The thing I enjoy most about these kinds of rankings is that you could mix them up in a hat and then lay them out and they still would make sense?
?Once that bell rings you?re on your own. It?s just you and the other guy.??Joe Louis
1. Diego Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo I (2005): Round 10. With his left eye almost totally closed and already down twice in the 10th, Chico Corrales miraculously climbed off the deck and battered Jose Luis Castillo into submission along the ropes to score one of the most dramatic come-from-behind TKOs in boxing history. As Castillo was moving in for the certain kill, a shaky Corrales landed a counter hook out from of nowhere that rocked the attacking Mexican. Castillo was immediately pinned on the ropes, getting hammered by left-right, left-right combos. He was out on his feet causing excellent referee Tony Weeks to stop the fight. Both men sustained tremendous punishment in an all-time classic slugfest that was named Ring Magazine Fight of the Year. To nobody?s surprise, round ten was named Round of the Year. Like many such encounters, this fight arguably ?ruined? both fighters.
?All the nobility, all the savagery, and all the brutality of boxing was captured in one three-minute round Saturday night.??Ron Borges/Boston Globe
2. Jake LaMotta vs. Laurent Dauthuille (1950): The 15th round of this championship fight was unparalleled for its ending when LaMotta, 77-14-3 going in, playing possum, suddenly erupted with a volley of violence and, working the angles, took out Dauthuille with only 13 seconds left. He was trailing on the scorecards at the time he staged this miraculous 15th-round knockout to retain his middleweight belt. Scoring at time of knockout: 72-68, 74-66, 71-69 all for Dauthuille. It was named the 1950 Fight of the Year and Round of the Year. I was 13 years old but still remember where I was at the time.
?All Dauthuille required when he bell sounded for the final round was to play safe, and had he boxed he would have come through triumphantly.??The Ring, November 1950, page 8-9, 50
3.?Yaqui? Lopez vs. Matthew Saad Muhammad II (1980): Round 8. This one was Ring Magazine?s Fight of the Year (the eighth round was named Round of the Year). Yaqui controlled the first half. Then, in the eighth, he trapped Muhammad in a corner and landed at least 20 consecutive flush shots to the Champion?s head and body. Somehow, Saad survived the onslaught and survived the round, but not before he came back and hammered Lopez. The crowd was in stunned disbelief. Even referee Waldemar Schmidt seemed in awe. Finally, in the 14th stanza, Lopez grew arm weary and gassed. The champion, sensing the end, jumped on him like a hyena and that was that. Those who witnessed this incredible affair still talk discuss it with reverence. ?Miracle Matthew? was Gatti before Gatti and the East Coast?s version of Danny ?Little Red? Lopez. Like Corrales-Castillo, this was the very essence of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, but the road back started in the eighth round.
4. Lee Roy Murphy vs. Chisanda Mutti (1985): Round 12: The first seven rounds involved fantastic seesaw action with both fighters exchanging career-ending bombs. Neither dominated for sustained periods of time and the fight was a classic ebb and flow war of attrition. The number of punishing head shots both received was frankly alarming. Moreover, both warriors were fast becoming exhausted. Mutti used vicious jab-hook-cross combos that quickly served notice he would not be an easy mark.
By the eighth stanza, the crowd was up and roaring in disbelief at the all-out action which featured both jackhammer power shots and wicked speed. Both guys teed off on each other as the momentum continually shifted. Both displayed a total disdain for defense as they concentrated on launching bombs that had dangerous accuracy. First one landed a menacing three-punch combo and then the other countered with a lethal straight right. It was as if their respective faces were magnets for the rattling shots. It didn?t take an aficionado to know that the damage being inflicted would impact their future.
In the ninth, Mutti decked Murphy with a volley of vicious shots begun with a left that turned Murphy?s back to him. It appeared he would be taken out forthwith, but somehow, some way, he survived the round.
In a brilliant account, here is what fellow writer Lee Groves had to say:
?But Murphy was too strong for Mutti to hold off for long. A one-two and a double right snapped Mutti?s head after which the champion moved in for the kill. But Mutti again turned the tables when a hook and a right to the temple made Murphy slump into the ropes. Both men stood on the precipice of victory and defeat simultaneously, each just a punch or two away from ending the fight, and as the bell rang, Mutti had trouble finding his corner while Murphy trudged toward his. With three rounds remaining, this already action-packed bout was building toward an unforgettable crescendo.?
In the 11th, Murphy returned the favor with a series of savage rights that sent Mutti to the canvas. Now it was Mutti?s turn to make it to the bell. Going into the championship rounds, both had been down and both were now ready for the taking.
