Your Favourite Domestic Showdowns

My two favourite domestic fights of all time are:

Chris Eubank Vs. Michael Watson 2

Yes, the awful ending taints this fight, but for me this was just so intense it is without a shadow of a doubt one of my favourite fights of all time. Watson wanted to take revenge on what most people saw as a robbery for Eubank, though Chris denied it. For the first time ever, Watson seemed genuinely rattled by the decision and seemed genuinely riled up to inflict serious pain unto Eubank.

They both moved up to the Super Middleweight Division for this fight to fight for the vacant WBO SuperMiddleweight title and they let the carnage ensue.

It was punch for punch in the early rounds, but Watson just seemed to be doing that little bit more, going back and forth at a furious pace, but Watson appearing to dictate it just that little more. Eubank was generally a fighter who fought in spurts and counter punched. Eventually the pace seemed to catch up with them both, but Watson still seemed to have that bit extra and was surely ahead on the scorecards this time, Eubank went after Watson with one big last hurrah, and hurt Watson, but just seemed to run out of gas and Watson got right back ontop and knocked Eubank down, it all seemed over all seemed lost, until THAT uppercut. Quite possibly, one of the most unbelievable shots of all time, caught Watson bang on the chin and Watson went down. When he got back up, he looked virtually finished, when he came out for the next round there wa nothing there, the ref truly should have stopped the fight, there is no way he was in any fit state to continue. Watson was stopped after taking a barrage of punches on the ropes. Of course the terrible tragedies that occurred after the figtht overshadow the great fight, but for me it truly is one of the greatest ever domestic showdowns.

My second one perhaps might catch you by suprise, but it's a personal favourite of mine, Jaime Moore Vs. Matthew Macklin. Just a great fight that ebbed and flowed each way, met each other head on, but in the early rounds Macklin put so much intio the fight he was naturally going to start to gas towards the end, you didn't need to be an expert to realise it either. Moore relied on being tucked up, moving away and picking his moments. acklin was taking the early rounds on sheer workrate, but Moore was generally the one with the better cleaner work that was the more eye catching of the two. When the fight got further into the middle rounds both men were hurt, but both kept firing back. There seemed to be no quit in either of them, but the amount of work that Macklin put in early juststarted to catch up with him and Moore ended up taking the fight by the scruff of the neck and bossed Macklin aroudn the ring, the determination from Macklin was something to behold. He simply qwouldn't quit and even though he was virtually out on his feet he woudln't stop coming forwards and throwing punches. Eventually Moore landed a perfect left hand on Macklins chin who literally slumped and was finished. ONly in a small Leisure centre, but just a great domestic showdown.

Whats yours?

Macklin vs Moore
Moore vs Rhodes
Alexander vs Samuels

Tell you another cracker that was on an undercard, only lasted a few rounds but was just unbelivable while it lasted, Celo Renda Vs. Paul Samuels. What an absolute war with an unbelievable double knockdown.

Sad though it is, I was actually looking forward to Williams vs Skelton 2 and really enjoyed it on the night too (though not enough to want to watch it again! I am not that pathetic). The fact that Skelton did something unexpected like box made my night!!

Other than that, Eubanks vs Benn. Loved the rivalry

Sprott vs Skelton

Haskins vs Broadhurst

Only for the fact I was suffering from Insomnia at those times and these fights sorted that oroblem rrrrrrrrright out!!!!!!!!

I was about to say Reborn, I read the first one and was like, what?

Agree with Alex, the second Eubank Watson fight was incredible.

I havent seen it since it was on live but still remember it to this day.

Moore Rhodes was awesome. Have a lot of time for Ryan and was happy to see him win.

Renda vs Samuels was awesome too...

Anyone see the cut he got recently. Nasty.

Yeah, Moore Rhodes was incredible, actually thinking about it the fight was very much like Moore/Macklin, but this time Moore taking the role of Macklin. Great fight, remember watching that one live.

Selby vs Appleby was a decent oul scrap

If the ref had correctly issued a standing 8 count to Eubank the bell would have sounded. Who knows hot mike would have been were it not for that uppercut. I suspect he was probably injured prior to it landing.

I was at the fight but have never seen any replays. Great shout Alex.

In terms of ones that I've watched in retrospect, then it's Benn-Eubank I for me. Just an amazing fight.

But in my own time following the sport it's got to be either Moore-Rhodes or Moore-Macklin. Fantastic scraps. I really enjoyed Booth-Arthur a couple of years back at Super-Bantam, too, but then again I'm very biased towards Booth so I'm sure I enjoyed it a little more than others! Good fight whichever way you want to slice it, though.

Going back in time, the first one between Conteh and Finnegan was fantastic. Finnegan's straight right hand was giving Conteh plenty to think about but Conteh, really still just a kid at the time, put in a brilliant all-round display of textbook boxing to win the decision.

Moore-Rhodes and Eubank - Watson

I trained with Broadhurst for two years. I didn't catch the Haskins fight but believe me he was a really exciting amateur. Like a bull. I don't think he liked me much, even though he's an FB friend!

