Best Boxing Trilogies?

Best Boxing Trilogy?

  • Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier

    Votes: 18 50.0%
  • Marco Antonio Barrera vs Erik Morales

    Votes: 2 5.6%
  • Arturo Gatti vs Mickey Ward

    Votes: 11 30.6%
  • Floyd Patterson vs Ingemar Johansson

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Riddick Bowe vs Evander Holyfield

    Votes: 5 13.9%
  • Antonio Tarver vs Roy Jones Jr.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    36

kes1111

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
What's the best (or your favorite) boxing trilogy of all time?

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Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier

Ali-Frazier, two names inseparable in the history books thanks to their highly competitive and exhausting yet inspiring efforts in the ring against each other.

Muhammad Ali lost his undefeated record to Joe Frazier in the first fight of their epic trilogy.

Unfortunately Ali would not get the chance to return the favor. George Foreman took Frazier's "0" first. But Ali came back and avenged his defeat afterwards.

After Ali brilliantly dealt with Foreman, he returned his sights to Frazier.

The two had unfinished business, and they settled it in possibly the greatest fight of all time, "The Thriller In Manila." Don King sure knows how to name them.

King gave that epic fight its name, and Ali and Frazier gave that fight and their trilogy its immortality.

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Arturo Gatti vs. Mickey Ward

his is a truly epic trilogy made from the blood and sweat of men not considered great because of their skills, but because of their heart and determination to not give in willingly to the other man.

Arturo Gatti is a fighter loved for his ability to change the course of any fight with one punch. He's the guy you see being pummeled by a fighter until he lands the perfect punch to knock the other guy out.

Comeback king? Yes indeed.

Mickey Ward is a very similar fighter in that he gets beat throughout an entire fight only to bodyshot his way to a knockout victory very often in his career.

When you put the two together, everyone expected sparks to fly. They just didn't realize those sparks would fly to the moon and then circle the sun before returning to their eyes the most dazzling displays of heart and courage to plaster a television or computer screen.

Ward and Gatti fought a close first fight, but Ward pulled a majority decision victory thanks to a ninth-round knockdown of Gatti.

Gatti avenged his defeat with an unanimous decision victory over Ward thanks to a third-round knockdown of Ward. According to Sports Illustrated, Gatti told Ward after the fight, "I used to wonder what would happen if I fought my twin. Now I know."

Gatti won another unanimous decision in their third and final fight. Both men were sent to trauma units for care.

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Floyd Patterson vs. Ingemar Johansson

Floyd Patterson and Ingemar Johansson gave a wonderful trio of knockdowns and knockouts.

One of the best trilogies of all time. Why?

These two knocked each other out so quick, all three of their fights together lasted a total of 14 rounds.

First Patterson lost the world championship to the young undefeated Johansson via TKO in the third round. Patterson was not deterred.

Almost a year later, Patterson knocked Johansson out in round five.

The rubber match gave birth ninth months later, ending in Patterson's picture-perfect six-round knockout of Johansson.

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Evander Holyfield vs. Riddick Bowe

Holyfield and Bowe were two undefeated young world-class heavyweights fighting in their prime, a rarity in today's era.

Holyfield had recently come up in weight from the cruiserweight (200 lbs) division and beat Buster Douglas for the world championship after Douglas upset the world by beating Mike Tyson.

After being deprived of such a great superfight in Holyfield vs. Tyson, we got Holyfield vs. Bowe and forgot who Tyson was for the duration of the first match.

An epic battle in which Holyfield tried to make his presence known to the 30-pound heavier Bowe ensued. Bowe ultimately won by unanimous decision, but Holyfield gained much respect for his courage shown in suffering his first loss.

Holyfield re-fought Bowe and gave the world champ his first loss in a weird fight that was momentarily interrupted by a parachuter flying down into the ring.

After the "Fan Man," as the parachuter was called, was physically removed, Holyfield proceeded to beat Bowe by majority decision, effectively winning back his world championship and handing Bowe his first loss.

Their trilogy came to a dramatic conclusion. Holyfield knocked Bowe down in the fifth round. Coming back in a massive way, Bowe knocked Holyfield out in the eighth round to avenge his only career defeat.

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Antonio Tarver vs. Roy Jones Jr.

On November 8, 2003, Jones set out to win back the light heavyweight (175 lbs) title he had won on his way up to heavyweight.

Unfortunately for Jones, he lost a lot of muscle in getting down to 175 to fight WBC light heavyweight world champion Antonio Tarver.

