Sullivan was a fascinating fighter, most of his fights were in the bare-knuckle era of boxing, he was never defeated as a bare-knuckle fighter, and fights could go anywhere from dozens to over a hundred rounds, there were no time limits per round, a round would usually end when a fighter was knocked or thrown down, and fights would go on until one fighter could no longer continue. That's pure insanity.
This is rare footage of John L. Sullivan in his old age, chatting with a group of friends, and hitting a speed bag, even in old age, you can tell he had great power by the way he hits the bag.
December 8th, 2012, Pacquiao-Marquez 4. Another night I'll never forget. It is one of the most brutal knockouts ever seen in a boxing ring, when Juan Manuel Marquez landed a pinpoint straight right hand counterpunch that Manny Pacquiao never saw coming, it happened with one second left in the 6th round. Manny Pacquiao was out cold, laying there, not moving at all, for quite a while. I legit thought he was dead. This is the punch that did the business.
Archie Moore, "The Old Mongoose", damn near unbeatable at light heavyweight, hard hard puncher, iced 141 opponents, that's the record for knockouts in boxing history.
ARCHIE MOORE fought for an incredible 27 years and knocked out more opponents -- 141 victims -- than anyone else in the history of boxing. He became the light heavyweight champion at the age of 39 and is the only man to have fought both Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali.
Moore, who turned pro in 1936, debuted in the world rankings as a middleweight in the early 1940s. By 1945, Moore moved up to light heavyweight and although he was continually passed over for a title shot, he remained a fixture in the 175-pound rankings. Finally, in 1952, four days after his 39th birthday, Moore secured a shot against light heavyweight champion Joey Maxim. He won the title by decision and held onto it for nearly a decade.
In 1955, Moore attempted to win the heavyweight title from Rocky Marciano. Although he dropped Marciano early in the fight, Marciano rallied and stopped Moore in the ninth round. A year later, after Marciano retired, Moore met Floyd Patterson for the vacant heavyweight crown but was stopped in five.
Although he fell to bigger men, Moore was nearly unbeatable at light heavyweight. He made nine title defenses and engaged in memorable contests with Maxim, Yvon Durelle and Harold Johnson. In his first fight with Durelle, the Canadian challenger dropped more three times in the first round and once in the fifth round. But Archie responded by dropping Durelle in the seventh and knocking him out in the 11th round.
Moore would eventually be stripped of the light heavyweight title by the NBA and the New York State Athletic Commission. So he simply continued to battle bigger men. He knocked out former Olympic heavyweight champion Pete Rademacher in 1961 and was stopped by Ali in 1962. Moore's age is listed as 49 at the time of the Ali fight, but some ring experts insist he was actually older since his date of birth has been disputed. Moore retired after one fight -- a third-round TKO of Mike DiBiase -- in 1963.
All totaled, Moore fought nine world champions and seven Hall-of-Famers. He had multi-fight series with some of the game's top fighters. He won four of five fights from Jimmy Bivins and Harold Johnson, he won all three fights against Maxim and lost all three of his fights against Ezzard Charles.
Moore remained active in boxing as a trainer. He once worked with a young Ali and later with heavyweight champion George Foreman.
The thing about Archie Moore, he fought in three different decades, the man knew his way around a boxing ring, he was called "The Old Mongoose" because of his boxing style and his longevity in the sport. He was known for his tricky, strategic, and elusive fighting style, often evading punches and patiently waiting for the right moment to counterattack. The mongoose is a small, agile mammal known for its ability to evade and outmaneuver larger, more powerful animals. Moore's boxing style mirrored this, using his quick reflexes and defensive skills to avoid punches and frustrate opponents. The "Old" part of the nickname reflected his age as he continued to fight and win well into his late 30s and 40s, an impressive feat in a physically demanding sport like boxing. He was a great ring technician, knew every trick and move in the book, 27 years in the ring and you learn a lot of things. A brilliant fighter, one of the best ever.
One of my favorite boxing photos, Light heavyweight champion Archie Moore dresses up as a cowboy for a photo shoot in the 1950s, aiming a rifle at the camera. For a time, a number of sportswriters and editors were consistently sent photos like these accompanied by a message like, "Archie Moore, the old gus who's chasing our Heavyweight Champion."
