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But few fights have ever produced an ending the likes of what happened on October 19, 1985 in Louis II Stadium in Monte Carlo when IBF cruiserweight champion Lee Roy Murphy defended his belt against Chisanda Mutti. It was a conclusion that stretched the bounds of reality and overshadowed what remains one of the greatest fights in divisional history.

The 27-year-old Murphy (22-0, 19 KO) was defending the belt he won via 14th round TKO of Marvin Camel for the second time while the 21-4-2 (15 KO) Mutti, 28, was making his first attempt at world honors. These were two men who had followed divergent paths to get to this point. Murphy was a decorated amateur who amassed a 157-17 record, winning the 1979 Golden Gloves at light heavyweight and earning a spot on the 1980 Olympic Team. But any dreams of gold were snuffed out when President Jimmy Carter ordered a boycott of the Moscow games to protest the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. This action prevented him – as well as teammates Richard Sandoval, Jackie Beard, Bernard Taylor, Joe Manley, Johnny Bumphus, Donald Curry, James Shuler, Charles Carter and James Broad – from showcasing their skills before a worldwide audience. They were also denied the opportunity to turn pro with the same network TV fanfare and financial reward bestowed upon members of the legendary 1976 American squad.

Instead, Murphy was relegated to building up his record around his hometown of Chicago. While he initially campaigned as a light heavyweight, the cruiserweight division promised a quicker route to a title shot. That career path paid off marvelously when he stopped Camel, and he solidified his claim to divisional supremacy by stopping Young Joe Louis (KO 12) in his first defense.

Mutti, a native of Zambia, had to come up the hard way, both in life and in boxing. Mutti was knocked out in nine rounds by Frank Lucas in his pro debut, and, depending on which source one consults, he lost a 15 round decision to top middleweight contender Tony Sibson in either his fourth or 16th pro fight. While he bowled over lesser competition, he was hot and cold when he stepped up. He lost a pair of fights to Lotte Mwale (KO by 13, L 12) but fought future cruiserweight champion Jeff Lampkin to a 10 round draw and defeated Jerry Celestine (KO 5) and future title challenger Tom Collins (W 8). He also entered the Murphy fight on a three-bout winning streak, with the victory over Collins being his most recent effort.

Murphy, 190, took the fight to the challenger early, backing him up with sharp right-lefts over Mutti's long jabs while also successfully cutting the distance between himself and the 188-pound challenger. He landed by far the harder and more accurate blows because he was able to slip underneath and effectively fire out of his crouch. Later in the round, Murphy's jab came into play as three of them snapped back the Zambian's head. Despite Mutti's strong one-two in the final minute, the first stanza clearly belonged to the champion.

The pattern continued in the opening moments of the second, but Mutti then served notice that he wouldn't be an easy mark as a snappy jab-hook-cross combo made Murphy grimace and back away. A left uppercut followed by a chopping right to the jaw buckled the champion's legs and a second right drove Murphy to the ropes. A hook-right forced Murphy to cover up, and Mutti blasted away with both hands. But instead of gunning for the knockout, Mutti methodically and purposefully picked his spots, showing the composure of an aspiring champion. Mutti smartly jabbed to the stomach to set up three overhand rights to the jaw, and after Murphy escaped from the ropes, Mutti bombed a hook to the ribs, a right to the jaw and a double hook to the head.

Murphy powered his way back to ring center and tried to launch a counterattack but his swings only disturbed the air as Mutti dashed away. Late in the round the pair exchanged hard jabs but just as the first round belonged to Murphy, the second was unquestionably Mutti's. At the bell, Murphy extended his glove in respect but Mutti slapped at it only grudgingly.

Told by his corner to "don't give him no room," Murphy came forward and found pay dirt with two jabs, a right and a cuffing hook in the opening moments of the third. Murphy also found the range with his jab as it regularly bounced off Mutti's face. But the challenger soon maneuvered Murphy to the ropes and cracked an overhand right along with another one a few seconds later at ring center. Each man mightily tried to impose the successful strategies employed in the first two rounds and the result was a fast-paced battle saturated with clean power punches set up by solid fundamentals. It was a fight that had something for both the connaisseur and the caveman that resides in every boxing fan, and with each passing second the pace and action gradually escalated past the norms of big men.

The normally staid crowd was riveted by the back-and-forth action as they continually buzzed and cheered whatever big punches found the target. An overhand right lead by Mutti got a rousing reaction and a second one snapped Murphy's head back. As Murphy rested on the ropes, Mutti dug hooks to the head and body and ripped a right to the side of the face. Murphy temporarily held him off with a right uppercut-left hook combination, but Mutti poked in a pair of jabs and followed them with a solid hook. A long overhand right nailed Murphy, igniting a fusillade of punches as Murphy leaned against the ropes. But Murphy still had enough of a response within him to convince the challenger to throttle down his attack for the final moments of the round.

