Boxing Anyone?

On my flight back from Tampa to NY on Sunday. I was glued to the ESPN Classic station on the TV that Jet Blue had by me seat. I was so rapt because I realized how much I miss watching a good, hyped up boxing match. During my flight, they were reliving some classic Ali fights. The fight I had the pleasure of viewing were Ali/Forman in Zaire ( a good one), Ali/Weppner (the real life Rocky), and Ali/Lyle (a waste if you ask me). Just when the plane landed, they were going to relive the Thriller in Manila. I would have paid $$ to have the pilot circle around the airport just so I can watch that one.

The purpose of starting this thread is to gather some thoughts about boxing in general. It couls be anything from the classic fights, to the best fighters, like Dempsy, Louis, Ali, Frazier to Tyson (in his prime, just a note, he makes my blood curdle), to the dilution of todays set up with the extended number of classes and divisions to the complete lack of talent that we suffer from today.

In this thread, anything goes. Let's hear the thoughts.

Personally any fight when Roy Jones Jr was in his prime. He was a class act, didnt matter if he was going to fight above or below his weight he would dominate. B Hop was also a class fighter, I remember watching the Oscar De La Hoya fight and how Hopkins cut him down with body shots just showed dont need a knock out shot.

But thats the shame with boxing, watching former champions struggle against the new blood.

On a up note I did watch a good fight this past week end, Felix Sturm v. Maselino Masoe, Sturm showed class for a young(ish) fighter picking off the more powerful fighter with hit and run then also loaded power shots on him aswell as moving well around the ring in doing so dominated the scoring.

Also the Mayweather v. Judah looks to be a class fight.

Kust

Ive been dissapointed with boxing since the "downfall" of both klitschko brothers, the ko to corey saunders and the tko to lennox lewis, etc etc, the heavyweight division is pathetic. I am now interested tho in current(i believe its wbc) champion valuev, tallest champion ever at 7"3 i believe, i simply wanna see how a man his height can box

i only keep up with boxing a little bit, im more into mixed martial arts/no holds barred/vale tudo and submission wrestling.. but the last thing i remember that shocked me about boxing was when leavander johnson died.. it was last september.. he died of brain wounds he suffered against jesus chavez.. that was pretty crazy.. there have been more deaths in boxing than in any mma/nhb fights.. and thats crazy to me, because theres alot more damage done to the fighters in mma (by using 4oz gloves instead of the usual 8 or 16oz)..

but other than that, growing up i loved boxing.. until i saw tyson bite holyfields ear off.. from then on i kinda steered away from it.. not quite sure why

German, I wouls agree with you about roy Jones, Jr. Hes probably one of the better ones out there. He is a legitimate heavyweight. I think alot of the contenders today are well short of the ones of yesteryear. I would be interersted in seeing Jones meet up with Marvin Hagler. Two hard hitting guys who would match up well. If I were to pick that one, I'd go with Jones by decision.

That russian boxer at 7'3" will have one hell of a reach. That is a definite advantage over anyone he would meet up with in the ring. I think the tallest fighter next to him would have been Ed "Too Tall" Jones at 6'9". I know when I box I am 6'4" and rely on my reach alot.

I hated Tyson well before he bit off Holyfield's ear. Even when he was in his prime, I thought he was an arrogant fuck. At least then, he had some credibility. When he fired Rooney, his career and disposition went south.