Ken Buchanan 43–1 (16 KO) vs. Roberto Durán 28–0 (24 KO) was a professional boxing match contested on June 26, 1972, for the WBA and The Ring lightweight title.

In May 1972, it was announced that the reigning WBA lightweight champion would face the number-one ranked contender Roberto Durán in Madison Square Garden on June 26th, two days before Buchanan’s 27th birthday. Heavily anticipated, Buchanan was given a $125,000 purse, a then-record for a fighter in the lightweight division. Buchanan had first won the lightweight title in 1970 after defeating Durán’s countryman Ismael Laguna, the win propelled Buchanan into one of the boxing’s top fighters and he was named the top fighter of 1970 by the American Boxing Writers’ Association.[3] The 21-year old Durán, meanwhile, was a perfect 28–0 with all but four of his wins coming by knockout and had quickly established himself as a top contender.

The brazen Durán predicted he would knockout the champion out “in 9 rounds or less”, Buchanan however discredited Durán’s impressive record claiming none of the fighters he had beaten previously had been a top fighter asking, “Who’s He Beaten?’ He has a fair record, but he’s not fought anybody. He’s the No. 1 challenger, but who’s he beaten? He’s never fought anybody in the top ten. But the World Boxing Association told me I had to fight him because he’s the No. 1 challenger. As long as he’s legitimate, I’ll fight the man.”

Buchanan entered the fight as a slight 2–1 favorite. The fight drew a crowd of 18,821 and produced a gate of $223,901, a then-record for an indoor lightweight fight.

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Evander Holyfield vs. James Toney, billed as The War on October 4, was a professional boxing match contested on October 4, 2003.

n June 2003, it was announced that former 4-time world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield would face reigning IBF cruiserweight champion James Toney in a non-title bout set for October 4, 2003.

Holyfield’s previous fight had been a loss to Chris Byrd in an IBF heavyweight title fight. Following the loss, Holyfield had entered negotiations with promoter Don King to face then-WBA heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. Jones’ promoter claimed Holyfield was offered a $10 million purse, but negotiations fell through when Holyfield demanded an additional $2 million added on because he claimed King owed him such. After the proposed Holyfield–Jones fight fell through, Holyfield instead reached an agreement to face Toney.

Toney had won the IBF cruiserweight title in April by defeating Vassiliy Jirov, giving him his first major title since 1994 and making him a 3-division world champion as he had previously captured titles in both the middleweight and super middleweight divisions. Toney and his promoter Dan Goossen had agreed that if Toney beat Jirov for the cruiserweight title, then he could “do what he wanted.” After doing so, Toney then decided to move up to the heavyweight division.

Going in to the fight Holyfield was ranked as the 4th Heavyweight in the world by Ring magazine, as well as in the top 5 by both the WBC & IBF.

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Larry Holmes vs. Leon Spinks, billed as A Tribute to Joe Louis, was a professional boxing match contested on June 12, 1981, for the WBC and The Ring heavyweight championship.

Promoter Don King had hoped to pit reigning WBC heavyweight champion Larry Holmes against former undisputed heavyweight shortly after Holmes’ lopsided victory over an aging Muhammad Ali, announcing his plans in a press conference in late November 1980.
The WBC, however, recognized Gerry Cooney as their top ranked contender and chose not to elevate Spinks in their rankings to replace Cooney, temporarily delaying the fight. With Holmes and Cooney unable to come to terms, Holmes was instead matched up against Trevor Berbick, with King stating he was still working on a Holmes–Spinks title fight as a follow-up for Holmes should he defeat Berbick.

After Holmes defeated Berbick on April 11, 1981, his defense against Spinks was set. Originally the fight was to take place in Caesars Palace in the Las Vegas Valley on May 22, where seven of Holmes’ ten title fights had taken place, however, the fight was moved back to June 12 and the venue switched to Detroit after it was reported that both fighters wanted more time to prepare. King decided to belatedly dedicate the fight to the memory of Joe Louis, the great former heavyweight champion from Detroit, whom had died two months earlier after attending the Holmes–Berbick fight, with the fight taking place in his namesake arena.

Holmes was a 4 to 1 favorite going into the bout.

This was the first heavyweight title bout in Detroit since November 1970, when Joe Frazier knocked out light heavyweight champion Bob Foster in the second round at the Cobo Arena.

🎥 Credit: @VintageBoxingtm

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😡”No’ you’re gonna STOMP ON THEIR HEAD‼️”

Throwback to this absolute belter of an interview from ‘The Hayemaker’ David Haye.

Fresh off the announcement of the Derek Chisora fight – following the infamous brawl in Munich – Sky News’ Kay Burley quizzed the former world champion and tried to get him to apologise for his part in it.

Yeah, that wasn’t happening.🤣

#Throwback #Boxing #Funny #DavidHaye #Interview

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💨 Larry Holmes was ON SMOKE‼️ | #OnThisDay | 🆚 Leon Spinks 🥊

The ‘Easton Assassin’ was as fast with his tongue as he was with his shots 45 years ago today, decimating former world champion, Leon Spinks in just two rounds.

Following the fight, the WBC and RING champion was in no mood to deal with no.1 challenger, Gerry Cooney, as he declared. “If you bring him over here, I’m gonna SLAP HIS FACE‼️”

#Boxing #Throwback #LarryHolmes #Fight

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