Boxing: Best Heavyweight Slugfests of All Time (Video)

To kick off the New Year on the right note, I fished around YouTube and turned up 15 pretty handy heavyweight slugfests. 

As a byproduct of this quest, I've come to the conclusion that "Smokin'" Bert Cooper just might be the best pound-for-pound slugger I've ever seen. On what basis did I ascertain this?

 Strictly on the man being constitutionally incapable of having anything less than a war regardless of who he fought. Cooper either blows out his opponent or goes out on his sword. 

So we've gone back all the way to the 50's for crisp black-and-white heyday slugfests and boomeranged back to the modern era to watch Vitali Klitschko induce Lennox Lewis' retirement after a thrilling war that nearly had both fighters taken out at various moments. 

Hope you like some of what's included in the list. 

Bert Cooper vs. Michael Moorer

Within 30 seconds, Michael Moorer is dropped by a vicious series of shots.

The referee seems on the brink of stopping the fight. Moorer gets up and rallies to score a knockdown of his own against Cooper with two massive right hooks. 

Cooper and Moorer only get more determined to drop each other as the fights goes on. Cooper with the heavier fists, Moorer with the more deadly arsenal (those uppercuts are so nasty!). 

Moorer's final series to take out Cooper is yet another example of just how ferocious a finisher he was. 

Razor Ruddock vs. Tommy Morrison

Two of the most powerful punchers of the modern era of heavyweights, period.

Don't believe me?

Ray Mercer (one of the greatest chins ever) once claimed that nobody he faced over the course of his career had ever hit harder than Morrison.  

Razor Ruddock received a similar testimonial from none other than Mike Tyson, when Tyson said of Ruddock's power, "It's the hardest I've ever been hit." 

So Morrison and Ruddock are matched up, and pretty much the fight is reduced to who can land the bigger shot first. 

Lennox Lewis vs. Vitali Klitschko

These two heavyweights fighting together have more chemistry than almost any from the last 15 years.

While Lennox Lewis was on the tail end of his career, his skills and stature were such that he could dispatch nearly anyone he faced.

That all changed when a game and towering figure like Vitali Klitschko, hungry for the championship, refused to back down one inch against Lewis and nearly took the crown after landing some of the biggest shots Lewis ever received. 

What a shame they didn't square off earlier in their career and have the potential for several fights between them. Both fighters have such enormous power and ring intelligence while being eager to exact their will over the other.

More than anything, the pride of both fighters served to expose both to more and more risk with each passing moment. 

It was the only fight of Lewis' career where he ever found himself down on points.

David Tua vs. Ike Ibeabuchi

Ike "The President" Ibeabuchi remains one of the strangest cases in modern boxing after amassing a 20-0 record followed by a lengthy prison sentence that completely derailed his career.

Ibeabuci was 235 pounds, one of the heaviest hitters anyone ever saw, and capable of throwing more punches in a heavyweight fight than anyone in history (Tua and Ibeabuchi's fight set the record). 

So you have the brilliant lunatic in Ibeabuchi against the highly talented and incredibly lazy (I've spent some time with Tua's ex-trainer Ronnie Shields and it's hard not to smile remembering his head shaking talking about Tua's work habits) David Tua.

Both men are so primed for this fight they give it everything they have. Iron Man Triathlons have been completed that used up less calories than what these guys doled out swinging for the fences against each other. 

If you've never seen this match, you're in for a treat.

Ray Mercer vs. Tommy Morrison

One of the all-time most hideous and compelling series of punches impacting brain function concludes this fight with Morrison being slammed repeatedly.

About the only thing more arresting than watching the knockout is hearing Ray Mercer's ridicule of the officiating for allowing him to unleash so much punishment uninterrupted. "You could kill a guy!" he shouts.

Morrison was actually doing considerably well the first three rounds of the fight. But the deciding factor in the fight was that while Mercer's iron chin could take heaps of savage punishment, Morrison's whiskers had always been a little suspect. 

Such a brutal ending. Gee whiz. 

Evander Holyfield vs. Alex Stewart

Here's an obscure fight you might not have known even happened (I didn't remember it). And, even more bizarre, it happened twice. 

