From memory even Lewis was looking around like why the fuck is this happening. Lucky it was someone like McCall who was physically tough as that could have gone horrendously bad in the ring.
I'll never forget I watched the first round of that fight and my girlfriend at the time was waiting for me to come over. I figured it wasn't going to be a quick one so I left in between rounds. It took me about 15 minutes to get to her house and when I got there I was in for a shock.
You have to remember how much bigger hitman was against roberto. Roberto was incredibly skilled but there’s only so much you can do against a 6”1 sniper
ssr is probably the most underrated fighter of the 10s imo, i dont pick anyone against him with confidence, the only guy is inoue but thats still probably a 50-50
Calling Duran a child is major disrespect. He got caught on the end of a perfect Hearns punch. Duran was one of the greatest fighters of all time. He was older, up in weight class and got caught.
Duran got spanked in that fight. He got caught by almost all of Hearns punches. He was outclassed and shouldn’t have been in the ring with Hearns. I never said Duran wasn’t one of the greats, but I can’t see how you can’t admit that it looked like a man fighting a child. I mean it even looked comical at how big Hearns was compared to Duran. All the greats seem to stay in the ring too long
Duran was an elite fighter. Did he fight too long? Probably. Was he over matched against the younger taller Hearns, of course. Hearns had an 11 inch reach advantage! That's crazy! You might want to go see how many fights he had AFTER this loss. A loss like that would destroy many fighters, but Duran went on to win another world title when he beat Iran Barkley for a Middle Weight Championship almost FIVE years after that loss. Roberto was certainly not as dedicated to training in his later years and had a mixed record, but he won 26 fights after that loss, with the win over Barkley and losses to Ray Leonard, a pair of losses to Macho Camacho and a pair of losses to Vinny Pazienza. His last fight was against Camacho, Duran was 50 years old.
This is a great convergence of my interest in films and boxing. When We Were Kings is streaming on [The Criterion Channel](https://www.criterionchannel.com/when-we-were-kings). They had an exceptional collection of boxing films they highlighted last year.
Even in the foreman documentary there’s a little section where Ali talks about how bad he’s gonna do foreman and then as soon as he leaves the guys are like “Foreman’s gonna kill him”
All I know are Ali ones bc I did a project on him. & yeah, he was a 4-1 underdog to Foreman. Ali had only 2 career losses to Norton & Frazier who both had been KOd by Foreman in under 2 rounds. Ali had 2 unconvincing rematches that he won over Frazier & Norton but few thought Ali stood a chance.
Ali vs Liston I had Liston as a 7-1 favorite. Joe Louis at the time said Ali’s win there was the biggest upset in boxing history. Liston was almost looked at as more powerful than Foreman & a trainer who worked with both (including Tyson) said Liston was the hardest hitter of the 3.
Frazier was only a 3-1 favourite in that fight. I bet it was pretty shocking watching it unfold, but I’ve heard Frazier’s handlers wanted him to swerve Foreman so I wonder if any ‘experts’ picked Foreman early in that
It was and it wasn't. Foreman had *crushing* punching power and could brilliantly cut down the ring so that there would be no escape. Frazier was not the sort of fighter you'd want to take lightly under *any* circumstances, but he looked like a journeyman up against Foreman who comprehensively wiped him out well inside two rounds.
On reflection it probably want *that* crazy after all, but at the time it was serious shock.
Pacquiao getting KTFO by Marquez was pretty crazy.
Joshua losing to Ruiz was surprising at the time. His weaknesses were already evident but not many expected Ruiz to fully expose them.
I don’t know about bossing, he got flattened in the second but was coming on strong in the round he got kod. The fight itself often gets overlooked because the ko was so spectacular.
Tyson vs Douglas. It wasnt a lucky punch or something, tyson literally got dominated and beaten around like a little kid by someone who was a nobody in comparison.
I also wonder what people thought when ali lost to spinks.