John "The Beast" Mugabi, middleweight in the 80s, had scary knockout power. He was obliterating everything in his path, producing some frightening knockouts, Mugabi was 26-0 with 26 (KO) until he ran into the great Marvin Hagler. He gave Hagler one hell of a fight, he hit Hagler with an uppercut in that fight that would have flattened anyone else not named Marvin Hagler, the Marvelous one had one of the greatest chins in boxing history. Love this photo of Mugabi with the sweat beads on his face and the spiked hair.
2019, Badou Jack vs Marcus Browne, the worst cut I've ever seen in boxing happened when Jack and Browne accidentally collided heads in round 7, opening up a deep vertical cut on Jack's forehead. Despite the cut, Jack finished the fight and when asked about it afterwards he said, "I'm a fighter, not a model."
James "Lights Out" Toney, one of the coolest nicknames in sports history, he earned that nickname because he could turn your lights out, powerful puncher. Toney was a technician and an assassin in the ring, combining brutal punching power, superb counterpunching, inside fighting, and slick defense, particularly his signature shoulder roll, also great at fighting off the ropes, and a chin made of Tungsten, never knocked out in over 90 fights across multiple weight divisions. He was one of the greatest pound for pound fighters in boxing history, a three weight world champion, winning titles at middleweight, super middleweight, and cruiserweight, he fought all the way up to heavyweight. He's a legend in boxing, intimidating mofo, had an attitude, he would talk trash to you, taunt you, insult you, hurt your feelings, he liked to test his opponents, see where their Heart was at. Toney was intense.
James Toney vs Michael "Second To" Nunn, 1991, great fight between two great fighters. At the time Nunn was 36-0, the IBF Middleweight champion, and making the sixth defense of his title, Nunn was thought of as near invincible. Toney was still green, people didn't know what an all-time great fighter he would become and Toney was a 20-1 underdog in this fight. Toney was behind on the scorecards going into the 11th round and it looked like Nunn was going to win until Toney lands a brutal left hook out of nowhere. Here are the highlights of this classic.
James Toney vs Tim Littles, 1994, this was a great four round shootout, Littles could bang, watch the shot he catches Toney flush with at the beginning, and Toney just shakes it off, Toney had a all-time great chin. But Toney could bang as well, Toney substains a nasty cut over his eye in round 3 and realizes he needs to get Littles out of there. One of my favorite Toney fights.
James Toney always said Mike "The Bodysnatcher" McCallum was the best opponent he ever faced, he shows McCallum tremendous respect and rightfully so, McCallum is one of the best ever. They fought three times, the first fight was the best, an absolute clinic on technical boxing. This is an interview done with Toney back in 2010, he talks about the best strengths of the opponents he faced in his career, he was still active at the time of this interview, his career spanned an unbelievable 29 years.
James Toney: The Best I Faced
09-17-2010, 10:11 AM
James Toney enters his 20th year in professional boxing with Saturday’s non-televised bout against Matthew Greer on the undercard of Showtime’s Andre Ward-Shelby Pudwill offering. Who knows how far Toney will get in what has to be the last hurrah of his hall-of-fame career but he certainly has a lot to look back on, which the former three-division titleholder did recently with RingTV.com. In what will become a regular blog item featuring the most accomplished fighter’s of our generation, Toney lists the best he faced in 10 important categories.
Best fighter: Mike McCallum -- That’s an easy choice, right off the top of my head it’s the Body Snatcher. He was the best fighter I fought at middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight. Out of all the fighters I fought, I respect him the most because he made me think about everything I tried to do. Before McCallum I was just runnin’ in on everyone, but he made me slow down and think for the first time.
Best Boxer: McCallum -- Yup, it’s him again. It’s between McCallum and Michael Nunn, but I gotta go with McCallum because he was a master boxer who wasn’t afraid to stand his ground. Nunn was mostly fast. I admit that he outboxed me for about nine rounds, but my body shots slowed him down. I told him during the fight ‘I’m gonna catch you!’ And I did.
