Saturday night brought a special landmark for American broadcaster HBO with them screening their 1000th live fight on the undercard of the Timothy Bradley versus Jessie Vargas show in California. In 42 years of pioneering coverage, HBO has very much set the standard and created an iconic product fans know and enjoy.
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Whether it’s Michael Buffer’s trademark work on the microphone, Jim Lampley’s shot-calling, the colour of Larry Merchant, the late, great Manny Steward’s silky contributions or Harold Lederman’s round by round scoring, it’s a format we’ve all embraced.
They have also shown some of the greatest fights the sport has ever witnessed, so below we have picked out some of our favourites. This is by no means an attempt to rank the best ever HBO bouts, just homage to the ones we have enjoyed over the years.
MORALES v PACQUIAO I
19.03.05, MGM Grand, Las Vegas
If there are running themes to HBO’s packed archive then ‘the trilogy’ is one of them.
The first fight of Manny Pacquiao’s three with Erik Morales was easily the best. It caught fire early and both men grinned and grimaced with equal measure as an all-out war erupted. Morales was the epitome of the ‘boxer-puncher’, with his skills inextricably woven with his desire for a tear-up.
He tried to out-box Pacman but every time he was caught, his face contorted with a raging stare that tended to precede a sustained and violent response. That was Morales. Pacquiao was cut in the fifth and ‘El Terrible’ took over with the Mexican winning 115-113 on all three cards after 12 rounds of breathtaking action. Pacquiao would later beat Morales twice to edge the trilogy 2-1.
TRINIDAD v VARGAS
02.12.00, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas
Fernando Vargas was 20-0 (18KO) at the time, coming off the back of beating Winky Wright and viewed as one of the best up and comers in the sport. Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad, the pride of Puerto Rico was 38-0.
With both men putting their respective light-middleweight titles on the line, the stakes were high between two big punchers.
Tito came out firing and floored a nervy Vargas twice in the first round. The Aztec Warrior worked his way back into the fight and then decked Tito with a massive left hook in the fourth. Both had points taken off for low blows in a ferocious war, which Trinidad won by TKO after flooring Vargas twice more in the 12th round.
LEWIS v VITALI KLITSCHKO
21.06.03 Staples Center, Los Angeles
A hugely underrated heavyweight title fight. Lennox Lewis won it after six rounds with Vitali having suffered a grotesque cut. Lewis was fat and ill-prepared yet still managed to beat a man who, after that night, barely lost a round for the rest of his career. It says a lot about how good Lewis was – even if he was given a very tough time in a brutal back-and-forth fight which is definitely worth revisiting if you haven’t seen it for some time.
HAMED v SANCHEZ
19.08.00, Foxwoods, Connecticut
Everyone talks about Prince Naseem’s fight with Kevin Kelley, but his bout with the big punching yet vulnerable Augie Sanchez was almost as compelling. Sanchez rocked Hamed repeatedly before the Prince produced perhaps the biggest KO punch of his career to get out of trouble in the fourth. The warning signs were clearly there ahead of his subsequent loss to Marco Antonio Barrera.
MORALES v BARRERA I
19.02.00, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas
You can quite easily make a case for this bitter Mexican feud being the greatest trilogy in boxing history. Morales and Barrera loathed each other. There was a press conference brawl, much unapologetic trash talking and every minute they shared in the ring was electric.
Morales won the first fight with a contentious split decision but then lost their next two meetings. The first (2000) and third (2004) meetings both won Ring Magazine’s Fight of the Year.
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