The fight turned into something else in the 12th when both fighters exchanged several bombs in a neutral corner and then both threw lightning fast rights. Both found their mark simultaneously with full force and impact. Both men fell together in a heap hanging on to each other with Mutti landing atop Murphy before sliding to the floor. Glancing at Murphy who was struggling to get up in a corner (and keeping tabs on the progress of both), referee Larry Hazzard began the count. Murphy, badly hurt, barely made it up by seven. Without missing a beat, Hazzard proceeded to count out Mutti at the 1:53 mark. The disoriented Mutti stayed down for a full three minutes. Behind on the scorecards at the time, Murphy had retained his title in what can only be described as a surreal ending.
5. Micky Ward vs. Arturo Gatti I (2002): Round 9. Both engaged in non-stop action and withstood brutal punishment through 10 grueling rounds. Ward dropped Gatti in the ninth round with a numbing left hook to the body that made Gatti grimace in pain and help seal a majority but fair decision. Manny Steward called round nine the Round of the Century. ?We told you it might be a candidate for fight of the year,? said Jim Lampley. ?We didn?t know it might be a candidate for fight of the century.? Larry Merchant said it best: ?Prizefighters sign on for a life of pain and struggle, risk and reward, and those fighters who honor that contract are the ones who move us and thrill us the way Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward did tonight.? I actually remember being scared that Gatti would die in the ring watching his head snap back so often.
6. Roy ?Tiger? Williams vs. Earnie Shavers (1976): Round 10. The ninth round of this back-and -forth fight saw a big change both ways (but it was the 10th that was memorable). The Tiger started strong in the ninth and landed a number of solid shots He seemed in charge but then tired midway through the round and Earnie came on, bombing away and Big Roy had to hold on and regroup. With about a minute to go, it happened. Roy snapped off one of the hardest left hooks I have ever seen and staggered Earnie who was now in big trouble. Ernie had no answer and likely was saved by the bell. He staggered back to his corner a very tired and seemingly beaten fighter.
The 10th and last round began and Shavers came out visibly exhausted while the menacing looking Williams appeared confident and ready to end matters and finally emerge as a serious heavyweight contender. He quickly moved Earnie into a corner and applied non-stop punishment until the referee called a standing-eight count. Roy thought the fight had been stopped, turned around and raised his hands in victory but when he turned back to see a determined Shavers still standing, the Tiger?s spirit visibly sagged. Still, he came on and hit Shavers with blows that would surely have knocked out anybody else.
Then, all of a sudden, Shavers started to connect with some medium hard blows to Roy?s body which slowed the Tiger down. Suddenly he connected with one of his deadly uppercuts with Roy on the ropes and it straightened him up. Williams was now hurt and Eernie sensed it. He moved the Tiger into a corner and began throwing his own bombs. Roy could not withstand the ferocious onslaught and the referee now gave him a standing eight, the second one that had been given in the round but to two different combatants! As the referee ordered Roy to begin fighting, he took a step forward, hesitated, and then collapsed in the corner a beaten man. Earnie sagged over the ropes too tired to celebrate his victory.
7. Micky Ward vs. Reggie Green (1999): Round 10. This cult classic was fought on October 1, 1999 in southern New Hampshire and flew under the radar, but I was there near ringside and can vouch for the ebb and flow action and dramatic ending when Ward finally caught up with the courageous Green. It was almost as good as the first Gatti-Ward. These were two lions in the ring. It was a breakthrough fight for Ward that segued him to glory. They banged each other upstairs and downstairs with Green mostly getting the better of it, but then Ward began working Reggie?s body late in the fight and finally with 20 seconds left caught him with one of his patented liver shots followed by a crunching right upstairs and that was that.
Said Ron Borges, ?Ward may not have been the greatest body puncher in prizefighting history, but no one ever survived to fight another day more often because of body blows.? Teddy Atlas added, ?That was not entertainment. That was not business. That was fighting. This is a barbaric thing at the core of it. It ain?t always pretty but it?s real. As the mobsters say, that was a real guy up there. It was like the first time your parents took you to the zoo and they said, ?That there is a lion.? And you look and he roars and you think, ?Yeah, that?s a lion!? Tonight, if you never been there before, that was a fight.?
8. Juan ?Kid? Meza vs. Jaime Garza (1984): Round 1. As the bell rang, Meza reached out to touch gloves, but Garza was having none of it and kept his hands up ready to fight. Clearly, there was no love lost, as there had been an altercation between the two at breakfast. They came out immediately winging and trading hooks. In this case, the old adage,?Never hook with a hooker? did not apply, for both fighters were deadly with this punch. After Garza missed with a right uppercut, a wide hook crashed off Meza?s temple and put him on the canvas for the very first time in his 47-fight career. With only 40 seconds into the fight, Garza had now demonstrated beyond any doubt the power of his blows. One of my friends jumped up and said, ?Don?t move!? We were all standing and shouting, as was the live crowd. This is exactly what we expected and what we wanted.
