Boxing

[BarryP]

In my childhood I grew up watching Leonard, Hearns, Hagler and Duran and fell in love with the lightweight to welterweight divisions of boxing. Due mainly to the politics of boxing I fell out of love with the sport. With two exceptions, Terrance Crawford and Shakur Stevenson, I consider myself to be pretty ignorant on the subject of boxing over the past couple of decades.

However, I have of late found myself watching a lot of boxing on Youtube and this morning I stumbled across the Josh Taylor / Regis Prograis bout from a few years ago. What a fight! Reminded me of the boxing I fell in love with as a kid. I was impressed with both boxers but Josh Taylor in particular. Taylor is exactly the type of fighter I enjoy watching. Precision, power, and threw his hands often but I only found the fight by dumb luck. So rather than just stumbling into matches I thought I'd ask, are there any boxers over the last two decades you've enjoyed or would recommend watching? 

[Somerset Fulham]

Honestly? Right now boxing is in as bad a state as I have ever seen it. 

Promoters have utterly destroyed the sport. You have a moron like Fury won't fight because he is too scared to lose his unbeaten record and the usual merry-go-round of bang average heavyweights beating up bums but rarely actually fighting one another.

You have these ridiculous sideshows going on such as the Youtube idiot and Tommy Fury, or Tyson Fury who's next fight is against an ex MMA champion. And of course there is always Saudi Arabia etc.

And this filters all the way down too. I am sure there are excellent fighters out there but they are hardly ever actually tested against other excellent fighters because the promoters don't want to risk them and the governing bodies are in the pockets of those same promoters.

It is a sorry state of affairs.

[Sammyffc]

Honestly? Right now boxing is in as bad a state as I have ever seen it. 

Promoters have utterly destroyed the sport. You have a moron like Fury won't fight because he is too scared to lose his unbeaten record and the usual merry-go-round of bang average heavyweights beating up bums but rarely actually fighting one another.

You have these ridiculous sideshows going on such as the Youtube idiot and Tommy Fury, or Tyson Fury who's next fight is against an ex MMA champion. And of course there is always Saudi Arabia etc.

And this filters all the way down too. I am sure there are excellent fighters out there but they are hardly ever actually tested against other excellent fighters because the promoters don't want to risk them and the governing bodies are in the pockets of those same promoters.

It is a sorry state of affairs.

Not sure how you can say Fury when he has the same amount of fights since 2018 than AJ. Furthermore, nobody in the HW division has more fights than either of them since 2018.


Fury 9 since 2018
Aj 9 since 2018
Usyk 8 since 2018
Wilder 7 since 2018

[Somerset Fulham]

The man is a walking circus.  Retiring, not retiring, an idiot for a father, ridiculous WWE appearances and this exhibition match. His last two fights were against national level fighters at best.

I am not in any way suggesting that AJ is any better, although at least he has fought Usyk I suppose.

I am really really down on professional boxing at the moment, in case you didn't notice.

[Somerset Fulham]

To come back to the initial question, Moses Itauma just fought on the Joe Joyce undercard and although he is young (18), he looks like a fantastic prospect.

Incredible hand speed for a heavyweight.

[Dodgin]

Joe Joyce stopped again by Zhang devastating punch in round three

[Somerset Fulham]

He literally looked terrified from the second he walked into the ring.

Such a shame, he's a local lad but he clearly isn't good enough.

[Barrett487]

Is this not NFR ?

[Somerset Fulham]

You are right of course, but the clue might be in the title...

[McBrideOfFrankenstein]

I don't watch any more but the Mickey Ward/Arturo Gatti fights were special. I also always liked the odd style of Emmanuel Augustus, the man who came closest to beating Floyd Mayweather.

[RAY Rock ????]

Holyfield v Bowe 1 class fight 🔥
Barrera v Morales 1 and 2 class🔥
Lewis v Briggs great fight 🔥
Kevin Mitchell was in some good fights 🔥
Macklin v Moore 🔥
Hearns v Hagler 🔥
Fury v Wilder 3 🔥
Whyte v Chisora 1🔥
Froch v Kessler 1 🔥
Calzage v Lacy 🔥
Benn v Eubank 1🔥
Benn v McClellan
Naz H v Kevin Kelly 🔥
Hatton v Tszyu 🔥
Eubank snr v Thompson 1🔥
Haye v Mormeck🔥
Some of my favourites

[Sammyffc]

The man is a walking circus.  Retiring, not retiring, an idiot for a father, ridiculous WWE appearances and this exhibition match. His last two fights were against national level fighters at best.

I am not in any way suggesting that AJ is any better, although at least he has fought Usyk I suppose.

I am really really down on professional boxing at the moment, in case you didn't notice.

His last two fights were with Dillian Whyte and Chisora, before that 3 times with Wilder. Who else was he supposed to fight? Usyk had AJ tied up, Wilder was on a sabbatical. Zhang was in negotiations with Joyce, Ruiz was tied up with Ortiz, Parker was on his sparring team. So who else?

Also, he did the WWE for his sons, the guy he fought was his sons favourite wrestler. Not sure how any man can stand there and say ' ridiculous appearances in WWE ' when a father is doing things for their kids.

Only thing i agree with you with is his dad being a nob.

[Somerset Fulham]

He's been dodging Usyk since day one! Zhang couldn't get any other fight because he isn't marketable enough (although that had to change after last night).

As for the rest?  These fights don't occur at the same time, this has been brewing with him for years. Although granted, I didn't know that about the WWE, that is something I have learned.

He frustrates me no end, that is obvious but boxing in general is far more frustrating these days. I have no idea what happened to there being actual rankings but they don't seem to count for anything anymore.

I might have laughed quite a bit at you (quite rightly!) calling his dad a nob.

[Karlos]

In my childhood I grew up watching Leonard, Hearns, Hagler and Duran and fell in love with the lightweight to welterweight divisions of boxing. Due mainly to the politics of boxing I fell out of love with the sport. With two exceptions, Terrance Crawford and Shakur Stevenson, I consider myself to be pretty ignorant on the subject of boxing over the past couple of decades.

However, I have of late found myself watching a lot of boxing on Youtube and this morning I stumbled across the Josh Taylor / Regis Prograis bout from a few years ago. What a fight! Reminded me of the boxing I fell in love with as a kid. I was impressed with both boxers but Josh Taylor in particular. Taylor is exactly the type of fighter I enjoy watching. Precision, power, and threw his hands often but I only found the fight by dumb luck. So rather than just stumbling into matches I thought I'd ask, are there any boxers over the last two decades you've enjoyed or would recommend watching? 

Miguel Cotto or Deigo Corrales both proper boxers and worthy of any era

[Super Barry Hayles]

Have a read / watch of Four Kings - featuring Duran, Hagler, Hearns & Leonard
<Maybe things used to be better.
 

[Dodgin]

This boxer didn't avoid anyone.

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Greb