Tarver gave Jones fits all night. Jones was a tad slower than usual and his reflexes diminished a great deal. Many remarked that Jones was hit more in this fight than in his whole career.

After 12 rounds, Jones was rewarded the majority decision, but many noticed Tarver was very close to upsetting the popular champion.

Jones gave Tarver a rematch on March 15, 2004. Though Jones became more aggressive, Tarver still got the better of their exchanges and ended the fight early with a second-round counter left that sent Jones to the canvas.

Jones got up at the count of nine, but the ref waved the fight as Jones stumbled to another corner.

Jones fought Tarver a third time in October 1, 2005. Jones improved upon his first two performances only to come up short on the scorecards, losing by unanimous decision.

This trilogy came with a lot of feints and misses, not much action. This trilogy is important because it chronicles the rise of Tarver and the fall of Jones.

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Marco Antonio Barrera vs Erik Morales

The opening bout of the series was absolutely breathtaking. Neither man was willing to give in and the violent slugfest that unfolded will never be forgotten. As with the Ali v Frazier trilogy, fight two was something of a letdown. But the third and final instalment made up for it. The quality of boxing put on by both Mexican legends was first rate - some even favour fight three to fight one. What almost everyone agrees on though, is that there has never been a better three fight series among the lower weight classes. These fights were fought over three different weight classes, yet despite being heavier men in each subsequent meeting the pace never slowed!
 

Upgrade Dave

Rising Star
Registered
Tarver/Jones has no business on this list. Even their best fight, the first one, wasn't that good. It's only memorable because Tarver won more rounds on Jones (3, 4 at best) than anyone had in a long time, if ever.
 

IT IS WHAT IT IS

Rising Star
Registered
I'm thinking they just added Jones/Tarver to fill the list and add more recent names. To me Ward/Gatti was the best of all time. Not because of skill, but two Dudes who fought with heart and didn't give a damn! Best wars I've ever seen, especially the first fight.
 

Q-vo

Star
Registered
It was close, but I ended up voting for Bowe/Holyfield.

The problem with most trilogies is that you always got 1 out of 3 fights that ends up sucking:

Gatti/Ward II-Only one thrilling round when Mickey went down

Barerra/Morales II-Barerra stunk up the joint for the first 10 rounds and then decided to let it all out in the closing rounds

Zale/Graziano III-3rd fight (And the only one that was caught on film) was an easy blow-out for Zale

Ali/Fraizer II-I've only seen highlights of fight #2, but I always hear that it was a dud compared to fights #1 & #3

At least the Bowe/Holyfield was consistently entertaining (Fight #3 always seems to get slept on, but there are some massively dramatic moments going on in that one

Actually, what COULD have been my pick for best trilogy was Israel Vasquez/Rafael Marquez. The rare trilogy where each fight surpassed the previous fight in action & drama. Unfortunately, the trilogy was completely tarnished thanks to the unecessary 4th fight where Vasquez's skin could no longer hold up by the 2nd round.
 

tp2001

Star
Registered
I went to the last Jones/Tarver fight...and that one showed why it shouldn't be on the list...

Tarver just had the tools to beat Roy at the time...they were not evenly matched compared to the other matchups
 

Lord Vicious

Rising Star
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Have to go with Gatti vs. Ward.
These dudes tried to kill each other in the ring but outside of it they were best friends.Their fights were so brutal and vicious,they don't even let fights get that physical nowadays.After 3 or 4 rounds like that either the ref or doctor would stop it.And then to have their story end the way it did,man,shit was tragic.

Peace
 

casmaksen

International
International Member
Israel Vazquez vs. Rafael Marquez

The one trilogy where each fight successive fight is better than the last Amazing. :)
 

Brother Blues

Deceased - Nov. 4, 2015
BGOL Legend
How can it not be Ali/Frazier??....which was a battle between two all-time greats.

Ward/Gatti was a battle of the mediocre,between a has-been and a never-was.

I'd put Bowe/Holyfield second...
 

IT IS WHAT IT IS

Rising Star
Registered

Dude this fight right here had me more hyped watching it than any other fight I've seen and I've seen a LOT of them! Funny though, watched this Jawn at a sports bar live, and the fight had some drunk ass white boys getting their asses kicked because of the adrenaline rush! Fools thought they were them! :lol:
 

kes1111

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
I went to the last Jones/Tarver fight...and that one showed why it shouldn't be on the list.Tarver just had the tools to beat Roy at the time...they were not evenly matched compared to the other matchups
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