Halloween Special: One Fighter Boxing's Top Stars Should Be Terrified of

Floyd Mayweather would be favored to win against almost any fighter in the world, as would the majority of men on this list. And let's be honest, it takes a lot to "terrify" a world-class prizefighter. 

But All Hallow's Eve is the night that doorways between worlds open up and strange powers walk the world of men. So from a matchmaking perspective, let's just say it opens up the possibilities.

To quote the great Rod Serling:

"

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call "The Twilight Zone."

"

So imagine boxing's biggest stars enjoying the holiday festivities tomorrow evening. Perhaps answering the door for trick or treaters or taking their own children out for the rounds. Or maybe squiring their significant other to a costume ball, or kicking it at a club with their crew. 

But suddenly a strange shift occurs in reality. They find themselves again in their familiar trunks and gloves. But nothing else feels familiar.

Suddenly, they are in a ring in an arena filled with swirling shadows. Across the ring, another fighter awaits...

Carl Froch: The Ghost of Harry Greb

As the eerie fog lifts from the ring, the United Kingdom's top active boxing star finds himself suddenly looking across the ring at a ghostly fighter with a handsome but battle-scarred face. The cocky grin on his face as he warms up looks oddly familiar to Carl Froch.

"Believe we might be cut from something of the same cloth," thinks Froch, as the bell rings. But as Harry Greb closes with his cyclone attack, Froch soon discovers that the stuff of Greb is one-of-a-kind material.

Carl Froch has never been a tough boxer to hit, relying on his phenomenal chin and conditioning. But against the fury of the ferocious Pittsburgh Windmill, even the stoutest structure of British steel is destined to collapse.

Guillermo Rigondeaux: A Zombie Sandy Saddler

As the great Cuban star studies the tall, lanky opponent across from him, he takes heart remembering all he has been through in life. He remembers braving the open ocean in a speed boat to escape Castro, leaving everything familiar behind him.

This is just another opponent, thinks Guillermo Rigondeaux. And he's faced many hundreds of them. When the bell rings, this one even seems slow and plodding.

But he's relentless. He forces clinches and bumps with his shoulders. He leans heavily on the smaller Rigondeaux and laces the Cuban's eyes with his gloves.

When he manages to cut off the ring finally and land a punch, it's power that Rigondeaux has never felt, anywhere in the world. The biggest puncher in the history of the featherweight division, Sandy Saddler, has been raised from the dead.

And it's only a matter of time before he chops Rigondeaux down.  

Marcos Maidana: A Demonic Fritzie Zivic

As the bell rings, former Argentine street tough and welterweight contender Marcos Maidana has still yet to betray fear. When you've been through what he has, you don't scare easily.

But as the snarling, dark-haired demonic entity closes into range behind a big lead hook, Maidana realizes he's facing an opponent who can match his own dirty tricks and surpass them. The hook only grazes him, but on the follow through, the elbow drills Maidana solidly on the left cheek bone, opening a cut.

"I like the way you fight," snarls Fritzie Zivic, the one-time welterweight champion of the world and perhaps the dirtiest fighter to ever climb into the ring. "But tough kids like you were everywhere during the Great Depression, Chino. And we fought each other every month of the year." 

Andre Ward: The Ghost of Ezzard Charles

As the undefeated super middleweight star Andre Ward studies the ghostly apparition warming up in the corner across the ring from him, he knows he is watching a fighter who fully understands the craft. As the bell rings and the two move to the center of the ring, Ezzard Charles begins to work from the outside, behind his jab.

Ward slips a punch and pushes forward, trying to apply pressure. But the ghostly Charles slips back smoothly and stings the living fighter with a straight right, thrown from the back foot. The left hook comes directly after, as Charles shifts his weight forward, to his lead left foot.

"You've got the skills, young man," Charles whispers, as he circles out and pumps another jab. "But the way I came up, having skills just meant they kept the champ hidden from you, year after year."