Murphy began the fifth strongly as he jabbed repeatedly to Mutti's stomach and followed with a long right to the body. As he was doing so, however, Mutti made him pay with a stiff hook to the jaw. Despite the punishment he absorbed early in the fight, Murphy withstood it with oak-like solidity, and he sought to further prove his durability by dancing on his toes and firing hard jabs. As Murphy retreated to the ropes, Mutti nailed him with an overhand right but Murphy fought his way out of trouble with more stiff jabs to the belly. A wicked right and a follow-up hook pushed Murphy to the ropes but this time the champion gave as good as he got instead of letting Mutti tee off on him.

Still, Mutti was more than capable of dishing out punishment for as long as Murphy wanted to take it. Three hooks and a right caught Murphy and another right-left-right rattled his head. A left-right to the jaw buckled Murphy's knees moments later, after which he cranked hooks and rights to the head and body. Still, Murphy proved rawhide tough as he continued to work behind his jab, landing enough of them to convince Mutti he was not yet ready to be taken.

The pair throttled up the pace in the sixth, but Mutti again got the better of it as a pair of solid rights had him wavering to the safety of the ropes. Mutti tore into the champion for several harrowing moments but Murphy's stubbornness enabled him to endure and weather the wave. With the surge passed, Mutti was content to pick away with well-chosen bombs as Murphy tried to roll away and block the blows while punching just enough to keep Mutti honest. Late in the round, they moved to ring center and exchanged at close range but a rippling right prompted the champ to again move to the ropes for the balance of the session.

Murphy, sensing he was falling far behind on the scorecards, ratcheted up the aggression in the seventh as he plowed inside behind two rights to the ribs and snapping jabs when he darted to long range. Encouraged by his success, Murphy switched gears by going on his toes and gunning a right-left to the jaw and a light overhand right. The non-plussed Mutti took everything in stride and kept finding opportunities for his jabs and singular rights again and again. But any thoughts of a Murphy rally turned instantly with a pair of spring-loaded lead rights and a hook-right uppercut combo.

The champ repeated his pattern of going to the ropes whenever he found himself in difficulty, but this time Mutti continued to rip away with a wide array of punches to every available open spot. Murphy eventually worked his way off the ropes and pushed forward, catching Mutti with a long lead right and wobbling Mutti slightly with a hook to the jaw. But Mutti kept up the pressure by connecting with a right-left-right shortly before the bell.

The crowd heartily applauded the action, and why not? For a division originally created to accommodate too-fat light heavys and too-small heavyweights, this fight represented the best of both worlds – the power of the big boys and the speed of the smaller men. Both combatants were intent on inflicting damage in the eighth and both succeeded as they teed off on each other and continually traded the momentum. Neither man made much of an effort to evade the incoming bombs as they concentrated on loading up and letting the bullets scatter wherever they may.

But as evenly contested as the eighth was, that's how lopsided the ninth was. A sweeping hook stunned Murphy and made his body sway dangerously to the side. A follow-up nine-punch barrage persuaded Mutti that his time to become a champion had arrived and he pursued the crown like a hungry lion does with his choice of prey. With Murphy teetering on the ropes, Mutti unloaded 23 unanswered blows before the champion could conjure a reply.

Soon, the accumulated punishment became too much for even the stout hearted Murphy to bear without a break. A triple hook followed by a one-two staggered Murphy and caused him to turn away toward the ropes. Two cuffing hooks finally sent the champ crashing hard to the canvas, and Murphy, trying to regain his bearings on all fours, slowly rose at referee Larry Hazzard's count of eight. A monstrous right and two hooks spun Murphy's head and another chopping right found the temple. Murphy attempted to bull his way inside but the thicket of punches was too much to penetrate at first. Only when Mutti slowed his attack did Muraphy secure a saving but clumsy clinch.

Mutti again drove Murphy back with a four-punch flurry and it appeared the champ was running on fumes. A right and two hooks slammed home and a follow-up seven-punch salvo had him on the edge of extinction. It was by far the most convincing round by either man, and thoughts of a title change ran rampant.

Murphy knew he was in mortal danger of losing his crown, but he had enough resourcefulness to go back to what worked in the past. As the 10th opened, Murphy returned to jabbing to the body to soften up his foe, and just like before the ploy worked. Mutti, though a bit winded from his gigantic effort in the ninth, continued to plow forward and nail Murphy with big punches. A huge right sent Murphy backing across the ring, but the champ recovered quickly with several jabs, a sharp cross and a right uppercut-left hook combo.

Neither man knew it at the time, but a big turning point was at hand as Murphy’s tenacity was about to pay off in a dramatic way.

