Excellent fights that are underrated because of external factors

[Fox McCloud]

Just a little note-Castillo is supposed to have scored double the amount of punches that Mayweather did. I believe Castillo won that fight.

Mayweather's most entertaining fight (and for Mayweather to have an entertaining fight was unexpected anyway, since he was noted for "stinking out the house")

Was his very underrated fight with Emmanuel Augustus, where they both went hammer and tongs with each other for 9 rds. He expected his usual easy, overmatched opponent, as Augustus had about 17-20 losses then, and got much more than he expected.

I never really got into his fight with Augustus, or Burton as he was called back then... I don't know why.

Midget fight 1: Arce vs Hussein often gets overlooked because people think of Arce more for his losses now I think. Also, this was on the undercard of Morales Pacquiao 1. Pacquiao Morales 1 was a great fight in itself so this fight gets often overlooked. Amazing fight though.

AND JEFF FENECH STOPS THE FIGHT! Oh yeah Warp, that's never going to get old.

I really don't like that fight as much as most do... Hussein was fighting hard, and landing, but it was so clear from about 1:30 in the first round that Arce was going to win it.

I think you can also make the case that Morales-Pacquiao I gets overlooked because the last two fights of the trilogy kind of erased Morales's win.

Both fights were very good though.

Midget fight 2: Like Arce Hussein, Segura vs Canchilla 1 was on the undercard of another great fight causing it to get overlooked (Margarito-Cotto). Fists went flying in this one and Canchilla ended up upsetting Segura with having better overall stamina and boxing skills. Segura wrecked him in a rematch, but the first fight was great.

I watched that one without giving it my full attention, so all I remember was Segura doing serious business early, and then gassing out, and Canchilla just kind of outworking him down the stretch. Like I said, I didn't really pay close attention, so I'm not the best judge of it.

And this is fight is not "underrated because of external factors" but Matthew Saad Muhhamad vs Marvin Johnson is the next best fight I've ever seen next to Corrales-Castillo 1. That fight is awesome

Never seen it. I probably should.

[daggum]

Midget fight 1: Arce vs Hussein often gets overlooked because people think of Arce more for his losses now I think. Also, this was on the undercard of Morales Pacquiao 1. Pacquiao Morales 1 was a great fight in itself so this fight gets often overlooked. Amazing fight though.

Midget fight 2: Like Arce Hussein, Segura vs Canchilla 1 was on the undercard of another great fight causing it to get overlooked (Margarito-Cotto). Fists went flying in this one and Canchilla ended up upsetting Segura with having better overall stamina and boxing skills. Segura wrecked him in a rematch, but the first fight was great.

And this is fight is not "underrated because of external factors" but Matthew Saad Muhhamad vs Marvin Johnson is the next best fight I've ever seen next to Corrales-Castillo 1. That fight is awesome

segura knocked him out after the bell rang like 6 times. one of the most disgraceful and corrupt things in boxing history.

[Rick Grimes]

Tyson-Douglas - Douglas put on the performance of his career and never gets the true credit he deserves.

[warp1432]

segura knocked him out after the bell rang like 6 times. one of the most disgraceful and corrupt things in boxing history.

Forgot about that. He was a dead man walking though because he had already gone down beforehand a bunch

[Jack Napier]

Holyfield vs Cooper
Holyfield has beaten much better fighters
Cooper has always been "the opponent"
but this was a hell of a fight
Holyfield controlled most of it, but Cooper was in it to the end
not one of Holyfield's best wins, but one of his many great fights

[Fox McCloud]

Holyfield vs Cooper
Holyfield has beaten much better fighters
Cooper has always been "the opponent"
but this was a hell of a fight
Holyfield controlled most of it, but Cooper was in it to the end
not one of Holyfield's best wins, but one of his many great fights

One of those... if only he had won the fight, his career would have taken a giant turn towards stardom. I've never seen this fight. I should probably record it on the parent's DVR (they get ESPN Classic, we don't), and give it a watch sometime, since it's on all the time.