Gennady Golovkin: A Zombie Carlos Monzon

The zombie fighter comes forward to trade with Gennady Golovkin, like so many have before. But when the middleweight star from Kazakhstan unleashes a powerful right hand on Carlos Monzon, he does not see the same shocked look he long ago came to expect.

Instead, the Zombie version of the great Argentine champion simply picks up his pace and smiles. "I, too, once walked through the land of mortals, unleashing destruction," the ghastly smile seems to say.

"I, too, once made great fighters look ordinary. So hit me again, GGG, because I am ready to do this all night."

Saul Alvarez: A Ghoulish Carmen Basilio

There are no cheering crowds for the young, red-headed hero in this fight. Only the ring itself gives Saul Alvarez something familiar to focus on.

His stocky opponent across the ring wears the wrinkles and scars of countless ring wars. Even as the Ghoulish Carmen Basilio warms up with his shadow boxing, it is obvious he favors the big left hook down low, just like Canelo.

At the bell, both men climb right into the pocket to trade leather. "You're tough for a golden boy," grunts Basilio, in a clinch. "But we never thought much of golden boys in my day. And I had all those years in the hot sun of the onion fields to turn me tough."

Wladimir Klitschko: The Ghost of Joe Louis

The great heavyweight champion from the Ukraine watches his ghostly opponent warming up. Even though Wladimir Klitschko towers over him, the man is powerfully and athletically built, with a face that is as impossible to read as a slab of blank granite.

At the bell, Klitschko looks to establish his jab, but Joe Louis' stance offers no easy targets. With a crisp, sharp jab of his own, Louis slips inside and buzzes the larger man with a short right hand. Then, with a smooth step, he is back out of range.

All the confidence Klitschko has spent the past decade building up begins to slip from his mind like water through a sieve. The apparition has connected with the kind of power shot that has always been trouble for the younger Klitschko brother.

And Louis had done it with such ease, it seems obvious that he'll soon do it again.

Bernard Hopkins: Fellow Alien Archie Moore

As the product of an alien science experiment, light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins is familiar with passing through inter-dimensional doorways and bypassing the laws of normal space and time. He has made a career out of it.

"I've been here before," he says out loud, as he finds himself in the mysterious twilight-zone ring.

"So've I, brother," says a cheerful voice. Out of the shadows in the far corner of the ring emerges The Old Mongoose, Archie Moore. Like Hopkins, Moore was a light heavyweight champion into the later half of his 40s.  

"You know I was the prototype," says Moore, settling into his peekaboo crouch and moving forward. "Only they made me with more knockout power." 

Manny Pacquiao: A Demonic Henry Armstrong

Manny Pacquiao crosses himself and says a quiet prayer. The ring itself seems familiar. But the great Filipino champion realizes he has passed into a supernatural world.

The fighter warming up across from him moves like a whirlwind. It is Henry Armstrong, the only fighter in history to hold world titles in three divisions at the same time; a true, undisputed world champion, from 126 pounds all the way up to 147.

"Homicide Hank, that's what they called me," the demonic fighter boasts, closing into the center of the ring. "I was made for this Halloween stuff."

As the bell rings, there is nothing left for Pacquiao to do but try desperately to match Armstrong's furious pace and keep up.

Floyd Mayweather: Sugar Ray Robinson

He has grown up in a boxing ring. The boxing ring has made Floyd Mayweather Jr. fabulously rich and world famous. He is reigning pound-for-pound king and the greatest fighter of his generation.

But this is not the ring at the MGM Grand or even the "dog house" at the Mayweather Boxing Club. This is no ordinary ring at all.

And the ghostly figure warming up across from him is no ordinary fighter. Graceful movement and bold swagger are the coin of Mayweather's realm. And he can recognize them coming in abundance from the apparition he is preparing to face.

"You're a pound-for-pound guy, sure," Sugar Ray Robinson crows in Floyd Mayweather's direction. "Of course, I'm the guy they invented pound-for-pound to describe."

"That 47-0 is pretty impressive too," Sugar Ray continues. "Of course, I won 91 in a row, between 1943 and 1951."

And with that the bell rings, and Robinson moves forward and into range.