3 Fights That Will Never Be Forgotten - Part 4

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is one of the most famous contact sports in the world in the middle of the last century with the beginning of the era of television boxing acquired the status of the most popular martial art in the world in today's video we are going to take a look at the history of boxing from the perspective of the best boxing fights which had a huge epic making significance in the history of boxing these are legendary fights that filled huge stadiums grab the attention of hundreds of millions of spectators and forever change the history of boxing itself if you enjoyed watching this episode on our channel please click the thumbs up and subscribe to the world of boxing here we grab a sense of nostalgia and recall the best fights in the ring which go down in the annals of boxing history november 4th 1995 after two outstanding battles in 1992 and 93 33 year old evander holyfield and 28 year old riddick beau faced off for the third time in their first fight beau took three championship belts away from holyfield but then refused to fight lennox lewis and publicly threw the wbc belt into the trash bin for this he was permanently excluded from the ratings of the organization and in the second bow holyfield fight there were only two belts at stake the wba and the ibf that fight was marked by the unexpected landing of a parachutist in the ring during the seventh round pausing the fight for 21 minutes at that moment the fight was in holyfield's hands but he was becoming more tired according to the result of the second fight holyfield won by a majority decision but in his next fight he lost the titles to michael moorer in their third fight there were no titles at stake although beau was the owner of the wbo belt at that time this organization was not among the main ones and holyfield refused the opportunity to win the belt showing loyalty to the main versions because he intended to regain the main belts in the future each of the boxers was guaranteed eight million dollars for the fight impressions with a bigger guy and he shouldn't let this guy weigh him down with that extra weight so this is not good the first two rounds were relatively calm only at the end of the second the boxers got carried away a little [Applause] [Applause] the fight was mainly held at close range and the boxers showed the skills that made their confrontation so famous [Applause] another uppercut by beau snaps holyfield's head back holyfield with some of the uppercut medicine for riddick [Applause] in round four holyfield starts with a good attack but the rest of the round except for a short explosion at the end is dull surprisingly after only a third of the fight most of which takes place at a low pace holyfield looks tired in round five holyfield looks even worse riddick bow hits below the belt and holyfield has an opportunity to rest for five minutes but evander uses only half a minute and then chooses to continue the fight at that moment george foreman jumped out of his commentator's chair and began to shout to the referee to stop the fight he can't get a second win because he has heart problems it will all end badly foreman said on the air foreman although he was announcing was himself a famous fighter and had fought both holyfield and moore after his fight with evander holyfield announced his retirement due to heart problems but it later turned out that the diagnosis was wrong and holyfield returned to boxing it seemed that the moment when holyfield would be on the canvas was not far off but for the first time in his professional career riddick beau was in an unpleasant position what holyfield did larry merchant described with the following words this man can never be written off he is simply amazing [Applause] beau was seriously shocked and retreats into the corner evander throws some good punches but fails to build on the did the success evander holyfield not known as a knockout puncher round 31. now they begin to trade again both men finding some of the snap in their punches in this last minute of round seven throughout the second of their three fights evander holyfield effectively an extra point in round six but i still scored that other in round five tonight the sixth and final round of the holyfield bow matchup is the last it all ended as it began in a battle on a collision course in which holyfield misses a heavy blow from the right and falls on the canvas he gets up with great difficulty referee joe cortez who has been criticized for being unable to determine a fighter's condition asks evander to respond holyfield does not react but cortes gives the command to continue the fight anyway which ends a few seconds later beau defeats holyfield but riddick's overall 2-1 win came at too high a price as his career was rapidly approaching its end holyfield's career after this fight was also in question but evander continued to prove that he cannot be written off one of holyfield's biggest and loudest matches was yet to come the winner by tko victory and now reigns supreme as the best heavyweight in the world [Music] february 12 1993 ibf middleweight world champion 32 year old iran barkley makes his first title defense against unbeaten 24 year old james toney who at the time was one of the top 10 boxers in the world barkley after winning the middleweight championship belt against thomas hearns and losing the next fight against roberto duran made two unsuccessful attempts to win belts in the ibf and wbo he then returned to light heavyweight where he won the championship title by defeating thomas hearns in their second match-up two months before the match with hearns he had won the ibf middleweight title he chose not to defend the light heavyweight belt choosing instead to fight against james tony and defend