Greatest win ever

It may be a bit of a far reaching and difficult question but what do you personally view as the greatest win in the history of the sport? Taking into account things like level of opposition, quality of performance and likelihood of winning what do you view as the most impressive victory to take place in a boxing ring?

The obvious one that springs to mind is The Rumble- An aging Ali out thinking and and out fighting the monster that was Big George before knocking him out. The biggest fight of all time with Ali overcoming the odds will obviously be high on any list.

What other fights do you think deserve to challenge for the accolade of greatest win ever?

Joe Frazier WPTS15 Muhammad Ali

I prefer the Rumble Haz, no one gave Ali a chance people feared he would get destroyed by Big George. A famous win, but still underated due to who Ali was.

Id go with Rumble as well. Ali made the seemingly impossible possible and it was this victory that makes him still a big inspiration in sport today

What an intriguing question..............

I'm going to say Ali - Foreman..........and then I'm going to say Lamotta vs Robinson...

Many feared for Ali's health before the rumble as Daz has opined above...Great courage and will..

LaMotta didn't belong in the same ring as Robbo and although much less-skilled willed his way to a win against the consensus greatest!!

Rocky vs Apollo 2.......

Tyson - Douglas sent shockwaves throughout the boxing world (and non-boxing world). Thought this would be worth throwing in. I concieve that Douglas wasnt a main stay in boxing elite but one of the most famous victories I can remember.

Armstrong beating Ross, Duran beating Leonard and Napoles beating Griffith are the two that always jump straight into my head.

Ali beating Foreman is about as high profile as you can get but Griffith, Leonard and Ross are in my opinion better boxers in an all round sense than Foreman.

Imperial Ghosty wrote:Armstrong beating Ross, Duran beating Leonard and Napoles beating Griffith are the two that always jump straight into my head.

Ali beating Foreman is about as high profile as you can get but Griffith, Leonard and Ross are in my opinion better boxers in an all round sense than Foreman.

Wasnt the shine taken off this match due to Ali coming back from exile? By that I mean were expectations still very high on Ali at the time?

Duran- Leonard is a good call......

They certainly are ghosty but perhaps lacked the intimidation value murderous George brought with him..

Although probably the wrong word to use in Griffiths case..

Douglas is a great shout.

I prefer Joe over Ali as opposed to Ali over Foreman but can see an argument both ways. I think Frazier's was a bigger job.

Leonard over Hearns is a good pick. too. I'm not sure any other welter from history would have beaten Hearns that night. And Leonard had to turn puncher, too.

Well, Ali-Foreman would certainly be up there, but not quite a contender for top spot in my opinion. Fantastic win, still.

Sorry Truss, but I'd offer up Duran-Leonard I as just as good an example. In the all-time stakes, nobody puts Foreman ahead of Ali, whereas there's a very real claim (which a lot of people subscribe to) for putting Leonard ahead of Duran - which surely just puts Roberto's win over him in an even greater context? And of course, there's the element of Duran being the smaller man moving up.

Before the captain gets here (where's he hiding these days?) then I'll chuck in Sanchez-Gomez. I know the captain opines that this was the greatest performance he's ever seen, and I'd agree it's certainly a real contender. Gomez was considered the unbeatable monster of the lower weights and most thought he'd run through Sanchez the same way he'd done with everyone else at Super-Bantamweight. The 4 lb, most said, would make no difference. This particular win maybe falls a little behind in terms of who it was against (although Gomez was still an all-time great whichever way you measure it) but in terms of performance, it was incredible. After four rounds, Gomez already looked like a man who'd done a hard fifteen. Had the opening round been thirty seconds longer, chances are that Sal would have ended the show right then and there. Much like Duran-DeJesus III, Gomez having his best round in the seventh only seemed to enrage Sal even more and make him determined to end the fight as soon as possible. And in the very next round, he did.

It was an absolute masterpiece. I'm sure we've all seen it, but in case anyone hasn't, please do. Punch-perfect.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Duran- Leonard is a good call......

They certainly are ghosty but perhaps lacked the intimidation value murderous George brought with him..

Although probably the wrong word to use in Griffiths case..

Intimidation does help but Armstrong moving up to Welterweight while outweighed quite substantially to beat someone as great as Barney so comfortably is a great feat for me. Then you have the historical significance that came with it, being the first and only triumvirate world champion.

Valid argument as is Duran-Leonard 1............

However always thought with Sanchez - Gomez that the fact Gomez was moving up in weight and that he got caught cold kind of take it out the realm of great performances into the very good variety..

Wonderful fighter Sanchez was.....Just think the sting was taken out of Gomez by being decked so early....lost something from that point on!!

But valid choice...Think Salvador with Gomez, Nelson (for me his greatest performance) Camacho, chavez etc around is Boxing's greatest loss!!!!!!!!!!!

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

and then I'm going to say Lamotta vs Robinson...

LaMotta didn't belong in the same ring as Robbo and although much less-skilled willed his way to a win against the consensus greatest!!

I agree with this, Truss, although I know a lot of people won't. They were relative kids when they met and Robinson was giving away over a stone to a career middleweight, but in light of the streak that Robinson went on following this loss and the massive gulf in skills between the two I tend to rate LaMotta's win more than some. I appreciate that Robinson hadn't even fought for the welterweight title in 1943 but as far as I can see, all LaMotta had over him was size and strength. Most of the other attributes we massively stacked in Robinsons favour and I agree that it should be ranked highly.