An overhand right and a cuffing hook sent Mutti falling into the ropes, and suddenly Mutti had the look of a wooden fighter. Though he was still firing away, his punches lacked their earlier precision and he no longer made the effort to execute defensive moves. Somehow, although Mutti had dished out far more punishment, the grueling pace had more of an effect on him than on Murphy.

Murphy started the 11th jabbing to the belly, which set up a jolting left-right-hook to the jaw that sent Mutti staggering across the ring. Mutti was tiring and Murphy knew it, but the challenger still had enough in the tank to stand and trade at ring center, and he was only slightly getting the worst of it. Mutti tried to breathe new life in his legs by bouncing up and down but a huge hook and a right cross did more to lift the challenger’s spirits.

With startling speed Mutti had reclaimed a measure of momentum as he landed two jabs, three hooks, two rights, a left uppercut and a final right. But just like before, Murphy waited for Mutti to wind down before pouncing with his own counterattack. And what an attack it would be.

It began with a counter right cross and a right uppercut and it ended with Mutti on the floor from a combination punch-trip. Hazzard counted the fall as a knockdown and Mutti made it to his feet by eight. Murphy went for it all and had Mutti all but out along the ropes. But Mutti leaned way back on the ropes and summoned the will not only to stay erect, but to fire back.

But Murphy was too strong for Mutti to hold off for long. A one-two and a double right snapped Mutti's head after which the champion moved in for the kill. But Mutti again turned the tables when a hook and a right to the temple made Murphy slump into the ropes. Both men stood on the precipice of victory and defeat simultaneously, each just a punch or two away from ending the fight, and as the bell rang Mutti had trouble finding his corner while Murphy trudged toward his. With three rounds remaining, this already action-packed bout was building toward an unforgettable crescendo.

Murphy began the 12th by getting into Mutti's chest but Mutti retreated to long range and just missed with a weary right to the head. Mutti's blows lacked steam, but his heart continued to propel him forward. Murphy answered a Mutti right with his own right and moved back toward the corner pad in the challenger's corner. As Mutti closed in, Murphy landed a scorching right uppercut, after which they exchanged a pair of hooks and crosses.

They were playing a dangerous game of "can you top this" as they traded at a furious pace while never straying far from the corner. A cuffing right threw Mutti of balance and a pair of jabs popped into Mutti's face.

And then it happened – one of the strangest yet most exciting ends ever seen in championship annals.

Mutti leaped at Murphy with a left and delivered a concussive right to the jaw. At that precise moment Murphy curled a side-winding right that caught Mutti perfectly on the point of the chin. Upon impact, Murphy's body slumped into the corner pad while Mutti's fell forward and then behind Murphy. The weight of Mutti's body pushed Murphy to the right and Mutti tried to keep himself upright by reaching out for Murphy. Instead both men fell to the floor along the ropes with Mutti landing atop Murphy before sliding to the floor.

In short, both men had just scored a legitimate knockdown of the other and found themselves a 10 count away from a double knockout.

Hazzard positioned himself between both men and began to count. Midway through, he used both hands to toll the count over each man while also moving his head side to side to keep tabs on both men’s progress. Murphy got to his feet at seven and stood in Mutti's corner, after which Hazzard turned his attention to Mutti, who was still on all fours. But the challenger could rise no further and at the moment Hazzard reached "ten," he waved the fight over with an appropriately dramatic flourish. At 1:53 of round 12, Murphy had retained his championship just seconds after suffering his own knockdown. And Murphy needed this miracle, for he trailed by three, four and four points on the scorecards entering the final round.

The movie "Rocky II" saw Rocky Balboa win the heavyweight title from Apollo Creed in this very same manner, and at the time critics blasted Sylvester Stallone’s screenplay for what they saw as an unrealistic and overly melodramatic conclusion. And now, half a world and half a decade later, this incredible scenario played itself out in actual championship competition, with the only difference being that the champion kept his crown instead of losing it.

The wonders of boxing, no matter how long the sport is permitted to exist, will never cease, and Murphy-Mutti is just another example of just how right that sentiment is.

Epilogue: Exactly six months after stopping Mutti, Murphy broke open an even fight with Dorcey Gaymon to win via ninth round KO. But six months after that Murphy ran out of magic as Rickey Parkey stopped him in round 10. Murphy never again fought for a title, and he retired at age 40 after launching a two-fight comeback in 1998 that saw him notch a pair of wins. His record stands at 30-4 with 23 knockouts.

Mutti's stirring challenge of Murphy earned him a fight with rising star Evander Holyfield five months later, but "The Real Deal" dispatched Mutti in three rounds. Mutti qualified for a shot at Parkey's IBF crown by knocking out Dave Russell in 11 rounds to win the Commonwealth title, and though Mutti again mounted a stiff challenge Parkey won in the 12th. Mutti went 1-3 in his next four fights before ending his career with a 12 round draw with Joseph Poto on July 1, 1989 at age 32. His career record is 23-9-3 with 17 knockouts.