Best puncher: Merqui Sosa -- Sam Peter is the hardest puncher I’ve fought, but pound-for-pound it’s Sosa because he hurt me the most. I’ll never forget that fight, we fought on an ESPN show in Atlantic City on a Sunday. I went at him like I did everyone back then and that mother f_____ hit me so hard in the third round I was seeing triple for the next three rounds. He knew how to hit and he was so awkward that I couldn’t time him and he caught me high on the head.
Quickest hands: Roy Jones -- He was fast. I’ll give him that, but that’s all I’ll give him. I would have knocked him out if I wasn’t drained from losing 44 pounds in six weeks. I went in (that fight) like a fool and wasn’t properly prepared.
Quickest feet: Nunn -- He had some fast-ass feet (laughing), didn’t he? He was an escape artist for nine or 10 rounds, ‘til I caught up to him.
Best defense: McCallum: He was right there in front of me, but I had a hard time hitting him with clean punches. I basically came into my own by fighting him. I learned how to be elusive without running around the ring by fighting Mike McCallum three times.
Best chin: Tony Thornton: The punching postman from Philly! (laughs) I thought I was gonna knock him out easy. He was squared up with his chin right there for me to hit but I hit him with every punch I had and he wouldn’t budge. I hit him with my best left hook and he didn’t blink.
Best jab: McCallum: Mike’s jab was like a piston. There were other guys I fought who had good jabs, like Nunn and Jones, but they just had speed and they just flicked it. Mike popped that jab with authority. He was an old-school fighter.
Strongest: Samuel Peter: He was just a big-ass African with brute African strength.
Smartest: McCallum: Come on, who do you think it is? Who’s the one fighter I truly respect? You got it, the Body Snatcher, Mike McCallum. I fought my share of boxers who thought they were clever like Roy Jones, Michael Nunn, Montell Griffin, and Reggie Johnson, but they were all scared to really fight. McCallum boxed, he fought, he defended, and he didn’t run all over the ring. He could do all that because he was smart.
Al Hostak, "The Savage Slav", from Seattle, knocks out the great Freddie Steele, "The Tacoma Assassin" in front of a record Seattle crowd of 35,000 at the Civic Stadium in the 1st round in 1938 to capture the world middleweight title. Hostak blasted Steele to the canvas no less than four times before referee and former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey called it off. It was Hostak's 16th win in a row, all by knockout. Al Hostak was one of the hardest punchers in boxing history.
2003, Lennox Lewis, "The Lion", vs Vitali Klitschko, "Dr. Iron fist", at the Staples center, Lewis retained his titles when he defeated a highly motivated and dangerous Vitali Klitschko that night, the fight was stopped after the 6th round because of a nasty cut over Klitschko's left eye.
It was a shame that Lewis-Klitschko fight was stopped, because it was like two trains colliding, they were really pouring heavy leather on eachother. I'll tell you one thing, Klitschko came to fight that night, Lewis had a shit storm on his hands.
The Klitschko brothers were both all-time great heavyweights, Wladimir and Vitali, both from Ukraine, they dominated the heavyweight division from 2004-15, each brother holding pieces of the heavyweight title the entire decade. They swore to their mother that they would never fight eachother and they never did, I always admired that. Wladimir was nicknamed "Dr. Steelhammer" and Vitali was nicknamed "Dr. Iron fist." Both brothers held PhDs in sports science. They had all the belts in the heavyweight division in the 2000s.
In 2009, 6’3" David Haye of Great Britain defeated 7’2" Russian giant Nikolai Valuev in their bout labelled "David vs. Goliath" in Nuremberg, Germany to win the WBA heavyweight world title.
Despite giving up nearly a foot in height and almost 100-pounds in weight, the 6’3", 217-pounds Haye defeated the 7’2", 316-pounds Valuev by majority decision - with the judges scoring the contest 114-114, 116-112, 116-112 - to crown Haye as the WBA heavyweight world champion to become a two-weight world champion.
The victory meant that David Haye, who had moved up to heavyweight after previously reigning as the unified WBC, WBA, WBO, RING Magazine & Lineal cruiserweight world champion - joined Evander Holyfield as only the second man in boxing history to win world titles in the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, they were later joined by the Oleksandr Usyk.
