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 | | Subject: Michael Buffer's top ten memorable fights Wed Dec 28, 2011 6:34 pm | |
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- Roberto Duran KO 8 Davey Moore, June 16, 1983, Madison Square Garden: Moore had won nine straight, all by knockout, and was 12-0 coming into the fourth defense of his WBA junior middleweight ititle belt. Among his victories had been a stoppage of former beltholder Ayub Kalule, whose only previous loss had been by knockout against Sugar Ray Leonard.
Duran was after his third straight win after having already lost to Leonard in the "No Mas" fight, as well as to Wilfred Benitez and unheralded Kirkland Laing.
"That was a fight that was won by the underdog, Roberto Duran, who had been on a slide during a career that was taking a nosedive. I had never been to a weigh-in before, but it seemed like a thousand Panamanians showed up with their flags in support of Duran at the weigh-in," said Buffer.
"The place sold out. It was the first sellout since Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier there. Duran landed nearly every punch in that eighth round, and I mean, Davey Moore was done. The crowd was electric. But what made that night even greater for me, personally, was that it was the first big so-called 'Super Fight' that I had done."
In addition, Buffer was able to introduce fighters such as Ray Mancini, Marvin Hagler, Gerry Cooney and Larry Holmes, each of whom went into the corners of the main event fighters to shake their hands.
"So I started lining them up, and, of course, Muhammad Ali was there. I saved Ali for last. I remember saying, 'former three-time heavyweight champion of the world who is known as, and who perhaps really is, The Greatest of All Time.' The place went insane. That was about eight months after I had had my debut, at which I was completely dreadful and another six months went by before I got another job," said Buffer.
"So I was kind of lucky to have gotten my foot back into the door. Back in those days, I didn't even get a hotel room. I had to drive from Philadelphia, show up and change. I changed in the room of Angelo Dundee's brother, Chris, who was a great guy. Thanks to Bob Arum for giving me a shot at doing this fight. From that day on, I was never nervous any more."
Mike Tyson KO 1 Michael Spinks, June 27, 1988, Convention Hall, Atlantic City, N.J.: It was a clash of undefeated heavyweights with claims to the biggest prize in sports. Tyson was the WBA, WBC and IBF heavyweight beltholder, and Spinks, who THE RING recognized as the lineal champion, was coming off a fifth-round knockout of Gerry Cooney.
"They had a title for it," said Buffer. "They billed it as 'Once and For All.'"
Spinks went down twice, the second time for good, during a 91-second bout.
"It was one of those really unbelievable nights. I don't know how, but they got something like 18, or, 19,000 people into Atlantic City's Convention Hall, which is what the record books show," said Buffer. "It was a virtual 'Who's Who' of celebrities. The place was totally packed with celebrities all over the place.
"There was Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, Madonna, who was married to Sean Penn back then," said Buffer. "There was also Warren Beatty, Opra Winfrey, Jessie Jackson and George Steinbrenner, among others.
"But Butch Lewis tried a psychological ploy by going into Tyson's dressing room and saying there was a lump in Mike Tyson's glove or something. This was after they had already been wrapped his hands in front of Eddie Futch and everything," said Buffer.
"So there was a 40-minute delay. I literally had to introduce everybody in the building. It was unbelievable trying to keep the place from going nuts. They didn't know whether to play music or what. But of course, 91 seconds later... What makes it memorable is that it was such a great event. Imagine that fight today. They would have destroyed all of the pay per view records."
Roberto Duran SD 12 Iran Barkley, February 24, 1989, Convention Center, Atlantic City, N.J.: Duran was after his sixth straight victory, having lost consecutively to Hagler and Hearns, the latter by second-round stoppage in June of 1984. Duran had also lost by split-decision to Robbie Sims among his seven losses.
The hard-hitting Barkley, meanwhile, had lost four times but was coming off of a third-round stoppage of Hearns, one of his two wins over the five-time titlewinner. Barlkey was making the first defense of the WBC middleweight belt that he had won from Hearns.
"That fight was in a blizzard, and once again, it was a Roberto Duran who had been written off and he was 38 years old at the time. Barkley had just beaten Tommy Hearns in an unbelievable middleweight fight where he was literally being killed, and he came out for the third or fourth round without his mouthpiece in and knocks Tommy Hearns out," said Buffer.
"So now, here is this chisled in stone, heavyweight-looking middleweight in Iran Barkley who was a rock in those days. That's probably in my memory, the best fight that I've ever sat at ringside for. I was literally on the edge of my seat from the opening bell to the final bell."
Buffer recalls Barkley being floored in the 11th round of a thriller.
"I can remember around the eighth or ninth round when Duran got hit with a punch that spun him completely around, and, somehow, he planted a foot that kept him from flying out of the ring," said Buffer. "Then, in an 11th round that he was losing, he throws a combination to drop Barkley for a two-point swing, which helped him to pull off a split-decision win to become the world champion."
