This is the fifth part of the ten-part series. As we reach the halfway point, you’re going to start noticing some familiar names and perhaps some even more iconic bouts. It’s at this point that I need to emphasize the following again: the depth of boxing’s library of great fights is large. If something hasn’t made my top fifty, that is not an indictment because it easily could have on another person’s and may well could have made it even to the upper echelons depending upon preferences. That is, even at the halfway point, we are splitting hairs, which is another reason why making some objective listing is, for my money, fairly difficult no matter how well-versed you are. But let’s just cut to the case, as here we are officially crossing some border of “these fights are amazing” to “these are some of the greatest fights to ever happen”. Remember how I said boxing had a lot of great fights?
60 - Miguel Lora vs Wilfredo Vazquez (February 8, 1986)
Miguel ‘Happy’ Lora, known for his slick defense, had wrestled away the title from Daniel Zaragoza months prior, and was set to defend his WBC bantamweight belt against Wilfredo Vazquez. While he was an aggressive, durable pursuer who could crack, Vazquez could be hot or cold depending upon the day. But against Lora, Vazquez certainly was having one of his better ones, as he gave the titleholder his most physical battle. On the outside, Lora worked his upper body feints to draw Vazquez into traps while the challenger looked to step in and sweep Lora’s head off with hammers for fists. It soon became a battle of left hooks - and both men would have the other down in the opening few rounds. From there, an all-terrain battle that transitioned between outside and inside ensued. Lora’s craft in setting up pull counters into lead hand work proved the slightest difference in leading to his decision win, but every moment was so dangerous with Vazquez that the fight remained very competitive. While this one isn't as intense as some of its contemporaries in this section, it’s one of my favorites to watch for the sheer aesthetics of the matchup.
59 - Salvador Sanchez vs Azumah Nelson (July 21, 1982)
The final fight of Salvador Sanchez’s unfortunately short career is one of his greatest testaments, as to what an unbelievably gifted pugilist he was and how his all-time placeholder still feels enigmatic. To call Sanchez’s knack for boxing special would be selling him short - he may well have been the definitive counterpunching specialist in boxing history. To exchange with Sanchez was an exercise in madness, he would find his shot; to try and make him uncomfortable seemed equally pointless, his ice cold expression never wavered; to outlast him was a nightmare, as he was adaptive and excellent over a long-term fight. Azumah Nelson, a last minute replacement and virtually unknown, looked to surprise the world, as he actively tried to out-counter the counterpuncher early, actively cutting the Mexican all-time great off and flurry on him. Nelson’s speed, physicality and will were certainly surprises, but then Sanchez’s brain started picking out the holes. His jab disrupted Nelson’s advances, his punches started to loop around the static guard, and his hips turned to provoke Nelson. If this was going to be the game of violent chicken that the challenger wanted, then he was going to get it. And so he did, as a perfect left hook sent Nelson spiraling across the ring in the seventh. Another soon had him on the floor.
But Nelson wasn’t here to be a sacrificial lamb that the champion had figured out, he was here to prove a point. He got up and continued to try and persevere - to prove he belonged - and found himself nearly sniped out by the left hook time-and-time again. Finally, he found some answer: by coming behind a jab, he bet everything on landing the right overhand on the inside. It proved effective, as he successfully managed to gain some foothold back - and some punches of his had the champion visibly wobbled as the fight entered its final third. And yet, Sanchez’s expression never changed, his face remained undamaged and unfettered - he wasn’t even breathing hard. The challenger’s nose was bleeding and he was puffing. Even after the bells, he was trying earnestly to keep the fight going, but he was trading with Sanchez - and it was going to get him hurt again. The finish inevitably came in the fifteenth, yet Nelson’s effort sent the message he wanted - and it would propel himself to further greatness. For Sanchez, it just further reaffirmed his status and prowess. It would, in retrospect, be the capstone on his career cut short by his tragic passing, but that is a compliment. Greatness typically can elevate greats - and a future one furthered Sanchez’s while Sanchez pressed Nelson to be better. If that isn’t special, I don’t know what is.