his super middleweight title tony after winning the middleweight title and six successful defenses left that title vacant and moved up to the second middle division to fight barkley initially james tony was considered the favorite at three to one but on the day of the fight the ratio was almost equal and the overwhelming majority of experts predicted iran barkley would win this fight barkley who had a noticeable advantage in size tried to suppress his opponent from the very first seconds but tony immediately responded with a series of accurate blows trying to go to the body tony coming right up the middle and james sony is giving better than he's getting that game and now we're into stage two tony who's often accused of not fighting the full minutes a little later the fight moved to the ropes but not because barkley drove the enemy into this position but because tony was comfortable fighting there james looked relaxed and worked on his counter-attacks and then moved the fight back to the center and demonstrated his attacking skills tony is whacking away with tremendous guy that will afford him a lot of opportunities [Music] shoulder of tony seemed to stun him for a second barkley mainly worked on the body since striking at tony's head was a difficult task tony on the contrary focused almost all his attention on barkley's head in round three tony began to exhibit his boxing skills with his excellent speed outstanding counter-attacking abilities and the high accuracy of his punches there's a solid right crossed by tony seem to stun iran barclay and one thing we know about barkley he can take a punch very smart tony landed his shots and moved out of the way and the mouthpiece is not okay let's get that clean right hand and there you saw the mouthpiece flying outside of the ring once more with feeling from the corner good point another right in the fourth round barkley moves to the front but tony's speed creates serious difficulties for him and james's excellent shoulder roll nullifies barkley's powerful right cross method for years lean in shoulder the opponent gets your body on him and then pound away it's close enough where conan needs to be taken at this point chopping right hand by barclay missed tony spins away and shows off his hand speed and combinations again james tony i may as well do the same thing iran does and whack away at the left [Music] [Music] [Applause] at the ropes barkley managed to hit his opponent but in the center of the ring tony dominated leaving him no chance james tony was one of the best in the history of boxing in terms of his ability to coherently and effectively not only move from defense to attack but also vice versa [Music] this is a job for refereeing now probably too many referees let guys get them up but that's not enough you should pull this guy up and say you're not going to have 175 because you can't help they're leaning on you [Music] the same level maybe set something up for later on that's why those body punches is helping them his part anyway so why not just keep hitting on the punch catch this guy leaning and grab it but this guy's a customer in the first minute of the sixth round barkley continues to press forward and pressures tony but james quickly and beautifully stops the attacking punch from barkley [Applause] you know somebody with broccoli's mentality thinks i've been hit all those punches now i've got them where i want them after that tony again allows himself to be pressed against the ropes permitting barkley to deliver accurate blows mainly to the body but tony does not forget to counter-attack in this round both fighters landed the same number of punches but tony still looked like a boxer who was in a higher class than his opponent [Music] the first two minutes of the seventh round tony saved his strength and then he stepped up his activity [Music] it's turning out that for tony barkley is the ideal bull can exhibit his skills and barkley's situation worsens and a swelling left eye is added to his list of problems in the eighth round james tony continues to exhibit his dominance and in fact mocked the reigning champion who to his credit continued to try his best and he's an awfully experienced young fighter james tony and for 32 don't look as good on parking left hooks from tony barkley is stunned again but there is no spending tonight then was good for him before the start of the ninth round barclays trainer eddie mustafa mohammed a famous boxer in his own right asked barkley to give everything he had barkley came out and tried to fulfill the coach's request but his attempt was not convincing the picture of the fight did not change barkley continued to miss many punches last ten seconds of round number nine iran barclays blood dripping onto james tony's back he's out on his feet at this point and at the end of the ninth round his coach said there is no point in continuing the fight in this state with which his doctor agreed barkley protests but the doctor gives the command to the referee and he stops the fight in this fight iran barkley entered the ring for the last time in his career as the reigning world champion but james tony became world champion in his second weight category it was his eighth championship fight in 21 months that is on average tony entered the ring for a title fight every two and a half months after this victory he was ranked third in the ranking of the best boxers in the world behind parnell whittaker and the leader of the pound-for-pound julio cesar chavez during his almost 30-year career james toney has had several outstanding fights but the victory over iran barkley is probably one of his most striking performances [Music] march 1 2003 roy jones jr versus john ruiz roy jones jr gained notoriety in 1994 when he defeated james tony in a dominant style in 1996 he topped the