Gav Duthie: It has been a whirlwind 15 years of boxing since the turn of the century. There are many negatives to the current scene with too many alphabet titles, television networks, greedy promoters and advisers stopping the big fights happening. That being said it has been a fantastic era for boxing with some of the amazing highlights we have seen. What struck me when compiling these awards is that despite the relatively modern time frame many of the contenders are now no longer with us.
Top real life action heroes like Arturo Gatti and Diego Corrales have entertained us so greatly they are immortalized in our minds. Some of the fighters, fights and knockouts can rival anything seen in boxing history. Here’s my list:
Best Fight – Erik Morales v Marco Antonio Barrera
Feb 2000
You only have to travel 2 months into the century to find the greatest fight of the last 15 years and arguably of all time. This one for me just pips the original Arturo Gatti and Mickey Ward fight in May 2002 because the Mexican duo were both top ten p4p for most of their careers. It seemed these two could hit each other with sledgehammers and still be slugging it out without budging. In this fight Morales was the undefeated 122lb WBC champion and Barrera was the WBO Champion trying to shake off consecutive losses to Junior Jones. He had already walked through a barrage to stop Kennedy Mckinney and was confident he could do the same to ‘El Terrible’. Barrera was not the cultured master that he became in later years but was relentless in his pursuit of Morales. Erik rarely missed with the straight right hand but Barrera came on strong in the last minute of most rounds. Round 5 is amazing and probably only second best to Hagler-Hearns round 1 of all time. Morales took a knee in the final round to avoid punishment but hung on controversially to win a split decision. Marco Antonio Barrera had the last laugh however as he won both the rematch and rubber match at featherweight and super featherweight respectively.
Best Comeback – Diego ‘Chico’ Corrales v Jose Luis Castillo
May 2005
Chico Corrales really did save the bet till last as he rallied to stop rugged mexican Jose Luis Castillo in the 10th round of their first fight in Las Vegas in May 2005. It was to be his last but finest and most stunning victory. He lost a rematch to Castillo followed by a rubber match against Joel Casamayor and then jumped a couple of divisions to be outboxed by Joshua Clottey before his untimely death in a motorcycle accident on May 7 2007. This fight still gives me goosebumps every time I watch it. Chico will always be remembered for this tenacity. The fight had been back and forth all the way but in the tenth Castillo’s pressure really started to tell. He had dropped a badly fading Corrales with brutal shots twice in the tenth and looked set for victory. The phrase ‘Getting your second wind’ was invented for this scenario where somehow Corrales turned Castillo onto the ropes and bludgeoned him until the referee stepped in.
Biggest Shock – Vernan Forrest v Ricardo Mayorga
January 2003
I am going for this one because I can still remember my disbelief when I was watching Ricardo Mayorga stop the late Vernan Forrest in 3 rounds. It was only for a brief time but before this Vernan was considered one of the best boxers on the planet. After Shane Mosely outpointed Oscar De La Hoya with a world class performance he was top man but after back to back defeats against ‘The Viper’ Forrest now occupied that mantle. Mayorga having already lost 3 times previously was supposed to be a routine defence but he hadn’t read the script. Mayorga is one of the most colourful boxing characters of all time and with Vernan being such a structured and disciplined boxer he couldn’t handle the lunging wild shots of the Nicaraguan. Hasim Rahman stopping Lennox Lewis runs a close second but seeing that Lennox dispatched of him so clinically in the rematch I went for Mayorga.
Biggest Disappointment – Ricardo Williams Jnr 22-3 (12)
Why don’t you have $1 million dollars before you have even thrown a professional punch. Its probably never a good idea but thats what happened to Sydney 2000 Silver Medalist Ricardo Williams Jnr. Like many successful Olympians he was in the media spotlight very early on. It started off ok with an 8-0 (6) record before he was outworked by simple journeyman Juan Valenzuela. It was a close fight and in many instances the prospect is given the nod but not in this case and this started a downward spiral. He was soon in trouble with the law and fighting sporadically. He lost another close decision before making another comeback and was then destroyed by Carson Jones. In December 2012 he scored his best career win against Luis Ramos Jnr then 23-0 but his next and latest fight was in October 2014. At 33 and still technically an active fighter the story isn’t completely over but one would be surprised if he ever fulfills that potential now.
Biggest Puncher – Edwin Valero 27-0 (27)
It is almost 5 years now since Edwin Valero took his own life in a jail cell after admitting to murdering his wife the night previous in April 2010. Valero was on the cusp of greatness with a potential fight with Manny Pacquaio in the latter stages of negotiations. Valero had a perfect unbeaten 27-0 record all by knockout with many coming in the first round. In his 27 fights he only totalled 67 rounds averaging under 2.5 rounds per fight.
Best knockout – Manny Pacquiao v Ricky Hatton
May 2009
Back in 2009/10 Manny Pacquiao was playing the game of anything you can do I can do better. Mayweather had beaten Oscar De La Hoya by split decision, Pacquiao dispatches him in 8. Mayweather stops the undefeated Brit Ricky Hatton in 10 rounds, Pacquiao does it in 2. Pre fight I was confident Hatton could bully the naturally smaller Pacquaio over a tough long fight. The Hitman was bred to take shots to land his own but on this occasion he was walking onto to pile-driving blows from the Filipino. The signature straight left which ended the fight was pure class. My second favorite purely based on the humorous aspect was Kostya Tszyu’s second round stoppage over Zab Judah which has since been dubbed ‘The Chicken Dance’.
Greatest Rivalry – Rafeael Marquez v Israel Vasquez
It would have been easy to go for the Barrera-Morales or Gatti-Ward trilogy’s but for me their second and third fights were nowhere near the level of the first. The Barrera-Morales bouts were much more technical and when Gatti teamed up with Buddy McGirt he was too much for Ward despite Mickey having his moments including a flash knockdown in the third fight. Another contender is Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao. After all the injustice Marquez had been dealt what better way to answer than by knocking your opponent spark out with him landing face first in front of you. But for me you need to look at Juan’s younger brother as you will see no better action and closely battled ferocious contests between two warriors Than Super Bantamweight duo Rafael Marquez and Israel Vasquez who fought four times between 2007 and 2010. The war ended with two battles a piece with three of the four bouts ending in knockouts. Rafael Marquez took the first and last bouts with a 7th and 3rd round stoppage with Vasquez winning by 6 round tko and a split decision in their third fight. The action is back and forth in all fights and these two really know how to hurt each other. By the 4th contest Vasquez was quite a faded version of himself but these guys really knew how to put on a show. Take your hats off to these two brave Mexican warriors.
Best Fighter – Floyd Mayweather Jnr
Who else could it be. He had his first ‘Career defining fight’ in 2001 against the unbeaten Super Featherweight giant Diego Corrales who he knocked down 5 times on route to a ten round stoppage. Barring his brief retirement in 2007 after he defeated Oscar De La Hoya he has been in the top 5 p4p from 2001-2015. He is still undefeated and has moved through the weight divisions effortlessly. Of course the one thing left still to do is beat Manny Pacquiao to prove his superiority.
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