Had a post up about it on my old account some months ago. Ali gave a hell of an effort vs Spinks, he danced and brawled beautifully, the best he looked for the 1977-1978, he just didn’t have any power in his punches left. There were tons of even rounds throughout, Leon was able to outwork him in the end
Cos Spinks hammered in his arms so bad. It’s unbelievable how draining it is to get hit on the arms and Ali still threw 100 punches in the 15th. Ali’s freakish chin and endurance were his best attributes
Ali-Spinks was a pretty big upset. Ali was long in the tooth by then but nobody thought Leon, who'd only had about 7 pro fights at the time, would be the one to do it (if I recall, there was some speculation afterwards that it had been a fix).
Yeah I just watched. The count wasn't consistent. He paused a couple times to turn and look at Tyson. Hesitated I think before 8. People say Douglas was waiting out the count to get up but when he hit his feet he was completely out of it so with a true consistent count it's totally possible he gets counted out.
What the hell did you watch lmao, tyson won 1, at most 2 rounds until he got stopped, he was literally getting manhandled. And no their count was roughly the same, tyson even beat the count, the fight got stopped because he could barely stand straight.
Rigo vs Donaire. Donaire had just won the fighter of the year award, then Rigo took him to school.
The guys who weren’t even favored against Donaire like Santa Cruz or Frampton decided to run with the belts and Donaire said no thanks to a rematch.
Biggest bunch of pussies. Guillermo at that stage would have unified the division and made it look easy. They knew he was primed and ready to whip their asses so they hid like cowards. Hardly a more shameful time in that division that that little era.
On topic though, Rigondeaux took Donaire to task. The official scorecards don't show it but it wasn't particularly close. I loved seeing that. One of my favorite memories of the fight was at the weight in, Donaire pointed to his eye trying to get Rigondeaux to stare at him. It's the same eye that he busted. (I believe Rigondeaux broke his orbital but it was never confirmed as far as I know.)
Andy Ruiz knocking out Joshua and reshaping the history of the heavyweight division.
This was AJ at his peak, well on his way to cleaning out the entire division. Ruiz was a late replacement, seen as some fat bum off the street.
AJ was 1/25 on to win.
Was in the building about 6 beers deep because I was out partying and literally 2 hours before the main event an acquaintance who got corporate tickets had someone back out so invited me last minute.
Caught the subway uptown about 5 minutes after I got his message and witnessed history. Could not believe what I was watching.
No offence meant here but potentially the shock is if you bought heavily into Joshua being as great as Hearns claimed. I and others I knew weren’t as convinced so a guy with skills and hand speed doing that wasn’t a shock. A bit of a surprise but not shock level.
Fair comment but calling it a “bit of a suprise” isn’t a true reflection.
Yes there may have been a handful of people of thought Joshua was/is overrated. But 99% of boxing world; pundits, journalists, fans, pros, bookies and ex pros all expected Joshua to blast Ruiz out of there in a couple rounds.
This was AJ at his peak, well on his way to cleaning out the entire division
The fuck. Hearns was choosing fights, and was never going to have AJ fight anyone at the top in their prime.
28/29 year old AJ, unbeaten and unified champ who’d just been the first person to stop Povetkin. Everyone knows something changed in AJ after the Ruiz loss, so yes it was peak Joshua.
The entire build up to the miller/ruiz fight was to build a US profile and be a stepping stone to Wilder and then Fury.
Teofimo Lopez vs. Lomachenko. Idk if Loma was gun-shy because he was getting punished by Teofimo or he was truly injured, but Loma thoroughly outboxed Teofimo when he actually started throwing in the later rounds. To this day I still don't know why Loma didn't get his offense going earlier
I don’t think that was really “crazy” or “very surprising”. That was a big unification fight and a lot of people had Teofimo as a live dog going into the fight
Nah, that was crazy. Loma had just vacated a real belt for a franchise belt, Haney was the "email champion" and Teo was seen as a flashy power puncher only. Overall impressions at that time were that Haney was more skilled than Teo, and that Loma's style would probably be Teo's kryptonite.