pound-for-pound rating but a year later dropped to second in 1999 roy regained his pound for pound leadership however both times roy gained this recognition he did so by inheriting it when the previous leader lost first in 1996 when purnell whitaker who was leading for three years lost so jones became number one then again in 1999 when oscar de la hoya lost to felix trinidad roy again became number one so up till now roy jones inherited the leadership rather than earning it for himself for jones the main problem in the fight for the pound-for-pound spot was the lack of superstar rivals therefore in 2000 he lost the lead again after shane moseley dropped two weight categories and defeated oscar de la hoya in 2002 jones received a very tempting offer don king the promoter of the wba super heavyweight champion john ruiz offered roy 10 million to fight ruiz in an effort to boost ruiz's popularity at this time jones was one of the most popular fighters and king was pursuing two goals the first was to arrange a big fight for his champion against the star boxer and the second goal stemmed from the first king was confident the ruiz would defeat jones which in turn would open the way to bigger fights in the super heavyweight division thus roy jones got the chance to become essentially the first person in the history of boxing to become first the world middleweight champion and then managed to win the super heavyweight title the only other person to supposedly accomplish this feat was bob fitzsimmons in 1897 but in those years the world champion was considered the one who received the most public recognition as there were no official organizations or official protocols on weighing in for this fight jones counted 191.8 pounds which turned out to be 33 pounds less than his opponent john ruiz came into this fight after three fights with evander holyfield in which he lost the first fight won the second fight and the title and the third ended in a draw after that ruiz made another successful defense and thanks to the perseverance of his promoter don king he got his biggest fight in his career unlike what happened many years ago in his fight against james tony where jones's royalty consisted entirely of interest here roy went a different way given the low popularity of his opponent roy considered that the fight was unlikely to be a financial success so instead he took a guarantee of 10 million dollars ruiz on the contrary took 40 percent of the total income this became the reason for a tax from ruiz against jones ruiz believed that jones wanted to play it safe because he would receive a guaranteed 10 million regardless of the number of sales during a press conference many years later roy admitted that this was the only time in his career that he felt that he lost psychologically to an opponent before the actual fight however on the day of the fight jones was competent as for the press and fans they were divided into two camps some believe that jones skill would be enough to compensate for the difference in weight while others believed that jones would be unable to withstand ruiz's punches the current champion was not a strong puncher but still had a solid 27 knockouts in his 38 wins it is worth noting that john ruiz is the first latin american heavyweight champion of the world even though he was born in the usa his parents were puerto ricans in the very first seconds of the fight ruiz tried to meet jones in an appropriate way and immediately started attacking jones body in the first two attacks ruiz struck twice below the [Applause] is going to get any belt at all bring your punches up don't you make you respect him and put on the show catch him coming in but he's not your pure counterpuncher roy jones because he's making a big man wait you don't wait for our little [Applause] initially jones was out of sorts needing time to adapt to the new fighting weight because of this he missed more often than usual and a half a minute before the end of the first round ruiz at close range shook roy with a shot from the right the contender did not leave this episode unanswered while two out of three judges gave the round to ruiz jones's tough counter made ruiz pause and the champion became more cautious in the second round jones looked much more confident and in the third he decided to return to the basics of boxing and tried to work his opponent with the jab although in general throughout his career he used this blow quite rarely in this fight he used the jab more than ever before [Applause] who has never been a jabber in the light heavyweight division firing jabs landing them by the beginning of the fourth round jones's confidence had increased so much that he allowed himself to calmly retreat to the ropes without fear of any problems jones had adapted to the weight as well as the opponent but ruiz became much more cautious feeling that in addition to speed jones had a rather sharp blow which he needed to watch for at the end of the fourth round royce seriously shook his opponent after which ruiz thoughtfully went to his [Applause] a clean corner hand a little high stunned ruiz momentarily the task for ruiz which he set for himself was to get in close but there were two problems first jones jabbed more than usual and ruiz was unable to get ahead of jones speed but when he still managed to break through to close range a second problem appeared roy slightly pulled his opponent by the back of his head thereby unbalancing him in this position it was difficult for ruiz to hit jones's body hard but ruiz was not without controversy either during the confrontation he may or may not have intentionally butted jones's chin with his head against jones in the fifth round jones grew so bold that he even began to allow himself to fight ruiz head on but before the meeting there were many different assumptions