Evander Holyfield UD 12 George Foreman, April 19, 1991, Convention Center, Atlantic City, N.J.: Holyfield was the undisputed heavyweight titleholder and coming off a third-round stoppage of Mike Tyson-conqueror James "Buster" Douglas. Foreman had stopped 23 of 24 opponents during his comeback, including Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Cooney and Bert Cooper.
"People say that Evander Holyfield was an undersized heavyweight, and they still do. But if you look at Holyfield from the waist up, he's a linebacker. He just doesn't have anything from the hips down. So to me, he was always like a bonafide heavyweight," said Buffer.
"Holyfield was unbeaten in 25 fights and had fought six or seven fights as a heavyweight, all of them by knockout. If you hit Holyfield, he would hit you back five times."
Buffer recalls Foreman having what he called "a pretty good fifth round."
"I remember he landed a body shot under the arm pit of Holyfield, and Holyfield told me years later that he was numb from his arm pit to his ankle and literally couldn't feel anything walking back to his corner," said Buffer.
"So at the age of 42, Foreman wasn't involved in the greatest fight in heavyweight history, but it was a damn good one. It was just another great moment and another great night where they squeezed something like 19,000 people into that arena."
Riddick Bowe UD 12 Evander Holyfield, November 13, 1992, Thomas & Mack, Las Vegas: The gladiators met in a clash of unbeatens, the 6-foot-5, 235-pound Bowe having 30 pounds and nearly three inches in height over the WBA, WBC and IBF heavyweight titleholder Holyfield in their first bout of a trilogy.
The 25-year-old Bowe floored Holyfield in the final round to clinch a unanimous decision. The 30-year-old Holyfield dropped to 28-1 with 22 stoppages.
"If ever somebody wanted to take a film of a fight and recreate it punch-for-punch for the Hollywood screen, this is one fight that people would look at and wonder if the fight was real. They would trade punches and trade moments and Bowe eventually started to dominate. But that had to be one of the top five or six, action-packed heavyweight title fights of all time," said Buffer.
"That was one of the best fights that I've ever seen, and, maybe, one of Holyfield's best fights in losing. It was an unbelievable fight. I don't think that on that night there is a heavyweight fighter in history who could have beaten Riddick Bowe on that night. From his stance, his timing and his defense and ability to take a punch and his ability to come back from being hit, Riddick Bowe was flawless. There is no doubt about it, he was the best heavyweight in the world at that time. Just a brilliant fight."
George Foreman KO 10 Michael Moorer, November 5, 1994, MGM Grand, Las Vegas: Moorer was 35-0, with 30 knockouts, having dethroned Holyfield by majority decision in his previous bout for the WBA and IBF belts. Foreman already had lost to Holyfield, was ending a 17-month layoff and coming off a unanimous decision loss to Tommy Morrison that ended a three-bout winning streak.
"What I remember clearly was that there was a millisecond of silence that seemed like an hour when Michael Moorer was going down to the ground. And then, there was a roar. It was like that touchdown bomb that lands in that college championship game, or that buzzer-beater or that thing that you just never forget, and that was one of them," said Buffer.
"Not that it was the best fight that I had ever seen, or that it was in the top 25 fights in history, but that was a real moment when George landed those four punches, a one-two, and a one-two, and the last one just totally knocked Michael out."
Foreman's triumph, at the age of 45, .made him the oldest man to win a significant world boxing title.
"This was a man who was trying to win 20 years between titles, and he pulled it off. I had known Michael Moorer since he was like 19, and he was a terrific, dynamite fighter, and I knew his whole family and his mother," said Buffer.
"So as thrilling as that was, I actually thought that I was going to burst into tears of joy and heartbreak at the same time. That's how heartbreaking as that was, because I liked both guys. It was a spectacular moment. My announcement was something like, 'The impossible dream has happened. Heavyweight history has happened.' Just a great moment."
Erik Morales KO 11 Daniel Zaragoza, September 6, 1997, County Coliseum, El Paso, Texas: Morales turned professional at the age of 17, and was 26-0, with 20 knockouts entering the WBC junior featherweight clash with the veteran Zaragoza, who announced his retirement after the fight.
"We discovered one of the best fighters of the last 25 years in a kid named Erik Morales who was 21 years old and had a great amateur record. He was just a dynamite little fighter taking on a Hall of Famer in Daniel Zaragoza," said Buffer.
"It was a packed house, a building that was like a converted ice hockey rink or something. Just a great night. Morales was just so brilliand and so flawless and so perfect against a a super, Hall of Fame fighter."
Morales dropped Zaragoza with a perfectly-placed right-handed body shot to the solar plexis, and Zaragoza could not beat the count.
"Zaragoza went down in the 11th round and it was over. He was actually on his backside, on an elbow, and hesort of tapped the floor a couple of times. He sort of tapped his own heart, looked across the ring at Morales and saluted him. It was either a wave or just an outright salute," said Buffer.