Alex Stewart was most known to me for being pulverized by Mike Tyson after doing everything but urinate himself in terror during the pre-fight introduction.

But Holyfield's lack of Tyson-like power and Stewart's earnestness led to two pretty decent slugfests. Holyfield took the first fight by TKO while winning a decision in the second.

Stewart has some impressive moments in both fights, landing his share of big shots. Pretty good rivalry, all things considered.   

Bert Cooper vs. Ray Mercer

"Smokin'" Bert Cooper is all over my list because the man is a machine!

Here Cooper is matched off against Ray Mercer and what follows is some epic action. Cooper throws as if his gloves were loaded with refrigerators.

Mercer seems to enjoy testing his chin against as much firepower as anyone can muster while throwing everything he has at Cooper. 

Tremendous slugfest. 

Hasim Rahman vs. Corrie Sanders

I wasn't aware that Ernest Hemingway clone Corrie Sanders ever fought against former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman. 

If you haven't watched any of the highlights of Corrie Sanders, you're in for some fun. The man is a huge puncher who seeks to dignify the majesty of each strand of hair on his mustache with every punch he throws and (nearly) manages to redeem it entirely.

Sanders has a slew of massive KOs against some big names (he destroyed the younger Klitschko, for example) while each of his four losses resulted from being stopped or knocked out himself. 

Hasim Rahman was a big enough puncher to be one of the fighters to stop Sanders. Rahman remains an underrated fighter for what he was able to achieve over the course of his career.

Regardless of being underrated, he was consistently an action fighter who brought the fight to his opponents wherever possible. 

These two match up nicely. 

Ron Lyle vs. Ernie Shavers

Arguably, you have two of boxing's biggest punchers of all time going at it in this contest. 

Neither fighter is an especially elegant practitioner of dispensing pain and brain damage, but it in no way infringes on the enjoyment of watching them unload the heavy artillery again and again. 

These guys both would have been amazing to have in any era, pitting the best of the heavyweight elite against their raw power to see where the chips land. 

Mike Tyson vs. Razor Ruddock

Mike Tyson said after his fight against Razor Ruddock he'd never been hit harder by anyone. 

In terms of being evenly matched (Tyson was most certainly on the slide in terms of interest and skills at this point, compared to his performance against Spinks), Tyson and Ruddock might make for the best fights of Tyson's career to watch in terms of competitiveness and chemistry with an opponent. 

Both the first fight between Ruddock and Tyson and the rematch are filled with action and the potential of a massive bomb landing and ending the fight. They both just keep launching thunderbolts at one another waiting to have one be fortunate enough to land. 

Tremendous slugfest. Tyson wasn't half as dangerous after his fights against Ruddock for the remainder of his career. 

Larry Holmes vs. Ken Norton

Round 15 of Larry Holmes and Ken Norton's war stands as one of the great rounds in heavyweight history. 

Stop reading and press play...

Joe Louis vs. Billy Conn

This video is a little more sweet than anyone deserves having the legendary Bert Sugar set the stage of a classic showdown between two all-time greats. 

Some great surprises in the fight, huge punishment dished out, and a great finish. Everything you want in a slugfest. 

Rocky Marciano vs. Jersey Joe Walcott

Rocky Marciano's career is a testament to everything he stood for as a man: giving it your all and never giving up. 

What a puncher. We're talking about a guy who was 5'10" and not much over 185 his entire career just smashing apart faces like pinatas.

And, more often than not, Marciano's crude and brutal attack was always at risk having his own face split open.

Marciano had all the ingredients of being one of the great sluggers of all time. He just happens to be one of the only ones with enough class to have walked away on top.  

Riddick Bowe vs. Evander Holyfield

The best round ever fought by two heavyweights, period. Perfectly matched. Neither boxer was ever the same after their three fights. 

If boxing was trying to offer a defense of why it's worth preserving, this round might be exhibit A.

George Foreman vs. Ron Lyle

Two monsters unloading bomb after bomb. Both fighters being dropped over and over again. The audience is hysterical. 

For many, this fight is the personification of a slugfest. 

Epic.