Ted The Bull's Ten Favorite Fights

[AJ53]

A Basilio fight has to be up there somewhere. He has had at least 5 fights which I could easily rank in the top 50 fights of all time.

yeah it's even hard to put carmens best fights in a top 5 order because they were all really that good.

[Ted The Bull]

EMAIL FROM PIMP tHIS FROM OAKLAND: "Bigup TED this is PIMP THIS whats the place you write now you said your not doing it at ESB I saw your stuff in that link but whats the other place? I got a story on FOX they just say Mikes in Rehab just like I say last week they just wrote it today they are slow."

[I LOVE YOU]

ward gatti 1, arguello-pryor1, hagler-hearns and da thrilla in manila. enuff said

[Ted The Bull]

ward gatti 1, arguello-pryor1, hagler-hearns and da thrilla in manila. enuff said

"ward gatti 1, arguello-pryor1, hagler-hearns and da thrilla in manila. enuff said"

Darn good ones but did you SEE the others?

[Booda from LV]

You couldn't have named 10 better than you did. GREAT!

[Holly McCall]

Who would you pick first out of your 3-way tie for 10th?

[Ted The Bull]

Hagler-Hearns

[Hydro]

nelson vs fenech 1 is one of my all time favorite fights. I wonder how come no one else comments about it, I thought it was one of the best matches I've ever seen, damn Fenech was good back in the day.

The decision in that is the kind of decision that makes you feel dirty being a boxing fan.

Jeff got ROOOBBBBEEEEDDDD.

[Hydro]

"ward gatti 1, arguello-pryor1, hagler-hearns and da thrilla in manila. enuff said"

Darn good ones but did you SEE the others?

There's a number of other fights better than those (well maybe not Manila).

Ward-Gatti I, while a terrific fight, is not even the best fight this decade, and not the best Gatti fight either.

[bdevils]

Nice read.

Here would be my favorites:

1. Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo I: Wow. Just brutal action on the inside. But not wild swinging and slugging, it was a terrific display of in-fighting. Excellent combinations, positioning, body punching, etc...With Corrales's eye looking terrible and Castillo cut, Corrales closed round 7 by rocking Castillo with a short left hook. Round 8 was better. Terrific brutal action. If not for the 10th round of this fight, round 8 might have been the round of the year. Round 9 was more action. Round 10 had it all. 2 knockdowns, controversy, and a dramatic come-from-behind stoppage.

2. Felix Trinidad-Fernando Vargas: A junior middleweight unificiation bout between a Mexican-American champion and Puerto Rican champion to go with the long rich history of the ethnic rivalry. Trinidad struck first, dropping Vargas 2x in round 1. Vargas struck back with a knockdown in round 4, and Trinidad responded by giving Vargas a brutal low blow. Vargas dominated round 5 with his use of boxing, footwork, and angles, but Trinidad cornered him in round 6 and hurt hit late with a right hand. Trinidad continued to stalk Vargas with success and Vargas would respond with good work of his own, even hurting Trinidad to the body in round 8. Round 9 was brutal toe-to-toe action, with Vargas leaving the round the worse for wear. Finally, Trinidad dropped Vargas 3x in the 12th until Jay Nady finally stopped it.

3. Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier III: While they were both better fighters in 1971, their third fight in 1975 was probably the most brutal and closely contested. Ali started well in the first 2 rounds, then Frazier came on in round 3 with a nice body attack and a brilliant display of head movement. I lost count of how many Ali shots he slipped in round 3 when Ali flurried. Too many to count. Ali came on better in the next 2 rounds, but by round 6, Frazier was able to land at will to Ali's body, and also some nice left hooks upstairs. The brutal body attack continued, as Ali would later say it was "close to death". But by round 12, Ali had somehow been able to dig in his reservoir and was able to land countless right hands and short left hooks to Frazier's face. It continued in round 13 and even worse in round 14. According to the Muhammad Ali reader by Thomas Hauser, an exhausted Ali said "cut em off" to Angelo Dundee after round 14, despite his domination in the last couple of rounds. Dundee ignored him. In the other corner, the noble Eddie Futch elected to stop the fight, giving Ali a TKO win. Neither fighter was ever the same. Apparently Frazier never forgave Futch for stopping the fight.

Other favorites:

Arturo Gatti-Ivan Robinson I: everyone talks about Gatti's first fight with Mickey Ward. This was probably better.

Michael Carbajal-Humberto Gonzalez I: "Little Hands of Stone" rises from 2 KDs to stop Gonzalez in round 7 with a picture-perfect left hook.

Michael Moorer-Bert Cooper: Rid**** Bowe's title-winning victory over Evander Holyfield, with its classic 10th round, might have not been the best heavyweight fight of 1992. Rising contender Moorer took on the veteran Bert Cooper, fresh off a very entertaining fight with Evander Holyfield in which he dropped the HW champion in his hometown of Atlanta. Cooper struck first, dropping Moorer less than a minute into the 1st round. Moorer responded with a beautiful right hook and left hand that dropped Cooper. In round 3, Cooper dropped Moorer with a barrage on the ropes. But Moorer was able to weather the storm and stop Cooper with a beautiful combination, finished off with a right uppercut-straight left that snapped Cooper's head up, and then back.

moorer-cooper was an amazing fight while it lasted. i thought when cooper knocked moorer down the first time the fight was over.