LEE ROY MURPHY w ko 12 CHISANDA MUTTI
October 19, 1985; Stade Louis II, Fontvieille, Monaco
FILMS are often inspired by real life but this cruiserweight cracker – quite possibly the best fight you’ve never seen – played out like a Rocky II remake. Chisanda Mutti started brightly, taking the fight to the IBF champion. In the ninth, Murphy is dropped and seemingly on the brink of defeat. By the 11th, it’s the challenger who is fading fast. Mutti takes a count and barely survives the session. Cue some truly insane drama in the last: Mutti, so exhausted he can barely stand, puts the last of his reserves into a big right hand. As it cracks off Murphy’s chin, Mutti is sent reeling by Murphy’s own booming right hand. Both men hit the deck simultaneously but it’s only the champion who manages to beat the referee’s count.
DID YOU KNOW? Mutti spent his final years in a state of physical and mental decay. It was reported he was showing Parkinson’s symptons when he died in the summer of 1995, aged just 38.
WATCH OUT FOR: What else but that one-in-a-million finish?