58 - Carmen Basilio vs Tony DeMarco II (November 30, 1955)
Carmen Basilio was as iron as they came while Tony DeMarco was as game as you could fine. Their first battle was absolute fireworks, one Basilio won via stoppage, his swarming pressure on the inside making the difference. Their rematch promised to be just as ferocious and it was - there was no feeling out. DeMarco would switch stances to bait out punches to counter while Basilio looked to step inside. While DeMarco was the first to sport blood, his power shots made themselves known, his left hook smashing Basilio’s head with regularity, only his legendary beard keeping him from showing the marks of war.
He couldn’t hide that DeMarco’s punches had impact however as Basilio would take as perfect a punch as anyone had taken without falling in the seventh. This only seemed to ignite Basilio, as he stormed back in the eighth, picking up on how his straight punches could counter the haymakers. In the ninth, he realized he could step in on the overhands, whereupon he started to double the output of his rival as the fight became a tiring infight. DeMarco’s exhaustion showed, then he crumpled in the titanic battle of wills in the twelfth.
57 - Soo-Hwan Hong vs Hector Carrasquilla (November 26, 1977)
We’ve talked comebacks at length here, but there may not be many as ridiculous as Soo Hwan Hong’s victory for the vacant WBA super bantamweight. Hong’s career had, if anything else, been quite a wringer of bouts. Against a talented, young knockout prospect and having mean finished himself, odds weren’t necessarily favorable for an old war horse. The opening round was merely setting the stage - it was a battle of jabs and one Hong tried to break by stepping inside to make it a firefight. Carrasquilla intercepted him with uppercuts and a left hook sent Hong down in the second. Seconds later, he was down again. And then again. And then for a fourth time, this time off the shortest, glancing blow of them all. Carrasquilla goes for the kill - and it can be described as luck that Hong survives the second round. What follows is simply beyond description as Hong baits Carrasquilla’s jab with his own to hit a liver shot - and then lever punches upstairs. Carrasquilla is now on rubbery legs and Hong pursues. This time, there is no survival. It’s a sequence of events that simply cannot be described for their absurdity.
56 - Carl Thompson vs Terry Dunstan (December 3, 1999)
It feels like an oversight to have so few matches of Carl Thompson’s. We’ve covered his shootout with Ezra Sellers, but between his wars with Carl Eubank or comeback over Sabastiaan Rothman, you’d struggle to find a dull bout for one of the best action fighters of the 1990s. However, for my money, Thompson’s most intense bout belongs against fellow puncher Terry Dunstan. Dunstan’s willingness to play matador to set up an overhand clashes with Thompson’s dogged workrate - it sometimes makes for the two cancelling another out, but when they aren’t, some of the rounds are simply a plunge into insanity.
Rounds two, five, nine, and eleven have both men on the verge of finishing one another, only for the other to turn the tide in what is one of boxing’s purest car crashes. It all comes down to the final minute, as both throw an overhand and Thompson barely wins out while Dunstan crashes to the ring floor.
55 - Ray Leonard vs Thomas Hearns (September 16, 1981)
Inevitably, we were going to reach some point of controversy with this list, so here’s the first. Yes, Ray Leonard vs Thomas Hearns, one of the most iconic bouts in boxing history, barely misses the upper half. While I’d insist that’s not an indictment at all, I do think I have to justify my decision here - and we’ll get to that.
Regardless, it’s impossible to understate the enormity of this matchup at its time. Leonard, media darling and mesmerizing former olympic athlete, may well have had a claim to being the finest in the world at the time. On the other end, Thomas Hearns seemed like he was made in a laboratory to be unstoppable with his physical attributes and amateur pedigree - Hearns’ power, enough to lay victims into the ground, was only a fraction of what made him so feared. A collision course for welterweight kingship resulted in one of boxing’s finest dramatics, a bout where momentum shifts unfolded as dynamics changed. It’s the sort of bout that showcased multiple stylistic interactions that only could be performed by generational talents. Hearns played the stalker to Leonard’s dancer early, only for Leonard to change the tide in the realization that he was tougher in a puncher’s firefight than Hearns was - and it was the slightest chink in Hearns’ armor that Leonard, the vicious opportunist that he was, took every chance he could. But he brought out the boxer in Hearns - and the Cobra’s jab seemed almost impervious as he handed out a lesson in range management. With time running out, his eye swelling, and some choice words from his trainer, Ray Leonard entered the thirteenth with a mission, actively jabbing with Hearns to set up a piston right. This time, Hearns didn’t survive much longer, closing the chapter on the showdown between two giants.