"That was like his acknowledgement that, 'kid, I'm passing the torch to you.' You just can't imagine sitting there at the table and seeing something like that. Of course, Morales goes on for the next half-dozen years or so and fights some of the greatest fights of his life. It chokes me up just remembering that. It was like it was written for a script from a Hollywood movie."
Morales remains the last man to defeat Manny Pacquiao, doing so by unanimous decision in 2005.
Felix Trinidad MD 12 Oscar De La Hoya, September 18, 1999, Mandalay Bay Hotel, Las Vegas: The clash of undefeated Latino stars pitted the WBC welterweight beltholder of Mexican decent in De La Hoya (31-0, 25 KOs) against his Puerto Rican counterpart, IBF titleholder Trinidad (35-0, 30 KOs).
"I was kind of shocked at the final scores. After 10 rounds, I had thought De La Hoya was up eight rounds to two and then he went on his bicycle. Remember, Trinidad was wearing white trunks that were completley pink from all of his own blood," said Buffer.
"De La Hoya had just given him a total boxing lesson. He took him apart. But without having any damage inflicted on himself, he got on the bike and ran. He was so far ahead that he thought he could dance his way to a victory but ended up with a majority decision loss."
Top Rank Inc. CEO Bob Arum promoted De La Hoya, and Don King, Trinidad.
"That was a great fight, and I don't take anything away from Trinidad, who is a great, great fighter, and that was quite an event," said Buffer. "And at the time, that was a huge, huge fight with a big, celebrity turnout. Great night. I can't believe that happened more than 10 years ago."
Henry Maske UD 12 Virgil Hill, March 31, 2007, Olympiahalle, Munich, Bayern, Germany: Some 11 years earlier in November of 1996, Hill had handed Maske his lone defeat by split-decision in the same venue. That victory added Maske's IBF light heavyweight belt to the WBA crown that Hill already owned.
It had also been Maske's lone defeat in 30 bouts -- as well as his last -- against 11 knockouts until returning to the same site of their previous clash to face Hill, yet again.
"Most people had never seen Henry Maske fight, because he fought most of his career in Germany, where he was super star. At one point, for, like, two or three years in a row, Maske was making something like $25 million a year in Germany from endorsements and fighting," said Buffer.
"Maske was the ultimate German prototypical star athlete. Every magazine you picked up or every time you turned on the television, he was doing a commercial. He was just unbelievable. Maske had been on a good run and had beaten all of the No. 1 mandatories that had been put in front of him. He was an Olympic gold medalist."
Maske had announced his retirement after losing his title, but he came back for one more fight -- against Hill when they were cruiserweights.
"He had lost that split-decision to Virgil Hill, and the whole country was in tears. He is the type of competitor who had walked way and never fought again," said Buffer. "He was a mult-millionaire, but it had just eaten away at him, so he decided that he wanted to have a rematch 10 years later. In boxing, 10 years is 100 years."
Maske was 43 years old, and Hill still was active at 40.
"Here's an active fighter going against an inactive fighter, and Maske isn't even a power-puncher. So what does he bring to the table?" said Buffer. "He comes back to the same arena where he lost the title and, I don't know how he did it, but he only lost two rounds, completely dominates the fight, and then goes back into retirement."
Floyd Mayweather SD 12 Oscar De La Hoya, May 5, 2007, MGM Grand, Las Vegas: De La Hoya entered this rivalry with Mayweather having lost to Trinidad as a welterweight, suffered defeats as both a welterweight and junior middleweight opposite Shane Mosley, and been stopped in the ninth round as a middleweight by Bernard Hopkins.
De La Hoya was making the first defense of the WBC junior middleweight belt he had won by sixth-round knockout over Ricardo Mayorga, and Mayweather was fighting at a career high 150 pounds compared to De La Hoya's 154.
"This the fight where I believe that people realized how great Mayweather really was. Everybody knew that he was without a doubt being called pound-for-pound the best fighter, but I think that this really convinced everybody that he was everything that he said he was," said Buffer.
"But I think that what made that fight intresting is that Oscar was in the fight and might have even have had the first six rounds. His left jab was good and he felt that he was the professor and that Mayweather was the student. Oscar was really giving him a welterweight's left jab and made Mayweather look like the smaller fighter."
But it's 12 rounds, said Buffer.
"Apparently, he couldn't stay with the jab anymore. It just wasn't landing anymore. Mayweather probably landed 55 to 60 percent of his power punches. Although he didn't get brutally beaten up or anything, but it was all downhill for Oscar after Round 6," said Buffer.
"The way that I remember is that it was two seperate fights, with De La Hoya looking like he was going to pull it off, and then, Mayweather just became Mayweather. That still stands out today as the all-time money maker. Man, that was huge, that fight. Just a great night of boxing. Celebrity attendance, hero versus villain, the birth of a superstar." |
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