Great Obscure fights

Champagne_Socialist wrote:rahman  sanders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzQSGPbB1bk

AlexHuckerby wrote:

Champagne_Socialist wrote:rahman  sanders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzQSGPbB1bk

Haha, you are such a good WUM.

captain carrantuohil wrote:I think most of us expected it to be one-sided, milky, but we had some legitimate hope that it would showcase something special from Hagler, who since the eclipse of Don Curry, had been regarded as on another planet as far as boxing was concerned. At this point, Tyson had just endured his snoozefest with Bonecrusher Smith and people were queueing up to claim that they had always known that Iron Mike was a flash in the pan/overrated/one-dimensional (delete as appropriate).

Instead, Hagler did nothing, at times almost literally so. Leonard, as you say, milky, deserves the utmost credit for his ringcraft and his nerve, but the sad fact was that he really didn't have to put himself in harm's way too often to outwit the plodding champion.

In summary, great occasion, great story, great comeback - I concede all of that. Great fight - never in a million years, at least not in these jaundiced eyes. My fault for the level of expectation that I was feeling, no doubt, but still. Boo!

milkyboy wrote:Think I watched that hwan hong fight from a previous tip of yours chris... A comeback to make Lazarus proud.

Never a fan of saad Mohammed.  Completely unfairly as I was a conteh fan, and felt he through away the first fight (though I suspect many opponents of the miracle man were left with that feeling). As such my favourites of his fights is watching dwight qawi or braxton as he was then, batter him from pillar to post.

captain carrantuohil wrote:Think Quiroga v Akeem is a particularly good shout, haz. Suspect that it is neglected because of the near-tragic aftermath of the fight.

As for Bassa-McAuley, I'd like to think that, at least in these islands, it isn't too obscure. It damn well shouldn't be; for me, it is one of the half-dozen greatest fights of all time. I noticed on another thread that Truss was suggesting that Hagler-Hearns was the best fight of the 80s. To me, while it may have contained the best round of that decade, it doesn't figure in the top 5. Bassa-McAuley is right at the top, stoushes like Chacon-Limon IV have already been mentioned, and then there are the high profile classics such as Leonard-Hearns I, Duran-Leonard I and Pryor-Arguello I.

There is also another fight that deserves mention at this level from the 80s which may have slipped from some people's memories. I refer to Matthew Saad Muhammad-Yaqui Lopez II, the stand-out from Saad's compendious highlight reel. Absolutely brutal throughout, with a round (the 8th) that stands comparison with the first round of Hagler-Hearns and 13 others of almost equal drama. Marvellous fight, now perhaps fading into obscurity.

Back to post 1990 - how about Chiquita Gonzalez-Michael Carbajal I or Gonzalez-Sorjaturong?

88Chris05 wrote:

milkyboy wrote:Think I watched that hwan hong fight from a previous tip of yours chris... A comeback to make Lazarus proud.

Never a fan of saad Mohammed.  Completely unfairly as I was a conteh fan, and felt he through away the first fight (though I suspect many opponents of the miracle man were left with that feeling). As such my favourites of his fights is watching dwight qawi or braxton as he was then, batter him from pillar to post.

To be honest, milky, I think a die-hard Conteh fan like yourself or captain should just celebrate the fact that John was even able to give Saad a decent fight first time out and get within a sniff of winning at all, because going on their form lines he should have been obliterated in that one the same way he was in the second.

Although he was unlucky in Belgrade against Parlov, in that fight you could really see that Conteh's high life and injuries were starting to take their toll. He was fighting more or less one-handed by that stage due to those chronic injuries, his timing was off and he was having serious trouble blocking jabs and straight punches.

Then came the farce against Burnett which, although I might get a kicking from you and the captain for saying this, I think was one of the most disgraceful and incomprehensible verdicts ever returned in a British ring. Conteh looked shot to pieces in that one and his punch resistance was clearly eroding, too. He fought as if he was half-cut and his boozing was starting to get out of control.

Given all of that turmoil both in and out the ring, the fact that he even managed to extend Saad is worth applauding, I think. Great effort, just a shame it wasn't a twelve-rounder!