LAS VEGAS – Whittling down the prized moments of prizefighting from 30 years inside the primary arena of the fight capital of the world is not an easy task, especially for someone who has been so close to all of the epic action.
So it took HBO’s longtime boxing voice Jim Lampley a minute when asked by his new professional home, PPV.com, to select the most memorable fights he has ever witnessed at Las Vegas’ famed MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The venue commemorates its 100th championship fight card Saturday night when WBA lightweight titleholder Gervonta “Tank” Davis (29-0, 27 KOs), of Baltimore, defends his belt against Frank Martin (18-0, 12 KOs) in the pay-per-view main event.
The card also includes unbeaten David Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) moving up to light heavyweight to face former titlist Oleksandr Gvozdyk (20-1, 13 KOs).
The action will be hard-pressed to crack Lampley’s top-five list, which he shared with BoxingScene.
5. Shane Mosley vs. Oscar De La Hoya II, 2003: “I personally had the instinct that Oscar had been the aggressor, Oscar had pursued the issue more aggressively and that he deserved to win the fight,” Lampley said. “All three judges disagreed with me. The fascinating thing was, all three judges reached their same score, 115-113 Mosley, and if you looked at those scorecards, all three got to 115-113 by three entirely different formulas.”
The decision was so disputed that De La Hoya’s then-promoter Bob Arum said he would pursue an investigation, and De La Hoya was distraught.
In the post-fight press room, a De La Hoya publicist and a veteran reporter who previously had been friendly in their careers argued over the scoring and stepped toward each other, perhaps to throw blows.
Just then, a veteran television producer who was friendly with both left the company of a couple ladies of the night to separate the men and talk them down from their hostilities. When he turned to rejoin the women, they were both gone.
Later that night, the writer and publicist were seen laughing and enjoying each other’s company at a poolside party under cabanas at the MGM Grand pool.
The television producer approached the now-jovial friends and heatedly told them, “You guys owe me a blow job!”
4. Marco Antonio Barrera-Erik Morales III, 2004: “The third fight, I thought Barrera produced the signature performance of his career. Fantastic from start to finish to get a close decision and wind up beating Morales, edging the rivalry two out of three and becoming the signature boxer of his generation,” Lampley said.
3. Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto, 2009: This was Pacquiao’s first bout at welterweight, following his catchweight victory that retired De La Hoya.
Pacquiao knocked down Cotto early in the bout and finished him by TKO in the 12th.
“I was not certain until they stepped into the ring that Manny Pacquiao could genuinely compete with Miguel Cotto. Cotto was clearly the stronger, more physical specimen of the two. But at the end of the day, Manny was Manny. He was just as good as a welterweight as he had been as a 122-pounder and as a featherweight, and he beat Miguel in a great, great fight,” Lampley said.
2. Juan Manuel Marquez-Manny Pacquiao IV, 2012: As I told Lampley in our PPV.com chat, “You talk trilogy-plus … this was the plus.”
Marquez hadn’t knocked down Pacquiao once in their previous 36 rounds, but following a bitter defeat on the scorecards, he aligned with Angel “Memo” Heredia – a key figure in the BALCO performance-enhancing drugs scandal – and came back a far more muscular version, unleashing hellacious blows that dropped Pacquiao earlier in the bout and finished him horrifically, with some thinking the motionless Pacquiao was killed on the spot.
It’s No. 2 on Lampley’s list “because of the shocking knockout moment, which was one of the most breathtaking single moments I’ve ever seen in a boxing match. I’ll never forget my wife, Debra, was not the only person in the arena thinking that Manny was dead. The way he went to the canvas, the lightning shot that Marquez hit him [with], the amount of momentum they both brought to that physical confrontation of the moment. … She was not the only person in the arena who gasped, who lost their breath, who thought, ‘Oh, my God.’ It was a great fight and great illustration of the effectiveness of power counterpunching.”
1. George Foreman-Michael Moorer, 1994: Lampley was there to call the incredible knockout victory by his longtime broadcast partner Foreman, as 45-year-old “Big George” recaptured the heavyweight title he had lost nearly 20 years before to Muhamad Ali in the famed “Rumble in the Jungle,” and became the oldest heavyweight champion in history.
“We were close enough that I could ask [Foreman] very pointedly, ‘George, how are you going to beat Michael Moorer? Michael Moorer is a counterpuncher, a mover, a southpaw. What’s the plan?
“George said to me on every one of those occasions – never forget it, in exactly these words – ‘You watch, Jim. There will come a moment late in the fight, he will come in front of me and let me knock him out.’
“And if you go back and look at the YouTube video, it’s uncanny because that’s exactly what happens. He got Moorer to move over in position, where he could step up and throw a jab with a right hand behind it. Straight from the shoulder, no arc. And he knocked him out.”
Lampley’s legendary call was, “It happened.”
“The ‘it happened’ was a response to the fact he had told me how this was going to happen.”
Amazing memories, with more to come starting Saturday night.
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