This day in boxing. A look back.

**TitoFan** · 12-03-2020 02:22 AM

20 years ago today..............

My FAVORITE fight of all time.

Trinidad TKO over Fernando Vargas in Round 12

**Master** · 12-03-2020 10:26 AM

I wanted Vargas to win that particular fight and he produced an amazing performance considering the brutal knockdowns he endured. Vargas could have stayed down but had the desire to try and win no matter how hurt even putting Trinidad down.

Tito had brutal power but he did hit low at important times in the fight.

**TitoFan** · 12-03-2020 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by Master

I wanted Vargas to win that particular fight and he produced an amazing performance considering the brutal knockdowns he endured. Vargas could have stayed down but had the desire to try and win no matter how hurt even putting Trinidad down.

Tito had brutal power but he did hit low at important times in the fight.

I've never been as nervous before any fight as before that one. Vargas was young and undefeated... but had this "punk attitude" about him and I wanted so badly for Trinidad to knock that pucker off his lips. He needed to be taken down a few pegs and Felix was the one to do it. I thought it was over in the first round, and me and the gang I had assembled at my house went ballistic in what became a premature celebration. Kudos to Vargas, who hung in there for the whole fight. The place was deathly quiet in the 4th when Trinidad got knocked down... but then again it wasn't like he hadn't visited the canvas before. As the fight neared the 12th, and it seemed like Trinidad had taken over the fight, I wanted a definitive ending SO BAD..... No decision, I wanted knockout. So when Vargas went down from that hellacious left hook in the 12th..... we all went ballistic again. Never have I enjoyed a beatdown as much as this one, although some have come close, such as when Shane Mosley put a major league beatdown on Margacheato.

**Master** · 03-08-2021 02:33 PM

Fifty years ago Joe Frazier beat Muhammad Ali in the Fight of the Century in the iconic Madison Square Garden where tickets were like gold dust and even Frank Sinatra couldn’t get in

To say fighting at Madison Square Garden is a big deal for boxers is a bit like saying Cristiano Ronaldo is impressed with himself. It’s a huge understatement.

Long considered the Mecca of boxing, it has hosted a who’s who of boxing. Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis and Muhammad Ali have all fought under the lights there, while Anthony Joshua and Naseem Hamed both made their America debut in the so-called ‘World’s Most Famous Arena.’

There’s a reason Dana White decided to headline UFC’s first show in New York at the Garden with Conor McGregor who became the ‘double champ’ in the Big Apple. Everyone understands the benefits of putting on a show in a place where legends are born.

Though each incarnation has its own slice of history, it’s the third Garden which is perhaps the most storied given it saw a golden age for boxing.

It was here where Jake LaMotta fought and lost to Sugar Ray Robinson in 1942 in the first of six bouts between the two, while Joe Louis, in his last fight, was knocked out by Rocky Marciano in 1951.

Jim Braddock, aka the Cinderella Man, has also graced the hallowed ring, while members of the Mob, cigar smoke filling the arena, took up seats ringside.

MSG is not shy about letting you know this place has history running through its winding corridors and it’s impossible to talk about the place without mentioning Muhammad Ali. Where gladiators once had the colosseum, ‘The Greatest’ had Madison Square Garden to lap up the applause.

“For a person to fight in Madison Square Garden, they had to be a very special individual,” his legendary trainer Angelo Dundee once remarked.

Ali had many of his defining moments there, including the ‘Fight of the Century’, which took place 50 years ago on 8 March, 1971 against Joe Frazier, a fight he lost after 15 gruelling rounds of boxing.

Both collected $2.5m for their troubles, which was unheard of at the time.

“Today, the heavyweight champions would see that as tipping money,” journalist Colin Hart, who was among at least 700 reporters in attendance, told talkSPORT. “It really was sensational.”

Joe Louis was clapped to his seat when he entered the arena, Burt Lancaster was on hand to provide colour commentary in between rounds, while a fight was on between the rich and famous to be near to the action.

Frank Sinatra couldn’t even command a ringside seat, but desperate to see someone else swinging for a change, got himself a photographer’s accreditation so he could watch from ringside.

Ol’ Blue Eyes was so good with the camera that one of his snaps made the cover of Life Magazine. That was just his way.

“The fight itself was magnificent,” Hart continued.

“I shan’t forget the left hook that put Ali down in the 15th and final round. How he got up, only Tyson Fury will know as he did something similar against Deontay Wilder.”

Wilder’s former trainer, Mark Breland, actually turned pro in the arena in 1984 on a card that incredibly also saw Evander Holyfield, Pernell Whitaker and Tyrell Biggs do the same.

At some point along the line, though, there was a shift in power allowing Las Vegas to move in and usurp New York’s crown as fight capital of the world.

Nevertheless, it takes years to build that sort of gravitas.

“What I don’t think Vegas has is the native fight fans,” boxing journalist Alex Reid explained. “There aren’t too many Vegas residents turning up for these events whereas if you see someone like Miguel Cotto or Felix Trinidad fight at Madison Square Garden, you get the Puerto Rican community of New York coming out and supporting them.

“There are more working class, blue-collar people and obviously New York’s such a melting pot that there are also huge communities of Irish-Americans and Mexican-Americans there. So when a home fighter fights or someone they’ve adopted as one of their own it creates a very different atmosphere.

“It’s a much more earthy, and frankly, loud and more exciting one than you get in Vegas.”

Clearly, history counts for many and the Garden still has its prestige.

“The atmosphere is so much different from any other venue,” New Yorker Teofimo Lopez said after beating Richard Commey there in 2019.

“Not only do you feel the crowd, you also feel the history behind it and how many legends have been up on the big stage,” the lightweight champion continued.

“Madison Square Garden brings out another side of me. It brings out the best in me. And I’m grateful to call it my home.”

https://talksport.com/sport/boxing/8...square-garden/