Nikolai Valuev was nicknamed "The Russian Bigfoot" because of his sheer size and look, he just looked like a damn Bigfoot. Here is the poster from that fight, David vs Goliath.
I remember watching that fight, David Haye boxed circles around Valuev. It's one of my favorite fights, to watch 6'3" Haye go in there with a 7'2" monster and outsmart him and take the WBA heavyweight title from him was epic. David Haye was nicknamed "The Hayemaker" because he could punch, he had the power to take out any opponent, even if they outweighed him by 100 pounds. In the 12th round of that fight, Haye almost KO'd Valuev, as he caught him with a thunderous left hook the chin. The Russian clearly felt it, as his legs buckled and he stumbled towards the ropes to keep himself up. Haye was an intelligent fighter, he had a great strategy to deal with Valuev's size advantage:
"I had to do something which was very uncharacteristic of me, I had to go out there and hold back. His style was based on people being able to hit him. Because he was so strong and so tough, he let you hit him. And while you were hitting him, he hit you back. He could tussle with you because he's so much bigger and heavier, he can take your punches and you can't take his. I had to be really clean and concise with my attacks. I couldn't get into any clinches. I had to keep moving and hypnotise the judges to make them think I was in control. If I landed 100 punches and he landed 90, they would probably give it to the reining champion. So I had to steal the rounds in a way which left me as much in the tank as possible and unscathed. He was so much heavier, he would've just thrown me around and zapped my strength if I got into clinches."
Comments
Another angle of the downed Kilrain.
Sullivan and Kilrain shake hands after a grueling fight.
John L Sullivan was ridiculously famous in his day, he was featured on many trading cards and advertising of the period.
John L. Sullivan in his prime.
Sullivan was a fascinating fighter, most of his fights were in the bare-knuckle era of boxing, he was never defeated as a bare-knuckle fighter, and fights could go anywhere from dozens to over a hundred rounds, there were no time limits per round, a round would usually end when a fighter was knocked or thrown down, and fights would go on until one fighter could no longer continue. That's pure insanity.
This is rare footage of John L. Sullivan in his old age, chatting with a group of friends, and hitting a speed bag, even in old age, you can tell he had great power by the way he hits the bag.
December 8th, 2012, Pacquiao-Marquez 4. Another night I'll never forget. It is one of the most brutal knockouts ever seen in a boxing ring, when Juan Manuel Marquez landed a pinpoint straight right hand counterpunch that Manny Pacquiao never saw coming, it happened with one second left in the 6th round. Manny Pacquiao was out cold, laying there, not moving at all, for quite a while. I legit thought he was dead. This is the punch that did the business.
Archie Moore, "The Old Mongoose", damn near unbeatable at light heavyweight, hard hard puncher, iced 141 opponents, that's the record for knockouts in boxing history.
ARCHIE MOORE fought for an incredible 27 years and knocked out more opponents -- 141 victims -- than anyone else in the history of boxing. He became the light heavyweight champion at the age of 39 and is the only man to have fought both Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali.
Moore, who turned pro in 1936, debuted in the world rankings as a middleweight in the early 1940s. By 1945, Moore moved up to light heavyweight and although he was continually passed over for a title shot, he remained a fixture in the 175-pound rankings. Finally, in 1952, four days after his 39th birthday, Moore secured a shot against light heavyweight champion Joey Maxim. He won the title by decision and held onto it for nearly a decade.
In 1955, Moore attempted to win the heavyweight title from Rocky Marciano. Although he dropped Marciano early in the fight, Marciano rallied and stopped Moore in the ninth round. A year later, after Marciano retired, Moore met Floyd Patterson for the vacant heavyweight crown but was stopped in five.
Although he fell to bigger men, Moore was nearly unbeatable at light heavyweight. He made nine title defenses and engaged in memorable contests with Maxim, Yvon Durelle and Harold Johnson. In his first fight with Durelle, the Canadian challenger dropped more three times in the first round and once in the fifth round. But Archie responded by dropping Durelle in the seventh and knocking him out in the 11th round.
