In boxing, politics, money issues, a bigger fight or promotional issues often scupper potential big fights. I have delved into my memory bank and bring you 3 fights that I wish had been made. I have tried to avoid the absolutely obvious examples (Bowe- Lewis, etc) and bring up fights that I feel would have captured the boxing fans eye.
1/. Aaron Pryor-Roberto Duran (approx. 1980)
Roberto Duran is by common consensus a legendary fighter and one of the top 5 lightweights of all time. Duran (and also Shane Mosley many years later) was a long time lightweight world champion who skipped the light welterweight division to fight and beat the biggest name outside of the heavyweight division at welterweight.
Duran moved to welterweight and beat “Sugar” Ray Leonard in a cracking fight in Montreal. However there was an emerging star already campaigning at light welterweight ready to take on Duran.
Aaron “The Hawk” Pryor is in my opinion the best light welterweight of all time. A Pryor-Duran title fight at light welterweight would have been a sure fire 15 round classic. Would Duran have used his legendary pressure fighting mixed with clever defensive tactics with success against the frenetic whirlwind which was Pryor.
All things being equal I would go for a Duran points decision over Pryor with a couple of knockdowns probably being the difference. Pryor was decked several times in his career but similar to Larry Holmes had excellent recuperative powers. Lets also not forget that Duran had several tough fights with Esteban De Jesus who was a tough fighter like Pryor.
Although I said all things being equal Duran would probably win, I believe that in 1979, Pryor would may well have won. The thought of fighting Leonard next I feel would be on Duran’s mind and possibly not focussing fully on Pryor would be his downfall. Either way, I am disappointed not to have witnessed this fight.
2/. Joe Frazier-Ken Norton (1971-1975)
The 1970’s was the acknowledged golden era of heavyweight boxing. Muhammed Ali, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and George Foreman were all great fighters and also in the top 10 at various times were Ron Lyle, Jimmy Young, Ernie Shavers, Jerry Quarry, Oscar Bonavena, Jimmy Ellis and more. Most fought against each other but Frazier and Norton never met.
Had Frazier not been destroyed by Big George, Norton was next in line. Instead Foreman took Frazier out then destroyed Norton in brutal fashion. So who would have won this potential super fight? Another difficult to pick.
Both fighters gave Ali all he could handle and were unlucky to go 1-2 against the greatest. However Frazier was only ever dominated by Foreman whereas Norton did get stopped on the odd occasion through his career. I feel Frazier would just be too much for Norton, possibly stopping him early although I feel it would be more likely that Frazier would have just kept coming forward all night, perhaps rising from an knockdown to register a points win.
3/.Michael Spinks-Evander Holyfield (1986-1989)
This fight would never have happened because Spinks was never going to turn down the mega bucks offered for taking the Tyson fight by moving down to cruiserweight to fight Holyfield.
I feel that the one round blowout defeat to Tyson has unfairly pushed Spinks away from being an all time great in the public eye. Spinks didn’t seem fit to me for the Tyson fight and with knee problems wasn’t the Spinks of 18 months before. It is difficult to know at what time this fight would have taken place, either before the Tyson fight or after. However this would have made for a compelling match.
The younger inexperienced Holyfield against the awkward but incredibly effective Spinks. For arguments sake I am making this fight at cruiserweight ( at the original 190lb limit ). I feel at anything below 190 Spinks wins this fight on a close decision. I just think too clever, too unorthodox and just too rounded for the young Holyfield. I think it would end up around 145-142 for the Jinx.
I could carry on and on about potential match ups never made but these fights from the last 40 years are about the best three that I can think of.
By JIMMY LAST
