Barrera-Morales and Vasquez-Marquez are the 2 BEST trilogy of all time.

13y ago

gingeralbino

im gonna get a lot of **** for this one. But i thought Toney Jirov was a good fight. Not great, not even very good. Just good. Ive seen people say its one of their favourite fights of all time.

13y ago

SCtrojansbaby

Hagler vs Hearns amazing fight but no where near the best of all time like people make it out to be

13y ago

betmen

First fight I thought of was De La Hoya-Quartey, funny to see it already mentioned. I would say SRL and Hearns is a little overrated as well. That fight is really inconsistent in its action until the last couple of rounds. What??!!! that was ATG fight, the evolution of style from the 2 fighter was 1 of a kind.

13y ago

DeadLikeMe

Calling a fight "most overrated" is pretty bull**** really...but probably Holyfield-Bowe is the most garbage of great fights we grew up seeing...picking the "worst" of the greatest fights you've seen in your life is kinda ridic...

13y ago

Kev

Lewis vs Tyson/Holyfield Jones vs Ruiz/Gonzalez Hopkins vs Pavlik/Wiky/Oscar Cotto vs Foreman Pac vs Morales 3 Floyd vs Gatti/Baldomir/Cotto/Judah Another one who doesn't get the topic. And BTW, Mayweather-Cotto was a pretty action packed fight. Not FOTY, but it had a lot of action.

13y ago

New_England

Berto Ortiz got hyped up post fight as an epic battle... Besides the opposing knockdowns, it was a simple case of Berto holding on for his life after 3 rounds. the first six rounds/half of that fight were pretty damn wild the second half was much more tame

13y ago

Thread_Stealer

The ring magazine has had a tendency throughout the years to give some undeserving fights, the award of fight of the year, pre 1970's mostly. Some of the fights they have mentioned have been good bouts, but not FOTY winners. Yeah they gave some weird choices, often it was simply a notable HW fight that would win. Foreman-Frazier 1? It was a massacre. Young-Foreman over Franklin-Johnson 1?

13y ago

THE_REED

Damn I was checking The Ring fights of the year, and wtf Carmen Basilio was in 5 FOTY fights in a ROW. That's crazy. Who the hell is gonna beat that? Ward, Graziano and Marciano come second place with 3 each. I'm talking about in a row, not who has the most. Some records are too ridiculous to be broken. Goes to prove though... Legacy is so much more than your resume.

13y ago