Greatest Fighters

While we were preparing to watch the Illini get man-handled by Ohio State last Saturday, Pac-man and I started talking about Roy Jones Jr. Now before the invention of the Interweb and subsequently Youtube, when old timers like us would reminisce about things that have happened in our past, the arguments could never be settled. With the wonderful world of the 6% of the Internet that isn't porn, you can now look up these wonderful memories and prove to Pacman that you are right, and he has no clue what the hell he is talking about. The argument started for some unknown reason, but it revolved around the fact that Roy is coming out of retirement and Bernard Hopkins are fighting in 2010. The collective age of these 2 prize fighters? 84 years young.

So what was the argument you ask? Well unlike most arguments, it had nothing to do with my unshakable faith in Illini sports vs. Pacman's utter hatred and despair at the first sign of distress. This argument was basically whether or not Roy Jones Jr. in his prime was the best fighter we have ever seen. So after many minutes of heated debate and name calling, we finally went to Youtube. Below are some of the fighters that we discussed. Believe me, this is a fantastic way to kill a few minutes, and take your mind off of the ass kicking that is likely from Penn State this weekend.

Before we get to Roy here are a couple other fighters that I loved when boxing still existed. The videos are fine, but some of the music is not safe for work, so you might want to mute them.

1) Prince Naseem Hamed
Hamed was probably the only boxer who you could call an entertainer first, then a fighter. Most purists hated him because of his actions not only in the ring, but his ridiculous entrances. Some of my favorites: He came into the ring on a flying carpet. He danced behind a waterfall for about 3 minutes while a highlight reel played on the waterfall itself. The most famous things about Hamed were that he would flip into the ring, and he almost never put his hands up to block punches. He threw punches from ridiculously unorthodox angles, and he knocked the hell out of people.




Hamed finished his career at 36-1 with 31 knockouts. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of great videos of his knockouts. Trust me, he was one of the best knockout artists of all time. I had a lot of sports firsts with Naseem. He was the first fighter I ever bet on. Betting on him was the first time I stopped gambling, and consequently the first time I ever broke anything in a drunken rage.

2) Floyd Mayweather Junior
Floyd Money Mayweather is considered by many as the best pound for pound fighter out there right now. Mayweather does not have the knockout power that most of my favorites have, but he doesn't really have a weakness, and he pretty much dismantles anyone who steps into the ring with him.




For the record that is the worst soundtrack I have ever heard for a boxing highlight tape. Who knew that 16 year old Emo chicks are huge Money Mayweather fans?

Mayweather's record: 40-0 25 knockouts

3) Mike Tyson
Iron Mike Tyson is pretty much my favorite boxer of all-time, but towards the end of his career he became so dependant on the knockout that he would panic when the fight got into later rounds. He would then get sloppy and bite peoples ears off. Although not too many people talk about the fact that Holyfield's best punch in that fight was a head butt, and he used it many times. I know that Evander probably wasn't valedictorian at his high school, but you have to be a little smarter than that. When you are fighting a man who is basically clinically insane, who has been to prison, and was born punching people, getting your ear bitten off because you are head butting this man is probably the best case scenario for you. I have literally spent hours watching Mike Tyson's greatest hits on ESPN. I have actually cancelled plans and watched them over and over. I wonder that says about my psychological make up?




The video starts slow, and the white flashes is probably the dumbest thing I have ever seen. When your video revolves around Mike Tyson hitting people, it is probably the worst thing you can think of to flash the contact out. Anyways, Tyson was made from granite, and was faster than anyone he ever fought. I'm glad that he seems to be doing well these days.
Tyson's record: 50-6 with 44 knockouts. He won his first 19 fights by knockout. He was 37-0 before he lost to Buster Douglas, and then finally lost 5 of his last 12 fights.

4) Roy Jones Jr.
Like Tyson, Jones had the power, speed and defense in his prime. He is probably the fastest puncher I have ever seen. Watch for the 4 left hooks he throws in a row (2:30). It is scary that a human being could punch that hard that fast. He often toyed with his opponents, and since he wasn't a heavyweight, he had to change weight classes constantly in order to get Big-Name fights. My favorite knock-out by Roy is the body shot that he used to knockout Virgil Hill. He broke 2 ribs with that punch. You will see it in video (7:20). Also his knockout of Montell Griffin in the rematch is amazing. It is the last knockout.
A little back story about that fight. Jones was in a pretty good fight against Griffin, and finally scored a knockdown. While Griffin was on a knee, Jones punched him again and was disqualified for his first loss of his career. A rematch was scheduled, and Griffin decided to tell anyone that would listen that the reason that Jones hit him on the ground was because he was afraid that he was going to lose the fight. What did Roy do? Well he destroyed Griffin in 2 minutes and 31 seconds. The first knockdown is awesome, and continuing his track record of being an idiot, Griffin got up and gave us one of the greatest knockouts I have ever seen. Watching him try to get up is like watching an 8 year old try to get up after taking 3 Vicodin and drinking a keg of whiskey.



This is probably the best video out there as far as boxing goes.
Roy's Record: 54-5 with 40 knockouts. He lost 4 of his last 9 fights including 2 to Antonio Tarver whom he beat in their first fight.

Finally with all these knockouts, I would be a crime to not show you probably the best fight of our time. Arturo Gatti vs. Mickey Ward 1 was amazing. This video is pretty good, but it does jump around a little.




I wish I had the number of punches thrown and landed were, but I heard that Gatti averaged 70 punches a round in this fight. Either way, if this is ever on ESPN Classic, or any other channel, watch it. We will be back with an Illini preview for this week, and also we will be bringing back the weekly pick'em.