15. Bernard Hopkins W 12 Antonio Tarver, June 10, 2006: Another lineal light heavyweight championship bout, this one saw 41-year-old former middleweight champ Hopkins score a knockdown and a lopsided points win as a 3-to-1 underdog. It was a rough year for Tarver against old guys from Philly, as six months later "Rocky Balboa" was released and the world watched Tarver barely eke out a win over an almost 60-year-old Italian Stallion.
14. Sergio Martinez KO 2 Paul Williams, November 20, 2010: This is in the conversation for most violent knockout ever recorded at Boardwalk Hall. Coming off their could-have-gone-either-way first fight, nobody expected a quickie KO here, but that’s exactly what we got thanks to a vicious left hand from middleweight champ Martinez that left Williams face down, eyes creepily wide open.
13. Miguel Cotto KO 7 Ricardo Torres, September 24, 2005: As wild a fight as Klitschko-Peter was, Cotto-Torres in the co-feature stole the show. It was 24-0 rising star Cotto against 28-0 banger Torres, and the Colombian made it a white-knuckler for Cotto fans the whole way. Torres hit the canvas in the first round, Cotto went down and very nearly out in the second, and back and forth they battled until the Puerto Rican landed the decisive left hook in round seven.
12. Bernard Hopkins W 12 Kelly Pavlik, November 18, 2008: Perhaps B-Hop’s greatest old-man magic trick of all, when he utterly befuddled the young-enough-to-be-his-son middleweight champ (in a catchweight, non-title fight). Fans came in fearing for the 43-year-old Hopkins’ health. Hopkins came out staring down every one of his doubters on press row.
11. Ray Mercer KO 5 Tommy Morrison, November 18, 1991: Boardwalk Hall sure is a dangerous place for on-screen Rocky Balboa rivals. The 22-year-old Morrison was on the fast track to heavyweight superstardom, but fellow unbeaten Mercer sent him careening off that track with a sickening assault in the fifth round – one that referee Tony Perez let go on several punches too long and that remained on KO highlight reels for decades to follow.
10. Oleg Maskaev KO 8 Hasim Rahman, November 6, 1999: We take a trip to the “small room” – Convention Hall as it was known at the time – for a heavyweight fight known for its wild finish. The heavily favored Rahman seemed comfortably ahead until a Maskaev right hand sent him flying through the ropes and nearly into Jim Lampley’s lap, an ending that sparked a mini-riot, complete with an airborne chair whacking alternate referee Steve Smoger in the noggin.
9. Derrick Jefferson KO 6 Maurice Harris, November 6, 1999: Maskaev and Rahman had a nearly impossible act to follow. In the co-feature on the HBO doubleheader, second-tier heavyweights Jefferson and Harris slugged it out in an instant classic that ended with 1999’s Knockout of the Year (yes, beating out Maskaev-Rahman) and Merchant famously declaring, “Derrick Jefferson, I love you!”
8. Joey Giardello W 15 dikk Tiger, December 7, 1963: The middleweight championship changed hands in this battle of Hall of Famers – the third of their four meetings – and it was a thriller down the stretch. Giardello, 33, was getting his second and presumably last title shot, not far from his hometown of Philadelphia, and he brought the partisan crowd to its feet with a late rally to secure the title in an upset.
7. Ivan Robinson W 10 Arturo Gatti, August 22, 1998: With all respect to Jefferson-Harris, this was the best all-around fight ever held in Boardwalk Hall’s ballroom, the 1998 Fight of the Year – and a major upset. Quick-fisted Philadelphian Robinson came ready to outbox Gatti but also let himself get dragged into a war. The final round packed classic Gatti drama, as a left hook had Robinson momentarily out on his feet, but the Jersey City slugger couldn’t quite complete this comeback.
6. Arturo Gatti KO 5 Gabriel Ruelas, October 4, 1997: In the co-feature to Lewis’ blink-and-you’ll-miss-it blowout of a panic-stricken Golota, Gatti and Ruelas gave the crowd its money’s worth and then some with the 1997 Fight of the Year. Gatti was nearly KO’d by an uppercut in the fourth – his
manager Pat Lynch told me last week that Arturo said it was the hardest he had ever been hit – but saved his title with a left hook in the fifth in typical Gatti fashion.
5. Kelly Pavlik KO 7 Jermain Taylor, September 29, 2007: In this heavily hyped showdown between young American middleweights, Pavlik had the referee he needed: Smoger, the king of giving boxers plenty of rope. Taylor had Pavlik flopping all over the ring in the second round and a lot of refs would have called it, but Smoger was hands-off and Pavlik recovered, came back, and claimed the lineal 160-pound championship with a combination of punches so lethal even Smoger knew it needed to be stopped.
4. Roberto Duran W 12 Iran Barkley, February 24, 1989: Years before Hopkins raised the bar on what it meant to turn back the clock, the 39-year-old Duran did the unthinkable, claiming a middleweight belt in a major upset – and an absolutely fabulous fight – in front of a delirious crowd that had braved a winter storm to get to the Boardwalk. A knockdown in the 11th sealed a dramatic split decision win for “Hands of Stone,” the last great win of a career that unfortunately stretched on for another dozen years.
3. Arturo Gatti W 10 Micky Ward, June 7, 2003: One last time on the list for Gatti, in the last chapter of his trilogy with Ward, the 2003 Fight of the Year. Boxing, slugging, drama, violence, broken hands, knockdowns, and one of the best final-bell embraces you’ll ever see – Gatti-Ward III was everything great about this sport crammed into 30 mesmerizing minutes.
2. Evander Holyfield W 12 George Foreman, April 19, 1991: Fights don’t come much more massive and marketable than “The Battle of the Ages,” and not only did this deliver at the box office and propel the pay-per-view industry forward, but it delivered in the ring as well – to the surprise of many. Holyfield had his hand raised at the end of 12 thrilling rounds. But Foreman enjoyed the ultimate moral victory as the 42-year-old proved definitively that his comeback was no joke.
1. Mike Tyson KO 1 Michael Spinks, June 27, 1988: It wasn’t the best fight in Boardwalk Hall history. In fact, some would say it was the worst – or at least the most disappointing, relative to expectations. But it was the biggest sporting event the building has ever welcomed, and nobody could possibly forget what they saw that night, even if it was all over in 91 seconds. In a fight to unify the lineal heavyweight title and all the alphabet belts, Tyson cemented his “Baddest Man on the Planet” reputation with a performance that ranks as probably the baddest ever on the Boardwalk.
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