The era of Turki Al-Alshikh is now in full swing as major boxing cards continue to be announced and fans are finally granted their wish of the best fighting the best – for the most part.
Now, there is further excitement as these events begin to take place away from the Middle East and the announcement of Israil Madrimov vs. Terence Crawford has got the whole of the United States talking and claiming it could arguably be the greatest card to ever take place across the pond.
Here, we at Boxing Social have ranked what we believe to be the strongest cards to ever be staged in the United States of America.
5. Lennox Lewis (22-0) vs. Tony Tucker (48-1) – 8th May 1993
In fifth place we have opted for Lennox Lewis’s first defence of the WBC heavyweight title, where he was tasked with Tony Tucker (48-1), setting out to prove that he was a worthy champion after being awarded the belt outside of the ring – due to Riddick Bowe’s reluctance to face him.
Lewis would step up to the challenge and deliver a comfortable unanimous-decision victory over the American, dropping his opponent twice.
On the undercard, Gerald McClellan was crowned as WBC middleweight champion as he knocked out Julian Jackson, after the legendary Julio Cesar Chavez extended his record to 87-0 with a stoppage win over Terrence Alli in an eleventh defence of his belt.
Meanwhile, Chavez’s fellow 140lbs and former opponents Hector Camacho and Meldrick Taylor also appeared on the bill, each of whom were multi-divisional world champions.
4. Israil Madrimov (10-0-1) vs. Terence Crawford (40-0) – 3rd August 2024
We are positioning Madrimov-Crawford at a respectable fourth, although admittedly it will be easier to rank the event after it’s completion.
Terence Crawford will rightfully be respected as a great of the sport, after becoming the first man to be an undisputed four-belt champion in multiple divisions and finally defeating Errol Spence Jr in a performance that will be recommended as a must-watch for generations.
‘Bud’ will debut at super-welterweight in a WBA world title challenge against Madrimov, who is already being overlooked, but make no mistake – this is a tough affair for the American.
Elsewhere on the bill, we are sure to witness a thriller as Vergil Ortiz Jr. takes on Tim Tszyu in a fight that was on many people’s ‘must-see’ lists at the beginning of the year. The fact that this bout is on an undercard is absolutely insane.
Accompanying that potential fight of the year, is the return of unified heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr, whilst highly-rated David Morrell steps up to light-heavyweight for the first time, Isaac Cruz makes a first defence of his lightweight world title and amateur sensation Andy Cruz fights for the fourth time of his professional career.
3. Larry Holmes (31-0) vs. Earnie Shavers (59-7-1) II – 28th September 1979
If you are looking for high-profile names on a Don King card then Holmes-Shavers II is the ultimate event from the infamous promoter, featuring five Hall of Famer’s on the bill.
Holmes came close to losing his undefeated record in the main-event, being dropped for the second time in his career against the hard-hitting challenger, before rallying and scoring an eleventh-round TKO victory to defeat Shavers once again.
Before that, Puerto-Rican fan-favourite Wilfredo Gomez knocked out Carlos Mendoza to defend the WBC super-bantamweight crown, whilst ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard improved to 25-0 with a first-round knockout against Andy Price, each of those bouts coming after contests involving the iconic Roberto Duran and one of the greatest heavyweights to never win a world title – Jimmy Young.
2. Jack Dempsey (52-5-8) vs. Billy Miske II (52-11-16) – 6th September 1920
Pipped at the post is the card that was promoted as ‘Boxing’s Greatest Fight Card’ at the time and rightfully so, as Jack Dempsey defended the heavyweight world title against Billy Miske, less than two years after their original and disappointing six-rounder went the distance.
Dempsey would get the stoppage this time, dropping Miske for the first-time in his career and becoming the only man to ever knock him out when the fight was brought to an end in the third-round – a true testament of the power that ‘The Manassa Mauler’ was blessed with.
On the undercard Dempsey was joined by two of boxing’s all-time superstars, as the greatest heavyweight to never win a world title, Sam Langford, lost a controversial-decision to Bill Tate in what was the 227th professional outing of his career.
This performance was then followed by the appearance of the arguable pound-for-pound number one of all-time, Harry Greb, who won a decision of his own against Chuck Wiggins in his 189th bout.
1. Julio Chavez Jr (89-1-1) vs. Frankie Randall (49-2-1) – 7th May 1994
However, for our money Chavez-Randall II headlined the greatest card to ever grace the ‘Land of the Free’, as the Mexican hero bounced back to avenge the first defeat of his 91 fight career with a technical split-decision victory over Frankie Randall, topping a Don King card simply billed as “Revenge: The Rematches”, as four WBC world title clashes were run back for a second time.
Gerald McClennan knocked out Julian Jackson again, but this time in the opening round as he retained the WBC middleweight title, although that was the only result that matched the respective initial encounters.
Azumah Nelson would lose his WBC super-featherweight title to Jesse James Leija after drawing eight months previous, whilst Terry Norris won back in super-welterweight title by outpointing Simon Brown to claim revenge after being knocked out in their first meeting.
Meldrick Taylor would also appear on the card, as well as a fifth world title contest for the WBC minimumweight strap where Ricardo Lopez claimed a unanimous-decision over Kermin Guardia in a battle between two undefeated fighters who had featured in a combined 57 contests up until that point.