I've a funny story about Paul Samuels in the run up to the Celo Renda fight.

I had gone to St Josephs gym one evening with a couple of friends to do some light pad work, there were only a handfull of people downstairs. About 20 minutes or so passes we're left in the gym to our own devices where we hear screaming coming from upstairs (where the punch bags and another ring is situated).

All we can hear is the c-bomb being screamed and in succession with every punch. Thinking there was a mad man upstairs, we all run up to see what the fuss was, only to see a man with crazy hair and binbags on punching a heavy bag with what can only be described as the oldest gloves every seen... He turned to us and screamed "IT'S TIME BABY, IT'S TIME" and stormed to the shower.

None of us knew how long he was up there for and no one told us there was anyone else in the gym...

That man was Paul Samuel. 3 days after he beat Renda and I was gobsmacked throughout the entire fight that his man who I thought was a crazy person, was actually Paul Samuel.

great story SP

TheMackemMawler wrote:I trained with Broadhurst for two years. I didn't catch the Haskins fight but believe me he was a really exciting amateur. Like a bull. I don't think he liked me much, even though he's an FB friend!

Well believe those who watched it, it was brutal.

The fight went as follows....

Both circling the ring, both come forward and hug......every 10 seconds for 12 full rounds. Even the ref had to give them both a bit of a bolocking because the crowd were booing them both.

Although I would blame Haskins as he was the worst of the 2. Cant stand Haskins either

sounds sh......t

Can't believe I forgot this particular golden oldie, but in terms of great all-British (well, all-UK if we're going by the book!) fights then Jim Watt against Charlie Nash is a must-see.

Plenty of needle between them and their camps and the Glasgow crowd was really rooting for Nash's blood, not least because his very questionable decision win over Ken Buchanan a few months beforehand (even Harry Mullan, perhaps Nash's biggest fan, had the bout in Ken's favour) had robbed them of seeing a highly anticipated and talked up all-Scottish rematch between Watt and Buchanan for the WBC Lightweight belt.

Great set up, and a brilliant shoot-out of a fight.

Of recent years I would say Mitchell v Murray was great whilst it lasted.

Rowley wrote:Macklin vs Moore

Round 9 is immense

When Crolla was beaten by that guy who hangs around like a bad smell usually getting trashed......Derry Mathews..

Haha Truss you really aint a fan of his are you!?

eubank vs benn 1 for me. was the like the school bully finally getting shafted. if only eubank had shown the same hunger throughout his career he could have achieved a lot more

eubank watson 2 is not the most pleasant of watching for me. even though it was a fantastic fight

Kaylor v Errol Christie.

Ayers v Rigby 1 was a great domestic scrap!

Rowley wrote:Macklin vs Moore
Moore vs Rhodes
Alexander vs Samuels

Beat me to it Rowley was thinking of both Moore fights too

I think a real cracker that no-one seems to mention was Gary Mason against Lennox Lewis for the European & British heavyweight belts.

Both were unbeaten and were on the road to world title shots it seemed. There was no trash talk, just two good fighters going at it with belts at stake. They were both super confident and Mason gave his absolute all despite being outboxed by Lennox. His face was a mess at the end but he never gave up.

Strangely, although I have always been a Lewis fan, and expected him to win this fight, I was actually rooting for Mason. It was a shame one of them had to lose.

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:Selby vs Appleby was a decent oul scrap

Don't you mean Walsh?

Gilroy vs Caldwell.

I quite liked eubank Thompson fight didn't expect much at that stage of career but I remember enjoying it although I havnt seen it for about 15 years I will rewatch when I've time to see if It is

Eubank - thompson 1 and 2.
Both great fights with possibly the best ending for both fighters.

Imperial Ghosty wrote:

Rowley wrote:Macklin vs Moore
Moore vs Rhodes
Alexander vs Samuels

Beat me to it Rowley was thinking of both Moore fights too

There cannot be many more better value fighters than Jamie, his trilogy with Michael Jones produced some belters as well.

Buchanan v Watt was the most skilled all-British contest I ever saw; the two Jones-Laing fights were among the most exciting, alongside Conteh-Chris Finnegan I, Minter-Kevin Finnegan (any of them) and Eubank-Benn I. Perhaps the best at a less well-known level might have been George Feeney-Ray Cattouse for the British lightweight title back in the early 80s. Sensational action for 14 rounds and if it's still available on Youtube (and I think it is), would heartily recommend it to everyone.

muroe vs quigg the first time was a cracking fight while it lasted, unfortunatly muroe seems to have lost his confidence going into the second fight.

Moore v Rhodes was great. I really thought Rhodes was finished and Moore had plenty left. It turned out both were finished, but one last hurrah from Rhodes. For me it was the battle of the underachievers.

Mark Kaylor v Errol Christie no other domestic fight comes close, it is the only British fight i can think of that in terms of excitement could be spoke about in the same breath as Ward v Gatti.

... In a few good scraps kaylor... Roy gumbs, Sibbo