Moore would eventually be stripped of the light heavyweight title by the NBA and the New York State Athletic Commission. So he simply continued to battle bigger men. He knocked out former Olympic heavyweight champion Pete Rademacher in 1961 and was stopped by Ali in 1962. Moore's age is listed as 49 at the time of the Ali fight, but some ring experts insist he was actually older since his date of birth has been disputed. Moore retired after one fight -- a third-round TKO of Mike DiBiase -- in 1963.
All totaled, Moore fought nine world champions and seven Hall-of-Famers. He had multi-fight series with some of the game's top fighters. He won four of five fights from Jimmy Bivins and Harold Johnson, he won all three fights against Maxim and lost all three of his fights against Ezzard Charles.
Moore remained active in boxing as a trainer. He once worked with a young Ali and later with heavyweight champion George Foreman.
The thing about Archie Moore, he fought in three different decades, the man knew his way around a boxing ring, he was called "The Old Mongoose" because of his boxing style and his longevity in the sport. He was known for his tricky, strategic, and elusive fighting style, often evading punches and patiently waiting for the right moment to counterattack. The mongoose is a small, agile mammal known for its ability to evade and outmaneuver larger, more powerful animals. Moore's boxing style mirrored this, using his quick reflexes and defensive skills to avoid punches and frustrate opponents. The "Old" part of the nickname reflected his age as he continued to fight and win well into his late 30s and 40s, an impressive feat in a physically demanding sport like boxing. He was a great ring technician, knew every trick and move in the book, 27 years in the ring and you learn a lot of things. A brilliant fighter, one of the best ever.
A young Archie Moore getting his measurements taken.
Moore training with the speed bag.
One of my favorite boxing photos, Light heavyweight champion Archie Moore dresses up as a cowboy for a photo shoot in the 1950s, aiming a rifle at the camera. For a time, a number of sportswriters and editors were consistently sent photos like these accompanied by a message like, "Archie Moore, the old gus who's chasing our Heavyweight Champion."
John "The Beast" Mugabi, middleweight in the 80s, had scary knockout power. He was obliterating everything in his path, producing some frightening knockouts, Mugabi was 26-0 with 26 (KO) until he ran into the great Marvin Hagler. He gave Hagler one hell of a fight, he hit Hagler with an uppercut in that fight that would have flattened anyone else not named Marvin Hagler, the Marvelous one had one of the greatest chins in boxing history. Love this photo of Mugabi with the sweat beads on his face and the spiked hair.
Marvin Hagler said John Mugabi and Tommy Hearns were the hardest punchers he ever faced, here's Mugabi.
2019, Badou Jack vs Marcus Browne, the worst cut I've ever seen in boxing happened when Jack and Browne accidentally collided heads in round 7, opening up a deep vertical cut on Jack's forehead. Despite the cut, Jack finished the fight and when asked about it afterwards he said, "I'm a fighter, not a model."
Just look at this cut up close.
Tony Weeks was the referee for that fight and this is what he looked like afterwards.
You can see the scar in his face from the cut. Jack is a freakin' Gladiator.
God, just look at that.
James "Lights Out" Toney, one of the coolest nicknames in sports history, he earned that nickname because he could turn your lights out, powerful puncher. Toney was a technician and an assassin in the ring, combining brutal punching power, superb counterpunching, inside fighting, and slick defense, particularly his signature shoulder roll, also great at fighting off the ropes, and a chin made of Tungsten, never knocked out in over 90 fights across multiple weight divisions. He was one of the greatest pound for pound fighters in boxing history, a three weight world champion, winning titles at middleweight, super middleweight, and cruiserweight, he fought all the way up to heavyweight. He's a legend in boxing, intimidating mofo, had an attitude, he would talk trash to you, taunt you, insult you, hurt your feelings, he liked to test his opponents, see where their Heart was at. Toney was intense.
James Toney vs Michael "Second To" Nunn, 1991, great fight between two great fighters. At the time Nunn was 36-0, the IBF Middleweight champion, and making the sixth defense of his title, Nunn was thought of as near invincible. Toney was still green, people didn't know what an all-time great fighter he would become and Toney was a 20-1 underdog in this fight. Toney was behind on the scorecards going into the 11th round and it looked like Nunn was going to win until Toney lands a brutal left hook out of nowhere. Here are the highlights of this classic.