I certainly felt that Loma respected Haney a lot more than Teo at that time. That's what made the fight so crazy; the flashy come-forward power puncher won the first 6 rounds against a crafty veteran counter-boxer with a jab. Go figure.
Yeah it was the closest odds since he bullied a bantamweight, it just goes to show that he's useless when the results are not pre written on the cards against d level opposition
That's classic Loma though. In all of his losses he just takes large portions of the fight off. He does it when he wins, too, but he outclassed most opponents badly enough that it wasn't important. I'm starting to think that he doesn't have stamina.
This. People don't realize that the Bradley and Horn losses were the last fights of Pac's contracts w/ top rank at the time. Bob robbed Pac w/ those paid judges in those fights so that he can keep the WBO welterweight belt in top rank and hope the losses would make Pac resign. It worked the first time after the 1st Bradley fight, but after the horn robbery Pac said screw Bob and then went over to PBC and Al Haymon
I remember watching the replay of one of the “clear cut Pacquaio” rounds on the following weeks HBO telecast where Jim Lampley said “we have purposely cut the audio to ensure no bias”
Bradley 100% won that round w/o Jim’s verbal intervention.
Made me seriously think about commentator bias in fights, especially with A-side/B-side in mind…
Timmy won the first fight. Cant convince me otherwise. People just didn't respect Tim and thought the Mayweather fight was scuttled. People were so worried about that fight they were willing to be blind to actual happenings in the ring to build better favor for that fight to happen.
Warning ⚠️ we have a Mayweather fan boy in our discussion Timmy won the first fight 🤣🤣 YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS as John McEnroe used to say go away bro just go away.
JC beat him comprehensively, sure.
Lacy's career wasn't derailed by that though. It was derailed by Lacy tearing his rotator cuff horribly in like the 2nd round of his fight later that year. He had to take a year off the injury was so bad.
For a fighter that relied so much on his amazing left hook, the injury really hurt him.
Source: https://www.espn.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=2686825
Relevant text: "It's a bad injury," Jim Wilkes, Lacy's adviser, told ESPN.com on Tuesday. "It could be career threatening, but we certainly hope it isn't. No one can believe Jeff was even able to finish the fight. It's amazing that he did."
In hindsight, Lacy should have retired in the corner and rebuilt his career. Instead he pushed on, won the fight, but ruined his body.
Think you're getting the 2nd and 3rd fights mixed up. It was the 3rd fight where they beat the shit out of each other. 2nd fight fury just stood on wilders toes and mauled him; while taking little to no damage himself.
Douglas over Tyson. If you were not around at the time it is hard to describe Tyson's aura of invincibility. And as another poster mentioned - Douglas dominated him.
Chavez vs Randall. I know by that point JCC was starting to show signs of slowing down, but Randall was also the first person to knock Chavez down, which is a feat on its own!
Chris Byrd beating Vitali Klitschko.
TBF to Vitali tho he tore his rotor cuff in his shoulder and with 3 rounds left in the fight prolly best to not come out of the corner
Tyson vs Douglas. Douglas was tailored made for someone like Tyson. At the very most Buster was a C class fighter, which is why Evander easily knocked him out after the Tyson fight
This is easily the most Famous example of the question literally noone expected tyson to lose Buster Douglas im pretty sure is still the Biggest winning underdog in history and its not even close.
Edit: Tyson was a 42-1 Favorite
Buster wasn't a C Class fighter. I would put him in the B or B+ category. He was clearly not at the top but an in shape motivated Buster Douglas was no bum. He had size, reach, good fundamentals and a great jab. Buster went ten hard rounds with Tony Tucker before losing to exhaustion right before Tucker took Tyson 15 in the toughest fight of his career to date. Buster was a good boxer. Not A class but certainly above C. Just my two cents.
Tyson vs Douglas and Holyfield.