about how it would go throughout the fight but this did not even occur to the most devoted of roy's fans [Applause] [Music] take a look at the body punch that roy jones slams into the right side and there's the right hand perhaps the best punch that louise has landed in the first half of the fight jones had made his opponent question his actions this was an important achievement especially since ruiz's team was competent that their boxer would be strong enough to simply go into the ring against jones and bombard him with punches at close range jones smashed this plan to smithereens now roy could lead the fight exactly as he wanted using all of his outstanding qualities even so jones received the occasional reminder from ruiz that he needed to be careful with his strategy [Music] lisa's unwillingness to press the action now here he goes all right just as i said in the light heavyweight division against out's class he's gone 12 rounds at the beginning of the eighth round ruiz finally took the advice of his corner and began to attack his opponent's body but jones's response made it clear that he had everything under control however this strong attack from ruiz was enough for the judge to give him a round [Applause] [Music] jones anticipated all of ruiz's moves so well that he was able to keep the opponent at distance for the whole round though it should be noted that this was not exactly difficult all right body shot ruiz has not taken he wasn't forced to 19. just like larry doing all the punching it's all roy jones uppercut missed uppercut missed again left hook landed right hand landed jones not throwing back as ruiz tries to unload his weapons against him against the ropes in the interval between the 10th and 11th rounds there was a real hysteria in ruiz's corner ruiz's manager and cut man norman stone shouted for the boxer to throw himself into the fight and attack at any cost and to ignore the referee who in his opinion was biased towards jones the reigning champions coroner stubbornly refused to admit that jones was simply better than they expected and it was easier to blame the referee jay nady who like everyone else has made mistakes but in this fight his performance was flawless come on come on come on johnny get your [ __ ] title away from you the work referee stopped rest sucks fight it [ __ ] the referee get out that fighter even all of this psychological pumping did not help things to go better for ruiz in the 11th round he looked helpless norman stone's hysteria continued before the final round the referee approached ruiz to remind him that the final round was ahead but in response stone told him to get out of my corner stone accused jay nady of allowing jones to constantly clinch ruiz for the whole fight larry merchant said on the air the good news is that we may never have to see norman stone again to which jim lemley replied that would be great the most entertaining part of round 12 was the hbo commentators debate so far is to expose a real paper champion bingo john ruiz's wba heavyweight belt doesn't mean he's a heavyweight champion hey guys don't say that that's not true don't go be hypocrites we have promote the fight and then you tear down in the last couple of rounds we didn't promote it as a heavyweight championship fight george the promoters did well the promoters they sold it to us now don't take the money away from him the guy's winning he's winning big because he's fighting a guy who's beaten he found the holy field everyone else he beat a grand holyfield once in three fights [Music] still got a chance still has got a chance for the last 20 seconds of the fight the entire arena held its breath and waited for the final bell to greet the new wba heavyweight champion there is a long debate about john ruiz's skill but the fact remains that on this evening roy jones jr once again showed his boxing talent and forever inscribed his name in history he is one of the only fighters to first win a world title in middleweight then another title in the super heavyweight he is also the seventh boxer in history to become a world champion in four weight categories and only the second boxer to move from light heavyweight into super heavyweight and win his first fight to become world champion the first time was done when michael spinks beat larry holmes in 1985. in 2003 roy jones finally grabbed the top spot of the pound per pound ranking by his own personal skill and put some distance between himself and the others on the list behind him in the ranking were bernard hopkins shane mosley oscar de la hoya floyd mayweather manny pacquiao kostiatsu eric morales marco antonio barrera and longtime friend of roy jones james tony by the end of 2003 looking at this list of outstanding boxers no one had even the slightest doubt that roy jones jr was the best among them when you went into the ring the bell rings you're going out there you're facing the biggest man you've ever faced what concerned you at that moment just the fact that i don't walk into a big punch early because i have never been hit in 10 off girls by heavyweight so my dad very well prepared me for this merc did a wonderful job matthew shilstone did a hell of a job we all came together as a team uh plus a cult in the house so yeah please do not forget to like this video if you enjoyed it and subscribe to our channel so you won't miss any new episodes about the boxing legends of the past see you next time

Channel: The World of Boxing!

Views: 1,368,099

Rating: 4.6447773 out of 5

Keywords: Boxing, Riddick Bowe vs Evander Holyfield, Iran Barkley vs James Toney, Roy Jones Jr. vs John Ruiz, John Ruiz, Roy Jones Jr., James Toney, Iran Barkley, Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe

Id: VUA3LT9pCvQ

Length: 32min 9sec (1929 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 10 2020