James Toney vs Tim Littles, 1994, this was a great four round shootout, Littles could bang, watch the shot he catches Toney flush with at the beginning, and Toney just shakes it off, Toney had a all-time great chin. But Toney could bang as well, Toney substains a nasty cut over his eye in round 3 and realizes he needs to get Littles out of there. One of my favorite Toney fights.
Great photo of Toney, intimidating look.
James Toney sometimes wore the Star of David on his trunks to honor his manager, Jackie Kallen, she was Jewish.
Great breakdown of James "Lights Out" Toney, one of the best to ever do it.
James Toney always said Mike "The Bodysnatcher" McCallum was the best opponent he ever faced, he shows McCallum tremendous respect and rightfully so, McCallum is one of the best ever. They fought three times, the first fight was the best, an absolute clinic on technical boxing. This is an interview done with Toney back in 2010, he talks about the best strengths of the opponents he faced in his career, he was still active at the time of this interview, his career spanned an unbelievable 29 years.
James Toney: The Best I Faced
09-17-2010, 10:11 AM
James Toney enters his 20th year in professional boxing with Saturday’s non-televised bout against Matthew Greer on the undercard of Showtime’s Andre Ward-Shelby Pudwill offering. Who knows how far Toney will get in what has to be the last hurrah of his hall-of-fame career but he certainly has a lot to look back on, which the former three-division titleholder did recently with RingTV.com. In what will become a regular blog item featuring the most accomplished fighter’s of our generation, Toney lists the best he faced in 10 important categories.
Best fighter: Mike McCallum -- That’s an easy choice, right off the top of my head it’s the Body Snatcher. He was the best fighter I fought at middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight. Out of all the fighters I fought, I respect him the most because he made me think about everything I tried to do. Before McCallum I was just runnin’ in on everyone, but he made me slow down and think for the first time.
Best Boxer: McCallum -- Yup, it’s him again. It’s between McCallum and Michael Nunn, but I gotta go with McCallum because he was a master boxer who wasn’t afraid to stand his ground. Nunn was mostly fast. I admit that he outboxed me for about nine rounds, but my body shots slowed him down. I told him during the fight ‘I’m gonna catch you!’ And I did.
Best puncher: Merqui Sosa -- Sam Peter is the hardest puncher I’ve fought, but pound-for-pound it’s Sosa because he hurt me the most. I’ll never forget that fight, we fought on an ESPN show in Atlantic City on a Sunday. I went at him like I did everyone back then and that mother f_____ hit me so hard in the third round I was seeing triple for the next three rounds. He knew how to hit and he was so awkward that I couldn’t time him and he caught me high on the head.
Quickest hands: Roy Jones -- He was fast. I’ll give him that, but that’s all I’ll give him. I would have knocked him out if I wasn’t drained from losing 44 pounds in six weeks. I went in (that fight) like a fool and wasn’t properly prepared.
Quickest feet: Nunn -- He had some fast-ass feet (laughing), didn’t he? He was an escape artist for nine or 10 rounds, ‘til I caught up to him.
Best defense: McCallum: He was right there in front of me, but I had a hard time hitting him with clean punches. I basically came into my own by fighting him. I learned how to be elusive without running around the ring by fighting Mike McCallum three times.
Best chin: Tony Thornton: The punching postman from Philly! (laughs) I thought I was gonna knock him out easy. He was squared up with his chin right there for me to hit but I hit him with every punch I had and he wouldn’t budge. I hit him with my best left hook and he didn’t blink.
Best jab: McCallum: Mike’s jab was like a piston. There were other guys I fought who had good jabs, like Nunn and Jones, but they just had speed and they just flicked it. Mike popped that jab with authority. He was an old-school fighter.
Strongest: Samuel Peter: He was just a big-ass African with brute African strength.
Smartest: McCallum: Come on, who do you think it is? Who’s the one fighter I truly respect? You got it, the Body Snatcher, Mike McCallum. I fought my share of boxers who thought they were clever like Roy Jones, Michael Nunn, Montell Griffin, and Reggie Johnson, but they were all scared to really fight. McCallum boxed, he fought, he defended, and he didn’t run all over the ring. He could do all that because he was smart.