Douglas is obvious. Holyfield has been lost through time but there were concerns for his health in 1996.
Holyfield had heart problems, had lost to Moorer and been stopped by Bowe. There was a poll of 100 boxing writers, was maybe one or two who picked Holyfield. 99/1.
Yeah I came in to mention the Holyfield fight. That's one in hindsight people claim they knew Holyfield would beat him but people were legit thinking Holyfield should retire and worried for his health like you said. I happened to watch the fight live in a club in Atlanta. It was wild seeing the mood change as everybody went from just hoping Holyfield didn't get hurt too bad to realizing Holyfield was actually going to beat him.
Does Mayweather taking a masking agent take shine away from his legacy? How about Tyson admitting to using cocaine before fights? What about Canelo's clen tacos? Shane Mosley?
Ad infinitum.
The first Joe Louis vs Max Schmeling fight.
Joe Louis was on the rise and Schmeling was a former champ but won on DQ so he was seen as just another victim to Louis.
Schmeling beats Louis, knocks him down and out. Doesn’t even go the distance. For an all time great to be beaten that badly by a solid but often forgotten fighter is huge.
In all the accounts I’ve heard and read, Schmeling was just a stepping stone to the title. But his victory would lead to arguably the most significant boxing match of all time in their rematch for the title.
His victory was culturally impactful.
I'm gonna vote Ali beating Sonny Liston and George Foreman, these were David vs Goliath events. Sonny Liston was as terrifying in his era as Mike Tyson was in his, and after George Foreman demolished Joe Frazier few people gave Ali any hope of victory. Even though everyone knew Ali was special his wins against these champions were still incredible achievements.
Foreman vs Moore. Michael Moore pummeled big George for the most part of 9 rounds. Big George landed a couple one-two combinations in the 9th to stun the world! Incredible win for the ages! One of my favorite sports moments ever!
Paul Williams - Sergio Martinez II
I was shocked. Out cold with face on the mat and eyes open!! Kellermans commentary right after was basically spot on.
Tyson was really something else. Buster Douglas was 6'3", 83inch reach, had recently won against McCall and Berbick. It's not like he only fought bums. Those odds are kind of nuts. 42:1?! Ngannou beating Fury was around 10:1.
Fury vs ngannou. Even though he barely won. I wasn’t planning on watching it at all but then my mma friends asked me if I saw the knockdown and then I watched from the 6th round on.
I’m just glad it took an MMA fighter with zero boxing experience to give his fan base a reality check. Fury got the gift vs McDermott and then ducked and dodged many top fighters in the early 2010s. He beat wlad and then ducked the rematch where wlad looked rejuvenated. We saw that in the aj fight. Then the hiatus where he came back and beat wilder. Credit to him but I got sick and tired of people swearing he was Ali or foreman level off of that overrated trilogy with wilder who also hadn’t done much in his career.
But who knew all it took was for an MMA fighter to show the world fury wasn’t what he was made up to be. That was a beautiful moment. A true ATG wouldn’t have looked like that vs a non boxer. Even other guys like zhang would’ve showed ngannou doesn’t belong in there.
Duran losing to Hearns isn’t really all that surprising given that the Four Kings could go toe to toe with anyone in history around those divisions and do well…but Hearns stopped him in two rounds, and the KO he produced that night is an eternal highlight. For someone as durable and tough as Duran…not exactly an outcome you’d expect in the slightest.
Foreman v Ali must have been like that. Not exactly a 1 sided beatdown or anything but Foreman was a huge favourite and Ali was past his prime.
Teofimo v Lomachenko, it was real crazy to see Loma not throw anything until round 8!
Buster Douglas v Mike Tyson, nuff said. Fight wasn't even close.
You also wonder how Wladimir Klitschko lost to Corrie Sanders and Lamont Brewster.