I'm glad you brought Holyfield up. Looking at that guy's resume is always a wonder to me. In fact, I'm going to start a thread about it right now.

[TrickyTrickster]

I'm watching the Countdown to Pacquiao-Morales III, because I think it's really well done and I'm obviously a Morales fanboy. ←←←←←← ↓↓↓↓↓

Anyway, they showed highlights of the second fight with Barrera, which happens to be my favorite of the trilogy, because I love extremely technical fights, and Morales giving his best performance of the trilogy probably makes me like it a little more too.

But, in the eyes of most, the second fight was a dud. Now... if you hadn't ever seen the first or third, I can't imagine anyone seeing it and thinking, *yawn*, well that was a waste of time. That made me think this topic might be a good idea. The goal is to list fights that are really good, and give the reason why they are not considered as good as they should be. So, to start us off:

Mayweather-Castillo I - Even though all we ever hear about is "Castillo was robbed!" and "Nah bro, it was easy work, Mayweather easily won 9 rounds to 3"... but in reality, the back and forth action in this fight was excellent, and this easily clocks in as Mayweather's most entertaining fight I think.

Barrera-Morales II - The pure violence of the first fight makes it most people's favorite of the trilogy, and the third fight had good back and forth action with Morales going out in the last few rounds to make it a very violent, very entertaining fight, but the second fight is definitely back and forth as well, providing pretty good action throughout. It just gets overlooked, because it was more technical than the other two.

Margarito-Cotto - Now it is just a big debate about whether there was plaster involved, and people's favorite avenue to piss off the PR brigade, bringing up Cotto taking a knee, but that fight was pure violence throughout, with the ultimate example of will overcoming skill (except maybe Chavez vs. Taylor, which somehow does get its due, regardless of the controversy surrounding it).

Maidana-Ortiz - So many people love(d... we'll see if it changes because of this Berto fight) to talk about how Ortiz had no heart, pointing to this fight, but people never seemed to talk about how this was the second coming of Cotto-Torres, which can never be a bad thing.

Lopez-Mtagwa - People love(d... they have a new fight to point to now) talk about how chinless little Lopez was going to be a knockout victim. In reality, watching the middle to last rounds, after Lopez stopped totally dominating was extremely entertaining.

I'll stop for now. What ones can you all come up with?

Man I loved Maidana Ortiz, back and forth action at its best.
People really try distinguish how great that fight was due to how it ended,
I only rewatched it a few days before the Ortiz Berto fight and My god, I forgot how good it was.

Cotto-Margarito was a great fight also, But I find the closing rounds very hard to watch. Especially with the hand wrap accusations that came out a few months later, Margarito pretty much scares me to be honest. He shows just how dangerous he is in that Cotto fight, he just like a human wrecking ball, a machine, a monster. The man was just a beast.
I think a rematch would end up fairly similar to be honest.

[studentofthegam]

Was his very underrated fight with Emmanuel Augustus, where they both went hammer and tongs with each other for 9 rds. He expected his usual easy, overmatched opponent, as Augustus had about 17-20 losses then, and got much more than he expected.

Good pick. going to watch it now

[Fox McCloud]

Man I loved Maidana Ortiz, back and forth action at its best.
People really try distinguish how great that fight was due to how it ended,
I only rewatched it a few days before the Ortiz Berto fight and My god, I forgot how good it was.

Cotto-Margarito was a great fight also, But I find the closing rounds very hard to watch. Especially with the hand wrap accusations that came out a few months later, Margarito pretty much scares me to be honest. He shows just how dangerous he is in that Cotto fight, he just like a human wrecking ball, a machine, a monster. The man was just a beast.
I think a rematch would end up fairly similar to be honest.

Maidana-Ortiz is a good one if you want to watch totally senseless violence at its best. I still think Cotto-Torres is a better fighter overall though.

Regardless of handwraps, I think Cotto ends up adjusting better to what happened in the first fight (he is the one with more tools at his disposal, meaning he has more options to adjust as well), and I think Margarito has had more taken out of him as a fighter than Cotto has since their first fight, as surprising as that might sound.