With yesterday being the anniversary of one of many best fights of all-time within the middleweight division, looks as if now could be nearly as good a time as any to look again and assess the all-time largest and greatest donnybrooks at 160 kilos, however with one caveat: this record is restricted to when middleweight boxers have been truly, you already know, middleweights. With the arrival of the day earlier than weigh-in we will by no means be certain what we’re taking a look at when two fighters who simply spent greater than 24 hours re-hydrating face off. Name us old style, however we like our middleweights someplace near the 160 pound weight restrict. So with out additional ado, we current the 12 largest, most enjoyable, and most legendary clashes within the historical past of the middleweight division.
12. Jan. 14, 1891: Bob Fitzsimmons KO 13 Jack (The Nonpareil) Dempsey. A match of two nice champions, although Dempsey was gone his greatest days. Consequently it was a brutal changing-of-the-guard struggle, with the highly effective “Ruby” battering Dempsey so badly that spectators, and even Fitzsimmons himself, begged the proud champion to give up. He refused and was crushed to a pulp earlier than he lastly took the rely.
11. Dec. 3, 1926: Mickey Walker W10 Tiger Flowers. Regardless of the match being scheduled for ten rounds, this conflict of ring legends was for the world title. Walker was making an attempt to get all the best way again to the highest after struggling defeats to Pete Latzo and Joe Dundee, whereas Tiger was coming off a formidable 10-1 run that 12 months, together with two massive wins over Harry Greb. Most thought Flowers clearly received the most effective of “The Toy Bulldog” however the choice went to Walker and was not overturned regardless of an official investigation by the Illinois Athletic Fee.
10. Sept. 13, 1950: Jake LaMotta KO15 Laurent Dauthuille. The person they referred to as “The Bronx Bull” had actually dropped a ten spherical choice to Dauthuille the 12 months earlier than in Montreal, however then 4 months later he defeated Marcel Cerdan for the world title. Now with the championship on the road, Dauthuille, aka “The Tarzan of Buzenval,” was in command, racking up the factors and amassing an enormous lead in a tricky, bruising battle. When the bell rang for spherical fifteen, Jake wanted a knockout to win whereas Dauthuille simply wanted to outlive. With time working out, a seemingly damage and exhausted LaMotta abruptly unloaded a fearsome barrage of massive punches to topple the Frenchman who was counted out with simply 13 seconds left on the clock.
9. Could 1, 1957: Sugar Ray Robinson KO5 Gene Fullmer. Many thought the nice Robinson was completed after he misplaced the world title to Fullmer by choice the earlier January in a bruising battle that noticed Ray truly knocked out of the ring by “The Utah Cyclone.” However as a substitute of a farewell struggle, it was one other large win for Sugar Ray, to not point out one of many best one-punch knockouts in ring historical past.
8. Aug. 19, 1926: Tiger Flowers W15 Harry Greb. Madison Sq. Backyard was jammed for the third and remaining confrontation between “The Georgia Deacon” and “The Smoke Metropolis Wildcat.” After fifteen hard-fought rounds the choice went to Flowers, and whereas the pro-Greb crowd didn’t prefer it one bit, most at ringside agreed with the decision.
7. July 16, 1947: Rocky Graziano TKO 6 Tony Zale. Sadly, no official movie was manufactured from the blood and thunder brawl that befell in entrance of an enormous crowd at Chicago Stadium, which set a brand new indoor-gate document, however the majority of fortunate souls who witnessed the legendary trilogy between “The Man Of Metal” and “Rocky Bob” regarded their second slugfest because the most enjoyable and action-packed. Graziano overcame a horrible pounding within the early going, in addition to a nasty reduce and swellings round each eyes, to come back roaring again and nearly knock Zale out of the ring earlier than the referee halted the brutal conflict.
6. April 6, 1987: Sugar Ray Leonard W12 Marvelous Marvin Hagler. It was the record-setting superfight that few on the time noticed coming, with Leonard unexpectedly rising from retirement to problem the dominant and undisputed middleweight champion who had not misplaced a struggle in eleven years. Many anticipated a crushing Hagler win, however as a substitute the 2 veterans supplied a extremely aggressive twelve spherical waltz and, in an enormous upset, two of the three judges scored Sugar Ray the winner.
5. Sept. 23, 1957: Carmen Basilio W15 Sugar Ray Robinson. Some forty thousand followers have been available at New York’s Yankee Stadium to see welterweight world champ Basilio problem middleweight champ Sugar Ray, the struggle additionally broadcast to 170 closed-circuit theatres. The historic match-up greater than lived as much as the anticipation with Sugar Ray and “The Onion Farmer” staging an impressive, back-and-forth conflict that noticed Basilio take a detailed choice after 15 action-packed rounds.
4. Feb. 14, 1951: Sugar Ray Robinson TKO13 Jake LaMotta. The legendary “St. Valentine’s Bloodbath” was the sixth and remaining chapter within the nice rivalry between Robinson and “The Bronx Bull,” the match attracting an enormous crowd to Chicago Stadium and an enormous viewers on residence tv. Quick-paced and aggressive by means of the primary eleven rounds, after that it was a one-sided battering. The 2-fisted pounding LaMotta endured in rounds twelve and 13 was nothing wanting brutal earlier than the referee lastly stopped it and Robinson received the world middleweight title for the primary time.
3. July 2, 1925: Harry Greb W15 Mickey Walker. It was fifteen livid rounds between two of the easiest to ever lace ’em up, each of their primes. And whereas it was a battle between the middleweight and welterweight champions, Walker gave away solely seven kilos, not a troubling distinction contemplating that 5 months earlier than “The Toy Bulldog” had defeated gentle heavyweight Mike McTigue. Some fifty thousand stuffed up the Polo Grounds in New York to witness what was, by all experiences, a very nice struggle, the match changing into extra intense and fast-paced because the rounds glided by. The lethal shut wrestle and a unanimous choice for “The Pittsburgh Windmill” was sealed in spherical fourteen when Greb battered Walker and nearly put him down.
2. Sept. 12, 1951: Sugar Ray Robinson TKO 10 Randy Turpin. When Turpin of England had defeated Robinson for the world title in entrance of a hometown crowd the earlier July, it was one of many largest upsets in boxing historical past. A large throng sold-out the Polo Grounds in New York Metropolis to see if Sugar Ray might regain the title and a dramatic battle noticed Turpin acquire the higher hand and open a deep gash over Robinson’s left eye. Figuring out the reduce was extreme sufficient to power a stoppage, Sugar Ray attacked, knocking Turpin down after which pounding him mercilessly till the referee stopped the match with simply seconds remaining in spherical ten.
1. April 15, 1985: Marvelous Marvin Hagler TKO3 Thomas Hearns. One of many best and largest superfights within the legendary “4 Kings” collection, Hagler vs Hearns grew to become a very large occasion after Sugar Ray Leonard retired after which each males notched wins over Roberto Duran. Marvelous Marvin Hagler was the middleweight king; Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns held a model of the 154 pound title. Collectively they have been, arguably, pound-for-pound, the 2 greatest lively fighters on the earth. A sell-out crowd at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and thousands and thousands on closed-circuit tv, witnessed one of the thrilling brawls in boxing historical past with each warriors shocked in a hellacious opening spherical, maybe the best since Dempsey vs Firpo, earlier than a reduce Hagler rallied to batter The Motor Metropolis Cobra into helplessness in spherical three.