Ali v Foreman
Douglas v Tyson

Predictable I know

I know it's probably not up there but how about..

BOBBY CHYZ v CHARLES WILLIAMS - Chyz was handsome, talented and being marketed as the next big thing...

Williams was considered an average journeyman and a walkover...

Gets off the deck twice..gets over an early pummelling and say's right I'm having this...

Superb performance...

I like your thinking, Truss - maybe we should offer up a few of the most unfairly overlooked and / or underrated wins of all time, too?

Randall-Chavez I must be up there, in that case. Let's not forget that Randall had to overcome drug addiction, a jail term and some very long odds to triumph there. Fair enough, a little bit of Chavez's shine had been taken off by Whitaker, but don't forget that Randall beat Chavez back down at Light-Welterweight, a division where Chavez had been the king for over five years.

Wonderful performance from a very, very underrated fighter.

Got the shaft against Rosario too did Frankie...In a fight that think was held in London!!!!!!!! WTF

Great shout...........

Win or performance?

If performance - I'll throw in Whittaker-Chavez jr. If true win - I'll have to go Frazier WPts15 Ali, the rumble and the thrilla.

Wasn't frazier favourite though?

Suppose a relative novice being robbed off a 1983 Larry deserves praise...

Tim witherspoon heads up...

Allow me to play Devil's Advocate here, Truss; I actually think Larry beat 'Spoon. Not the easiest fight to score, but having watched it a couple of times (and scored it once, 116-113) I think Larry did just about enough to hold on to his title. Very good performance by Witherspoon, though. Just think he let Holmes back in to it in the latter stages by coasting a little bit.

I had it 116-113.........

I'll change it from robbery to contentious...

Still from a novice against a top 5 heavy with still something left..

good stuff..

What about Schmeling beating Louis first time out? I know what happened in the return leg takes the gloss off the win a bit but not many expected Max to beat Louis.

Great win but maybe it comes under the "green label" Jones jr gets for the Hopkins win....

I agree with you a superb performance..

On paper Leonard coming out of retirement and moving up to middleweight to beat Hagler must be up there, I know most think Hagler should have got the nod but still a hell of an achievement, if Leonard had won convincingly it would most likely be a contender for number 1 spot. Also Leonards win over Hearns has to be considered, Hearns was immense at Welterweight. Also one that hasn't been mentioned yet would be Burley dominating a naturally bigger Archie Moore is damn impressive.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:I know it's probably not up there but how about..

BOBBY CHYZ v CHARLES WILLIAMS - Chyz was handsome, talented and being marketed as the next big thing...

Williams was considered an average journeyman and a walkover...

Gets off the deck twice..gets over an early pummelling and say's right I'm having this...

Superb performance...

for those who havent see him, the handsome bobby czyz... http://nostalgiagraphs.com/item_Bobby-Czyz_3004.html

prime american beefster

Sub prime..........

There can only be one true beefster....

TRUSSY:8)

Schmeling v Louis is probably worth a shout. Louis was something like 1/10 to win but found himself outboxed.

'Barbados' Joe Walcott, a Welterweight, knocking out a very fine Light-Heavyweight in Joe Choynski, despite giving away 36 lb in weight and ten inches in height must surely be worth a mention, too. Let's not forget that a year or so later, Choynski was stopping Jack Johnson.

In fairness, Saddler's first win over Pep is just about as good a win as anyone has had, certainly within his own era, at least.

some interesting shouts, but if its about upsetting the odds and also the performance under the circumstances then i have to add my (not inconsiderable) weight to douglas tyson. Whilst many like to put that down to tyson's condition (and i'm not saying it wasn't a factor in the fight), the brilliance of douglas that night was literally a once in a lifetime performance, heights he'd only hinted at before and never even hinted at again.

Chuck in what had happened to him in the run in to the fight (though in truth that clearly provided a steel he hadn't shown before), and its hard to top in my view.

But then i love a good rags to riches underdog story

Ali v Foreman, so obvious, but so great. Never tire of watching that fight and everything surrounding it.

Turpin v Robinson. No historian, but Turpin seemed like an incredibly skilled fighter who deserved the win against the greatest of them all. No luck involved - plus he's British. Got to be up there.

turpin robbo is a good shout for the brits, josef... robbo might have been at the end of a bum of the week european tour for the first fight, but it was still a great performance and turpin gave him a hard time in the return too, proving it wasn't a fluke.

On the subject of great brit wins, let's have honyghan against curry. If for no other reason than to get a rise out of Truss

Some great suggestions above. Personally always struggle to see past Duran's win over Leonard. A career lightweight stepping up to welter and beating a man who is almost a consensus pick in the top 3 at the weight. Incredible result.

Would agree that Sanchez over Gomes is a tremendous performance (certainly one the great perfomrances and damn near as punch perfect as you'll ever see) but is it really one of the great wins? I'm not sure it has that "against the odds" quality that would elevate it to the level of a result like Duran over Leonard.

Others to consider:

Harada v Jofre I
Pep v Saddler
Greb v Tunney

Elorde vs Saddler?

I remember the Holmes Witherspoon fight Truss and it could have gone either way, but on the same bill was the Snipes v Page fight and I thought at the time that Holmes would have struggled against either of those two on the day's showing.

Buster Douglas defeating the unstoppable Mike Tyson.