I don’t intend to give rationale for orders on many placements here, but I ultimately have to concede the reason I don’t have this bout higher is that, while its drama is among the best, there are several bouts with noticeably more action with comparable drama. Leonard-Hearns I is certainly an extraordinary contest on a technical and storytelling basis and, again, I should reiterate that there should be zero sleights against any fight on this list with how deep boxing’s catalog of excellent bouts - and that this could have easily been higher. For me personally, it just isn’t.
54 - John Mugabi vs James Green (February 19, 1984)
As Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns circled another for an inevitable clash, their divisions were graced by an extraordinary number of lunatics, transforming the rankings into a meatgrinder where you either sank or swam. We’ve covered one such man, Frank Fletcher, so how about another: James “Hard Rock” Green. While Fletcher was predisposed to wear you down the longterm stretch, Green was the man who knocked down the door with a chainsaw looking to end it right then and there. While he could be called a frontrunner as he tended to lose his momentum if opponents survived, Green’s danger to any prospect could not be understated. Surging knockout dynamo John Mugabi, known for his own fast starts and early finishes, was looking for his lucky ticket to the top and a fight with Green was the next step. The opening round was all-out warfare as both men threw nothing but missiles at another, Mugabi with thunderous overhangs on the outside and Green with piercing hooks on the inside. The action ebbed-and-flowed as Mugabi tried to keep Green off of him, but the shorter man’s speed to weave between punches and come back with twice that number was overwhelming. A chaotic third round ensued and, out of nowhere, Mugabi was hurt. And then he was hurt worse. For an entire minute, the knockout artist was on the verge of being knocked out - a stoppage or a standing count wouldn’t have been out of the question. Still, Mugabi wasn’t some untested spring chicken; his amateur experience was dragged out of him and, behind a jab, he started potshotting his way back after the disastrous third, causing Green’s left eye to swell. A meteoric left hook on Green’s jaw kicked off the hornet’s nest and the brawl resumed in the fifth, but Green has noticeably slowed. By the eighth, the damage on Green’s face was extensive despite his spirited rallies and taunting - Mugabi’s right was now smashing him. Rather than fade, an unrecognizable Green met Mugabi in the center for the tenth in one final effort. They threw down the gauntlet and the referee mercifully stopped it. Mugabi would later go on to have another brilliant duel with Hagler himself down the line, but, were you to ask me, it was his bout with Green that was his most violent.
53 - Armando ‘Mando’ Ramos vs Ultiminio ‘Sugar’ Ramos (August 6, 1970)
When the popular action fighter from the west coast, Armando ‘Mando’ Ramos, met the veteran with the same last name, Ultiminio ‘Sugar’ Ramos, at the Olympic Auditorium, it was doubtful that anyone could have been prepared for one of the greatest and bloodiest battles the venue would see. That is to say, even if it borders into the macabre, while Mando and Sugar weren’t connected by any blood ties beforehand, it would be impossible to not see them as brothers forged by the ferocity of their thirty minutes. The opening round was not anything special, only reinforcing Mando’s potshotting speed at distance and Sugar’s pursuit behind an active, touching jab. The second was where the bleed was shed, as Sugar was stunned from a right, but he fights his way back into the round and opens up a cut on Mando. The third would be no breather, as Sugar’s rapier hooks gouged more red, but he found himself on the verge of being knocked out by the superior dynamism of the younger man. Said advantage was helping Mando build up a lead, his jab swelling up the former featherweight champion’s face considerably, but the action was only intensifying as both men’s visages started to transform into horror paintings. Mando’s own innate aggressiveness ended up backfiring for him as he was badly hurt against the ropes in the seventh, but the war raged onward. Concerns for Mando’s cuts in the early part of the ninth spurred Sugar on to take him out, but Mando was just as a game and turned the tide late to send Sugar on wobbly legs yet again. The tenth remained intense, yet it seemed like it was a cooldown lap - the final seconds brought one last hurrah as both men finished to the bell, looking like they had been locked in hell. It wouldn’t be out of the question to say they were.
