Top 5 Heavyweight Fights

Your own personal Top 5 Fights in the Heavyweight Division:

Mine goes as follows:

5: Larry Holmes Vs. Renaldo Snipes

Snipes was unbeaten in 22 but was generally seen as someone with little chance as Larry was a strong champion. However the fight did not end up being a routine contest, because like Earnie Shavers Snipes managed to get through with a huge right hand and Larry ended up having to fight for his title, battling hard under the assault of a hungry challenger in Snipes. Perhaps most of you wouldn't put it in there, just always thought this was a great fight. Larry rallied to take Snipes out in the 11th.

4: Lennox Lewis Vs. Vitali Klitschko

I think everyone knows this story, however Lewis went into the fight a huge favourite but Vitali had other plans. He came out firing on all cylinders whilst Lewis was lethargic and slow to get out of the blocks, both men traded huge shots, but eventually Vitali's eye got a horrible cut. Lewis kept aiming for the eye and appeared to be coming on stronger and stronger as the fight went on but Vitali was landing monsterous shots of his own throught and was ahead of the scorecards when he was pulled out. Lampley described the fight as "The Gatti/Ward of the Heavyweight division"

3: The Thrilla In Manila - Muhammad Ali Vs. Joe Frazier

The third installment of the trilogy and the most brutal out of the 3. Both men had faded and were past there best, however it didn't stop it being tougher than the others. Frazier kept coming at Ali, and with so much bad blood involved every punch was thrown with the intent of doing serious damage to Ali. Eddie Futch eventually had to pull his man out of the fight with him shipping far too much punishment.

2: Larry Holmes Vs Ken Norton

Leon Spinks was stripped of his WBc Title for refusing to fight Ken Norton. Norton was then granted the title and faced his mandatory in Larry Holmes. Holmes wasn't actually considered to be a particularly good fighter at this point, more of a poor mans Ali. Early Holmes gave Norton lots of problems with movement and his agility around the ring however Norton began to push the pace more during the midrounds. The championship rounds was when it seriously heated up with both men gunning for it and going flat out to be champion. Holmes won a close but fair decision.

1: Foreman Vs. Lyle

My personal favourite, two MASSIVE punchers, throwing and landing MASSIVE punches. Just a total war, it didn't last particularly long, but it was hell while it lasted. Both men hitting the deck Fboth going down in the same rounds. Foreman in massive trouble in the first, but you have to give him massive credit for pushing the fight constantly, even leaving himself wide open for a huge pouncher in Lyle.

My favourite, what about you guys?

Holmes and Snipes was boring till the 7th..........as was Lewis v Klits............

The rest are quality picks.................I wouldn't argue with..

Biggs vs Bey............Is always fun............

Lewis v Briggs...........

Holy v Dokes......

Tyson v Holy 1

Tua v Ibeabuchi has to be in the top 5.

I like Holy vs Bowe (all of them)

Surely Fury vs Pajkic is the Haggler Hearns of the heavyweights?

Holmes v Cooney was good.

Holy has been in some crackers. His fight with Cooper was exciting.

Tua - Ibeabuchi was an amazing fight.

I think the first & second Bowe-Golota fights are worth a mention, even with Golota's nutty punches south of the border.

Plus Ibeabuchi's destruction of Chris Byrd is always funny to watch.

Dokes/Weaver 2
Moorer/Cooper
Weaver/Coezte

Mike Weaver fan....and why not......Probably the nicest guy to ever win the Heavyweight title...and one of the smartest.......Invested his money and a very talented pianist....

Class the way he went on the radio to praise Dokes after he died....

Much underrated is Mr Weaver..

Not really Truss, but I do have a few fights from that era that are always worth a 2nd look.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Mike Weaver fan....and why not......Probably the nicest guy to ever win the Heavyweight title...and one of the smartest.......Invested his money and a very talented pianist....

Class the way he went on the radio to praise Dokes after he died....

Much underrated is Mr Weaver..

Holmes' win over him is also very underrated.

Great KO over Tate. 45 seconds to go and BOOM! "And the new......."

Robbed in Dokes 2..........gave Larry lot's of problems and a great win over Carl Williams too........

Just been reading up on his first fight with Dokes Truss, never really taken into consideration the context of that fight.

Weaver didn't warm up properly..........Dokes saw that and admitted he jumped him.....

Only problem was the joker Curtis was refereeing and a weathering the storm Weaver got a shocking stoppage loss against him...

Really Joey Curtis...........He nearly let Bramble kill Crawley and then stops Weaver before he takes any real damage..........

Mancini-Kim caused the man sausage up...............it's believed..

I didn't realise it was only a few weeks after the Mancini fight, can sympathise to a degree with Curtis under those circumstances.

Well it's a good list you've come up with, Alex. Naturally there's a couple I wouldn't have myself (Holmes-Snipes, Lewis-Vitali) but that's only because it's a subjective issue and not because those fights weren't very good ones in their own right.

I think my favourite Lewis fight was against Mercer, a bout which showed how good Mercer could be on his day and highlights that he probably underachieved. I thought Lewis was a wee bit lucky to get the verdict, but nevertheless it was a fantastic fight, with Lennox (until Rahman got to him, at least!) answering some of his critics' questions about his chin and heart and Mercer, incredibly, showing that he could outjab and outbox a genuine 'Super-Heavyweight' with one of the best jabs going himself for long spells.

Also, two guys who get their share of bad press for different reasons, but Bruno-Witherspoon was a corker of a fight, too. Personally, while the scorecards say otherwise, I think there's still grounds for anyone to still have Bruno marginally ahead before being stopped and, for six rounds or so, he was as good as we ever saw him; much looser in the shoulders, putting together punches in bunches, working the high-low well on the inside and also absorbing some considerable shots from 'Terrible Tim' as well. Have to respect Witherspoon's resolve in digging the fight out, too. Most seem to think that the stoppage was inevitable to everyone watching, but Bruno had a pretty good tenth and had hurt Tim in the eleventh, too. But when the chance to close the show came, Witherspoon showed some awesome, clinical finishing ability. No wasted punches as he got Bruno to crumble in that corner, just a really cool and calculated combination picked out perfectly.

Great, great fight.

Don't know about a top five right now, but Mercer v Cooper is very underrated. Mercer's cheek swollen up like he was concealing a grapefruit and Cooper just smokin that night.

Dempsey v Firpo. Short war.

I think the rumble in the jungle is fairly underrated in terms of the action it contained.

Tyson vs Douglas deserves a mention, both for its historical significance and the drama it contained.

Is Thriller in Manilla not included because it's an obvious choice?

Frasier - Ali 1 also.

Going back a bit but the fight between Jack Dempsey and Luis Firpo was pretty exciting while it lasted. I lost count of the number of knockdowns there were in the first round alone, no three knock down rule in those days. Agree with you Chris about the Lewis Mercer bout,Lewis's toughest fight in my opinion and it could have gone any way as you say.

1. Ali vs Frazier I
2. Foreman vs Lyle
3. Holmes vs Norton
4. Bowe vs Holyfield
5. Dempsey vs Firpo

Underrated fight is Shavers vs Williams.