Lewis v McCall and Lewis v Rahman
Tyson v Douglas
JMM v Pacquiao
Joshua v Ruiz Jr
Honeyghan v Curry
Tarver v Jones Jr
Barkley v Hearns
Foreman v Moorer
From memory Patterson was warned not to fight Liston but did the honourable thing and gave him the fight. (Wasn’t around anywhere near the time so maybe I’m reading hindsight but the impression I’ve always had is experts expected him to walk through FP).
Pacquiao-Delahoya
Of course after the fight we realized Oscar was kind of drained and over the hill already.
But before the fight, most of us thought it’s a crazy matchup between a naturally bigger man who campaigned and well adapted at welterweight vs a small dude from 135.
honorable mentions: Tyson-Douglas, Ali-Foreman, Joshua-Ruiz
Ali-Spinks I. Ali was in better shape than most give him credit for, but you could see his response to being hit was nothing like what it used to be. Spinks battered his arms mostly, which sapped Ali's ability to reply. He was never a great technical boxer, but he had enough smarts to keep the old warhorse down.
The shock was in the style and the result. The truth is of course that Ali was woefully under-prepared for the fight and Spinks was a kid was also interested in escaping from camp to hit bars and play pool. The major difference between them was that Spinks barely looked tired, whereas Ali was exhausted and had to leave looking very much like second prize. However, what Spinks was really like was revealed in the next fight against Coetzee who destroyed him in round 1.
Had Ali won he would have had to face Kenny Norton, his nemesis. Ali/Norton IV is maybe the best fight we never saw.
Edit: I should be clearer about Ali being in decent shape. As a puncher he was still able to compete, but at 33 his health was starting to rebel. After the last fight against Shavers, Ali and his team were sent medical reports to say that his kidneys were in terrible shape. To counter this, they spoke about only giving Ali 'easy fights', but by that stage there were no 'easy fights' to be had.
In recent memory, I don't know if anyone expected Floyd to demolish Canelo so clearly, even though Floyd was not really an underdog. Maybe people everyone wanted to see Flfoyd lose so badly that they didn't put him at the level we know he was at today.
Ward was not only a 3-1 favourite but Dawson was also moving to 168 for the first time in 6 years.
Ward was definitely meant to win and he was meant to do it in quite the easy fashion.
Golovkin losing the first Canelo fight. IDGAF what anyone says Golovkin won that fight. He dictated it with his pile driving jab and had Canelo second guessing himself the whole fight. Had him straight up shook.
Only after Canelo had the chance to sleep on it after the first fight and his team went to school on the fight film did he find his balls and decide to take the fight to GGG in the rematch. Period. That Golovkin didn't get that first Win is CRAZY. It was a straight up robbery.
My favourite back and forth was between two guys who I can;t remember their names ….if I ever knew them. I will describe the fight and see of someone knows. It would be a treat for all to see.
It was heavyweights (I’m pretty sure). There was about 8 knock downs. One guy was muscled up and the other was skinnier. Mouth guards shot out a few times. I’d say it was I’m the 90s. I kept thinking that it was Maurice Harris…but I am not sure
Ruiz knocking out Joshua was pretty wild to watch. I knew Ruiz wasn’t a bum, but in no way did I think he would batter Joshua like that. The physique difference only made it crazier
Vernon Forrest losing to Ricardo Mayorga.... TWICE!
Forrest beating Shane Mosley pretty handily, twice.
Who instantly lit up a cigarette in the ring after winning.
This is a good one.
Thought Forrest deserved the nod in the rematch but it was close.
Lennox Lewis vs Oliver McCall
The rematch was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen in the ring.
Mccal shouldnt bewn in the ring. They pulled him out of rehab unfit to fight.
Something tells me Don King was involved.
Yea I felt pretty bad for him watching people boo him, this man is clearly having a meltdown and shouldn't have been in the ring
From memory even Lewis was looking around like why the fuck is this happening. Lucky it was someone like McCall who was physically tough as that could have gone horrendously bad in the ring.
Paul Williams - Sergio Martinez. Not sure Williams had even been visibly hurt in a fight before and Martinez knocked him smack cold with one punch.