James Toney vs Mike McCallum 1, a technical masterpiece of a fight, both fighters were brilliant.
The highlights from Toney vs McCallum 1, the flow of exchanges in this fight was unreal.
Al Hostak, "The Savage Slav", from Seattle, knocks out the great Freddie Steele, "The Tacoma Assassin" in front of a record Seattle crowd of 35,000 at the Civic Stadium in the 1st round in 1938 to capture the world middleweight title. Hostak blasted Steele to the canvas no less than four times before referee and former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey called it off. It was Hostak's 16th win in a row, all by knockout. Al Hostak was one of the hardest punchers in boxing history.
2003, Lennox Lewis, "The Lion", vs Vitali Klitschko, "Dr. Iron fist", at the Staples center, Lewis retained his titles when he defeated a highly motivated and dangerous Vitali Klitschko that night, the fight was stopped after the 6th round because of a nasty cut over Klitschko's left eye.
It was a shame that Lewis-Klitschko fight was stopped, because it was like two trains colliding, they were really pouring heavy leather on eachother. I'll tell you one thing, Klitschko came to fight that night, Lewis had a shit storm on his hands.
The Klitschko brothers were both all-time great heavyweights, Wladimir and Vitali, both from Ukraine, they dominated the heavyweight division from 2004-15, each brother holding pieces of the heavyweight title the entire decade. They swore to their mother that they would never fight eachother and they never did, I always admired that. Wladimir was nicknamed "Dr. Steelhammer" and Vitali was nicknamed "Dr. Iron fist." Both brothers held PhDs in sports science. They had all the belts in the heavyweight division in the 2000s.
In 2009, 6’3" David Haye of Great Britain defeated 7’2" Russian giant Nikolai Valuev in their bout labelled "David vs. Goliath" in Nuremberg, Germany to win the WBA heavyweight world title.
Despite giving up nearly a foot in height and almost 100-pounds in weight, the 6’3", 217-pounds Haye defeated the 7’2", 316-pounds Valuev by majority decision - with the judges scoring the contest 114-114, 116-112, 116-112 - to crown Haye as the WBA heavyweight world champion to become a two-weight world champion.
The victory meant that David Haye, who had moved up to heavyweight after previously reigning as the unified WBC, WBA, WBO, RING Magazine & Lineal cruiserweight world champion - joined Evander Holyfield as only the second man in boxing history to win world titles in the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, they were later joined by the Oleksandr Usyk.
Nikolai Valuev was nicknamed "The Russian Bigfoot" because of his sheer size and look, he just looked like a damn Bigfoot. Here is the poster from that fight, David vs Goliath.
I remember watching that fight, David Haye boxed circles around Valuev. It's one of my favorite fights, to watch 6'3" Haye go in there with a 7'2" monster and outsmart him and take the WBA heavyweight title from him was epic. David Haye was nicknamed "The Hayemaker" because he could punch, he had the power to take out any opponent, even if they outweighed him by 100 pounds. In the 12th round of that fight, Haye almost KO'd Valuev, as he caught him with a thunderous left hook the chin. The Russian clearly felt it, as his legs buckled and he stumbled towards the ropes to keep himself up. Haye was an intelligent fighter, he had a great strategy to deal with Valuev's size advantage:
"I had to do something which was very uncharacteristic of me, I had to go out there and hold back. His style was based on people being able to hit him. Because he was so strong and so tough, he let you hit him. And while you were hitting him, he hit you back. He could tussle with you because he's so much bigger and heavier, he can take your punches and you can't take his. I had to be really clean and concise with my attacks. I couldn't get into any clinches. I had to keep moving and hypnotise the judges to make them think I was in control. If I landed 100 punches and he landed 90, they would probably give it to the reining champion. So I had to steal the rounds in a way which left me as much in the tank as possible and unscathed. He was so much heavier, he would've just thrown me around and zapped my strength if I got into clinches."
You can see how big Nikolai Valuev was compared to an average sized person, he was huge.
Here's the left hook that Haye landed on Valuev that stunned the giant.