The Kid looked around and then picked up the count, showing remarkable calm for a fighter who had never been floored. The heavy-handed Garza then charged in for the kill and drove Meza back toward the ropes, but the Kid responded with heavy shots that slowed him down. Garza continued to fire away with his all-offense, no-defense style and showed little respect for Meza?s punches. The Kid?s jabs found their mark through Garza?s defense, and the two began exchanging three- and four-punch flurries. The fight took on the aura of a cockfight, with back and forth winging. One could literally hear the swish sound when they missed and the thump sound when they connected. I was up and screaming, ?End it, Jaime, end it! Take him out!?
CBS analyst Sugar Ray Leonard noted correctly that Garza was coming in with his hands low and kind of stumbled into the corner after missing a wild hook. When Meza went after him, Garza spun away and landed a cuffing hook that sent Meza to the canvas. Meza quickly arose and pointed his gloves toward the canvas to indicate he had been pushed. Referee LoBianco agreed and ruled it a slip. Garza then landed some jabs, but his speedy combos, launched with pure menace, missed. Meza?s were more accurate, marking an ever-so-subtle shift in his favor.
At that point, commentator Gil Clancy confirmed something we had all noticed and that was that Garza, the shorter of the two, could beat Meza to the punch since Meza was throwing wider shots. Then, just after Clancy made his point, what we were anticipating happened. Garza began to throw a counter hook after Meza had missed with a short combo. Unfortunately (for him), he kept his right arm low, which created an opening. Meanwhile, Meza, by missing with his right dipped, and was in excellent position to trigger his own hook. His blow was launched just before Garza?s. So here, in plain sight, was the spectacle of hooking with the hooker. We started screaming because we knew what had just occurred. Ready for a devastating result, we were not disappointed. Contravening Clancy?s observation, Meza had beaten Garza to the punch with shocking effect.
The perfectly leveraged hook struck Garza on the sweet point of his jaw, snapping his head violently to the side. His body twisted grotesquely and crashed hard, his head bouncing dangerously off the canvas. Garza?s eyes rolled back into his head. He was in bad shape but made a valiant effort to pull himself upright after rolling under the ropes. His effort was too little too late. Referee LoBianco reached the count of 10 a split-second before Garza fully regained his feet, but he would have been in no shape to continue. A new and jubilant champion had been crowned. This had been wham, bam, rock ?em and sock ?em!
Juan Meza became the first challenger in boxing history to be dropped in round 1, get up, and knock out the world champion in the same first round. In 1969, Bob Foster retained his belt by rising off the canvas to knock out Frankie DePaula in the same first round. It was a different route to the same outcome.
9. Bill ?Caveman? Lee vs. John LoCicero (1981): Round 5. In the suffocating July heat at the Twenty Grand Showrooms in Detroit, these two would give this short battle cult-like status. Al Bernstein said that the arena was sweltering hot and at times it felt like he himself was going to pass out, and that he could only imagine how the two fighters felt. LoCicero got decked early in the round, then got up and pummeled ?The Caveman? with between 20 and 25 unanswered and savage shots until he got arm weary. Lee then regrouped and took over pummeling LoCicero until he was knocked out in the same round. First LoCicero almost out, then Lee almost out, then LoCicero down and out! Like Meza-Garza but longer and both warriors arm weary. One way to test whether someone is a serious boxing fan is to ask whether he or she knows the details surrounding this one.
10. James Kirkland vs. Alfredo Angulo (2011): Round 1. This one happened so fast it caught most observers off guard. James ?The Mandingo Warrior? Kirkland came back from an early first-round knockdown and subsequent early beating to turn the tables later in the round. Angulo launched over 100 punches but then grew arm weary allowing Kirkland to do the pummeling late in a round that featured mammoth swings and high drama. However, once the Mandingo Warrior gets his mojo working, it was just a matter of time and in this case, the sixth round was when Perro got collared.
Here is what I said about it in an article on another site dated September 28, 2011, ?If rumors out of Mexico materialize (and they are only rumors), boxing fans may be treated to a spectacular shootout on November 5 between light middleweights James ?Mandingo Warrior? Kirkland (29-1) and Alfredo ?Perro? Angulo (20-1) with ultra violence in the offing. I mean they could show this one on the Discovery Channel?this fight would be huge if it gets made. Both bring plenty of menace and action into the ring. It would be a throwback type of fight in the vein of Juan Meza vs. Jaime Garza or an all-action type like Brandon Rios vs. Urbano Antillon. Both are heavy handed, all-action, incoming pressure fighters and that spells K-N-O-C-K-O-U-T?If this fight happens, I have just two words of advice: Don?t blink!? As it turned out, it was all of that and maybe more.
In 2013, Kirkland and Glen Tapia came close to duplicating this one, but without the knockdowns.
The thing I enjoy most about these kinds of rankings is that you could mix them up in a hat and then lay them out and they still would make sense.
Can you add any to the list?