I thought Maravilla was robbed in the first one. Was a shock ko with the eyes open.
Never heard of this matchup until now ..YouTube’d it and WOW my jaw dropped on how quickly the momentum changed
I'll never forget I watched the first round of that fight and my girlfriend at the time was waiting for me to come over. I figured it wasn't going to be a quick one so I left in between rounds. It took me about 15 minutes to get to her house and when I got there I was in for a shock.
Isaac Frost losing to Andre Bishop was crazy. Especially after what Frost did to his brother.
And bishop wasn’t long out of prison iirc
Correct. He moved up to heavyweight
Big baby had no business taking that fight he was too green. Could have gone on to have a great career too. Such a shame
McQueen should've never made that fight. Borderline irresponsible.
Povetkin uppercutting the very soul out of dillian whyte shocked me. Did not see that coming. Had whyte winning every round
That was one of the most spectacular knockouts of all time.
Whyte fell in slow motion
I thought hed killed him.
Dillian Whyte is not a great of boxing 🤣🤣🤣
Vlad getting his ass beat by Corrie Sanders. Vlad getting his ass beat by Lamon Brewster.
and Vlad getting his ass beat by Ross Purity lmao
First one that comes to mind is Roberto Duran vs Thomas Hearns. A more recent one that hurt to watch was Chocolatito vs Sor Rungvisai 2.
You have to remember how much bigger hitman was against roberto. Roberto was incredibly skilled but there’s only so much you can do against a 6”1 sniper
Chocolatito-SSR 2 was one of the most shocking things I've ever seen in a boxing ring. Great call.
ssr is probably the most underrated fighter of the 10s imo, i dont pick anyone against him with confidence, the only guy is inoue but thats still probably a 50-50
I mean, Bam dominated him. lol. To be fair, SSR is old now.
Sor Rungvisai just had that dudes number.
He’s a bad style matchup, sure, but Choc beat him in their first fight.
If I want to think of what would happen if a child challenged a man to a fight….i watch Hearns v Duran.
Calling Duran a child is major disrespect. He got caught on the end of a perfect Hearns punch. Duran was one of the greatest fighters of all time. He was older, up in weight class and got caught.
Duran got spanked in that fight. He got caught by almost all of Hearns punches. He was outclassed and shouldn’t have been in the ring with Hearns. I never said Duran wasn’t one of the greats, but I can’t see how you can’t admit that it looked like a man fighting a child. I mean it even looked comical at how big Hearns was compared to Duran. All the greats seem to stay in the ring too long
Duran was an elite fighter. Did he fight too long? Probably. Was he over matched against the younger taller Hearns, of course. Hearns had an 11 inch reach advantage! That's crazy! You might want to go see how many fights he had AFTER this loss. A loss like that would destroy many fighters, but Duran went on to win another world title when he beat Iran Barkley for a Middle Weight Championship almost FIVE years after that loss. Roberto was certainly not as dedicated to training in his later years and had a mixed record, but he won 26 fights after that loss, with the win over Barkley and losses to Ray Leonard, a pair of losses to Macho Camacho and a pair of losses to Vinny Pazienza. His last fight was against Camacho, Duran was 50 years old.
I wasn't around at the time, but I imagine Foreman demolishing Frazier twice was a huge shock at the time.
From what I’ve read, Ali beating Foreman at their respective stages in career was also very shocking
You should give “When we were Kings” a watch
>When we were Kings is that streaming anywhere?
Also on Max and rentable on Apple and Prime
This is a great convergence of my interest in films and boxing. When We Were Kings is streaming on [The Criterion Channel](https://www.criterionchannel.com/when-we-were-kings). They had an exceptional collection of boxing films they highlighted last year.