52 - German Torres vs Eleoncio Mercedes (March 15, 1984)
Former Olympian Eleoncio Mercedes had lost his title by cuts in a thriller to one Charlie Magri not long ago and was looking to get back to the top. In his way was another hungry contender, looking for their own probable vengeance after losing to the extraordinary Jung-Koo Chang: the heavy-handed German Torres. Whatever drove Mercedes and Torres into producing one of the greatest fights the flyweight division would know is anyone’s guess, but the first round set the tone. A left hook literally sent Mercedes’ upperbody at an angle it had landed so hard. Minutes later, a combination dropped Torres. In between those moments, it was all action, as both men willfully traded like their very careers were at stake. Mercedes’ jab was operating on all cylinders, setting the distance to press Torres back and rip the followup body shots; on the other hand, Torres set his feet to look for overhand counters from both hands. Both men took turns going forward, finding themselves on the backfoot, and putting the other’s composure to the test as the bout descended into constant exchanges. Mercedes’ greater volume and experience seemed to be a difference-maker, successfully stunning Torres in the third and fourth, but everything changed as the sixth round descended into anarchy.
A left hook collided with Mercedes and only the corner post prevented him from crashing to the canvas. Neither man waited for any intervention from the referee to even ask if what just happened was a legitimate knockdown or not - they both went for the kill. It seemed ill-suited for Mercedes to trade with the better puncher, though he had acquitted himself well enough even as the ebb-and-flow only intensified, but Torres’ power was now a major deciding point and in the seventh, Mercedes was reeling again. The chaos continued well into eighth, so Mercedes entered the ninth behind his jab, seeking to turn the tide. A check hook seemed to back Torres off, but this only delayed the inevitable brawl again. This time, Mercedes would finally pay for his gamble - and he found himself throwing until he was outside the ropes. When he returned, the count had reached ten. In a bout where both men needed a win, Torres was the one who had gotten it. Mercedes would never win a fight again understandably - but his effort here should not be discounted.
51 - Nestor Garza vs Kozo Ishii (November 21, 1999)
If the 1990s had to end with a bang, then it saved one of its finest battles for last, as WBA super bantamweight champion Nestor Garza locked fisticuffs with Japan’s Kozo Ishii. Ishii was by no means a better boxer than Garza, whose punches were thrown with greater discipline, yet it was Garza who was eating the worst punches in the opening stanza. The champion started pitching into combination in round two, though he was met with fierce resistance from Ishii’s jab. And then, out of nowhere, the trading began - haymakers thrown from all plains of the vertical axis were launched at another. A massive series of rights by Ishii kicked off even more of the same in the third. It was nothing compared to the fourth, as a reverse one-two had Garza stunned.
As full swings were launched with reckless abandon, it was the straighter blows that made the surest impact between moments of insanity. Attempts to make it a boxing match ended whenever a power punch landed - both of them were fighting on a tightrope and trying to knock the other off. The seventh round would be utter mayhem, as both men found themselves almost tumbling to the floor as Ishii pressed forward and Garza’s punches on the slightest separation only served to create more fighting. The eighth was no respite - the terms of the engagements had been made and someone was going to fall - and only being hurt temporarily just steeled Ishii to keep attacking. However, the slightest of differences was showing: Garza had superior positioning and defense in the chaos, but his chances to control it all were mitigated because the challenger simply refused to back off. The energy expenditure of the brawl was starting to catch up and, by the end of a sensational eleventh, Ishii found himself starting to lose the margins of their epic struggle. He wouldn’t see the bell in the twelfth - though he went down swinging to conclude one of the greatest battles the 122lbs division had known.
This concludes part five. Next time, many more recognizable names and faces.
This is a magical series Dan! Keep up the great work