I am a fan of long, grueling fights with ebb and flow. Fights where we can think along with the fighters and where they have to adapt repeatedly and reach down for more courage over and over again. Short fights are often a function of mismatches, but not always. Here are seven of boxing's greatest short fights.
Jack Dempsey-Luis Angel Firpo, 1923-No Mr. Sugar is is NOT the greatest fight of all time. But eleven knockdowns in two rounds and the champion being driven through the ropes is a remarkable fight. Dempsey KO2.
Sugar Ray Robinson and Rocky Graziano, 1952-The master and the dead-end kid for the middleweight crown. Robinson is controlling the action in the first two rounds but suddenly is cuffed down by the hard-punching Graziano to open the third. Robinson gets up, measures his man and hits him so hard with a straight right hand that Graziano's leg is quivering as he's down and his mouthpiece comes out. A full minute after he is counted out Graziano is still trying to shake the feeling back into his leg.
George Foreman and Ron Lyle, 1974-This is Foreman's comeback fight after Zaire. Lyle has just knocked out Ernie Shavers. This fight is a puncher's dream. There wasn't much art to it, but it was action filled. At the end of the first Lyle almost dropped George with a single right hand. The second round saw the reverse as Foreman drove Lyle to the ropes and kept him there until the bell rang...a full minute early. The bombings began in the third and the knockdowns in the fourth. Lyle dropped George with a left hook, then in the middle of the ring George returned the favor with a right hand that Michael Moorer would recognize. Somehow Lyle beat the count and then took control again and dropped George with another hook. George gets up at the bell. That is three knockdowns in that round which must be scored um, carry the one....who the hell knows. In the fifth these two gladiators left it all in the ring, both exhausted until Foreman hurt and then finished Lyle.
Ray Mancini and Arturo Frias, 1982-20 seconds into the fight Frias staggered Mancini with a left hook. BIG mistake. The next two minutes are unbridled fury.Frias gets cut, both guys are throwing incredible bodyshots and left hooks. Back and forth, both guys jarred and then a left hook drops Frias. The strapholder gets up but can't get off the ropes and Mancini unleashes a typical Mancini fusillade until the fight is stopped and Mancini gets a strap.
Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns, 1983-The big question going in is how will Marvin take Tommy's right hand. In hindsight the question should have been how will Tommy's right hand hold up to Marvin's titanium cranium. The answer is not well. One big shot? One busted hand. In the third round there is that great moment where Hagler is severely cut on his forehead and blood is all over his face and Richard Steele takes him to the doctor. You can almost see the doctor saying to himself "If Marvin's head is still on his shoulders I'm not stopping this, I don't want to die."
JL Ramirez and Edwin Rosario II, 1984-Rosario fought through a broken wrist to win a very close decision in their first fight. In their second match, the champion Rosario knocked Ramirez down in the first and second rounds but the durable Ramirez gets up and keeps coming. He barely survives the first half of the third round trapped against the ropes and then a short left on the point of the chin and Rosario is stunned. By the end of the third Rosario has reasserted himself. Early in the fourth Ramirez lands a series of wicked bodyshots and Roasario is forced to stand and trade. Ramirez hurts him and lands about 20 unanswered punches while Rosario tries to clinch in the corner. When Rosario slides off Ramirez and clinches the ringpost thinking that's who he is fighting? The ref stops it and Ramirez is a strapholder.
Tommy Hearns and Iran Barkely, 1988-The middleweight strapholder and superstar dominated round one with jabs and right crosses and then moved to begin trying to break the Blade in half with howitzer lefts to the body. Iran just can't get close to Hearns. In the second round Barkley got severely cut inside his mouth and began spitting blood. His eyes, always a problem, also were cut and began to swell. The Hitman was doing his thing. Between the second and third rounds the Doctor attended to the Barkley corner and one could see the end was near. But this was The Blade. He was crude, sloppy and a hard, hard man. The Hearns body attack in the third is almost breaking the Blade with body shots but he keeps coming through a mask of his own blood though the outcome is ordained....then as both fighters rotate clockwise Barkley lands a right hand and Hearns falls but before he lands Barkley lands yet another short right and a few seconds later it is over.
What else ya got?