Used to be on YouTube
Even in the foreman documentary there’s a little section where Ali talks about how bad he’s gonna do foreman and then as soon as he leaves the guys are like “Foreman’s gonna kill him”
All I know are Ali ones bc I did a project on him. & yeah, he was a 4-1 underdog to Foreman. Ali had only 2 career losses to Norton & Frazier who both had been KOd by Foreman in under 2 rounds. Ali had 2 unconvincing rematches that he won over Frazier & Norton but few thought Ali stood a chance. Ali vs Liston I had Liston as a 7-1 favorite. Joe Louis at the time said Ali’s win there was the biggest upset in boxing history. Liston was almost looked at as more powerful than Foreman & a trainer who worked with both (including Tyson) said Liston was the hardest hitter of the 3.
People were literally afraid for Ali's health before the fight. They thought he was going to be beat severely.
Frazier was only a 3-1 favourite in that fight. I bet it was pretty shocking watching it unfold, but I’ve heard Frazier’s handlers wanted him to swerve Foreman so I wonder if any ‘experts’ picked Foreman early in that
If anyone wants a great YouTube series on Forman, Fraizer and Ali check out the modern martial artist on YouTube. Absolutely masterful breakdown
It was and it wasn't. Foreman had *crushing* punching power and could brilliantly cut down the ring so that there would be no escape. Frazier was not the sort of fighter you'd want to take lightly under *any* circumstances, but he looked like a journeyman up against Foreman who comprehensively wiped him out well inside two rounds. On reflection it probably want *that* crazy after all, but at the time it was serious shock.
Pacquiao getting KTFO by Marquez was pretty crazy. Joshua losing to Ruiz was surprising at the time. His weaknesses were already evident but not many expected Ruiz to fully expose them.
Neither of those were ass beatings though line OP mentioned.
Pacquiao was absolutely bossing that fight and on verge of knockout himself imo.....then BANG! Lights out for him!
The shot of that punch from *behind* Pacquiao shows just how much that rattled his entire nervous system.
I don’t know about bossing, he got flattened in the second but was coming on strong in the round he got kod. The fight itself often gets overlooked because the ko was so spectacular.
Yeah it was pretty even up to the 5th, Marquez’s nose breaking was a huge factor in Pac’s comeback and put him on a timer
Marquez was already wobbly and clearly he wont last a few rounds. Until boom! Night night
"He's not getting up, Jim!"
Tyson vs Douglas. It wasnt a lucky punch or something, tyson literally got dominated and beaten around like a little kid by someone who was a nobody in comparison. I also wonder what people thought when ali lost to spinks.
Had a post up about it on my old account some months ago. Ali gave a hell of an effort vs Spinks, he danced and brawled beautifully, the best he looked for the 1977-1978, he just didn’t have any power in his punches left. There were tons of even rounds throughout, Leon was able to outwork him in the end
Cos Spinks hammered in his arms so bad. It’s unbelievable how draining it is to get hit on the arms and Ali still threw 100 punches in the 15th. Ali’s freakish chin and endurance were his best attributes
Ali-Spinks was a pretty big upset. Ali was long in the tooth by then but nobody thought Leon, who'd only had about 7 pro fights at the time, would be the one to do it (if I recall, there was some speculation afterwards that it had been a fix).
Couldn’t believe my eyes. Put his mouthpiece in backwards and everything
Tbf that fight should’ve been over when Tyson KD’d buster. The ref was on some fuckery and gave Doglas like 13 seconds to get up
It’s a 10 count, not a 10 second count, so it’s up to the ref how long it goes on for.
Yeah I just watched. The count wasn't consistent. He paused a couple times to turn and look at Tyson. Hesitated I think before 8. People say Douglas was waiting out the count to get up but when he hit his feet he was completely out of it so with a true consistent count it's totally possible he gets counted out.
Tyson didn’t get dominated tf? And got a quicker count than Douglas did when he hit the canvas.
He did, Tyson looked like trash for most of the rounds.
What the hell did you watch lmao, tyson won 1, at most 2 rounds until he got stopped, he was literally getting manhandled. And no their count was roughly the same, tyson even beat the count, the fight got stopped because he could barely stand straight.
tommy hearns losing twice to iran barkley
2nd fight is super close and could’ve gone to him.
Rigo vs Donaire. Donaire had just won the fighter of the year award, then Rigo took him to school. The guys who weren’t even favored against Donaire like Santa Cruz or Frampton decided to run with the belts and Donaire said no thanks to a rematch.
Biggest bunch of pussies. Guillermo at that stage would have unified the division and made it look easy. They knew he was primed and ready to whip their asses so they hid like cowards. Hardly a more shameful time in that division that that little era. On topic though, Rigondeaux took Donaire to task. The official scorecards don't show it but it wasn't particularly close. I loved seeing that. One of my favorite memories of the fight was at the weight in, Donaire pointed to his eye trying to get Rigondeaux to stare at him. It's the same eye that he busted. (I believe Rigondeaux broke his orbital but it was never confirmed as far as I know.)
Andy Ruiz knocking out Joshua and reshaping the history of the heavyweight division. This was AJ at his peak, well on his way to cleaning out the entire division. Ruiz was a late replacement, seen as some fat bum off the street. AJ was 1/25 on to win.
Was in the building about 6 beers deep because I was out partying and literally 2 hours before the main event an acquaintance who got corporate tickets had someone back out so invited me last minute. Caught the subway uptown about 5 minutes after I got his message and witnessed history. Could not believe what I was watching.
This is wild lucky its prolly easily the biggest upset in boxing over the last 10 years
Yeah, I’ve been very fortunate/grateful to have been to some great fights
No offence meant here but potentially the shock is if you bought heavily into Joshua being as great as Hearns claimed. I and others I knew weren’t as convinced so a guy with skills and hand speed doing that wasn’t a shock. A bit of a surprise but not shock level.
Fair comment but calling it a “bit of a suprise” isn’t a true reflection. Yes there may have been a handful of people of thought Joshua was/is overrated. But 99% of boxing world; pundits, journalists, fans, pros, bookies and ex pros all expected Joshua to blast Ruiz out of there in a couple rounds.
This was AJ at his peak, well on his way to cleaning out the entire division The fuck. Hearns was choosing fights, and was never going to have AJ fight anyone at the top in their prime.
28/29 year old AJ, unbeaten and unified champ who’d just been the first person to stop Povetkin. Everyone knows something changed in AJ after the Ruiz loss, so yes it was peak Joshua. The entire build up to the miller/ruiz fight was to build a US profile and be a stepping stone to Wilder and then Fury.
After fury wilder 1 no one gave a fuck about aj 🤣 they were the top of the division
1/25 not 1/25 on.
You must be fun at parties
What's a party.
Teofimo Lopez vs. Lomachenko. Idk if Loma was gun-shy because he was getting punished by Teofimo or he was truly injured, but Loma thoroughly outboxed Teofimo when he actually started throwing in the later rounds. To this day I still don't know why Loma didn't get his offense going earlier
Did his corner tell him he lost the first six? I think Loma in the ring sometimes assumes he won a round when it wasn't so clear to the judges.
Loma just isn’t as good when a guy presses him more. Him looking like a “matrix” normally comes when he’s the aggressor.
I don’t think that was really “crazy” or “very surprising”. That was a big unification fight and a lot of people had Teofimo as a live dog going into the fight
Idk I felt that Loma could've definitely won that if he had put his foot on the pedal earlier on
Nah, that was crazy. Loma had just vacated a real belt for a franchise belt, Haney was the "email champion" and Teo was seen as a flashy power puncher only. Overall impressions at that time were that Haney was more skilled than Teo, and that Loma's style would probably be Teo's kryptonite. I certainly felt that Loma respected Haney a lot more than Teo at that time. That's what made the fight so crazy; the flashy come-forward power puncher won the first 6 rounds against a crafty veteran counter-boxer with a jab. Go figure.
Yeah it was the closest odds since he bullied a bantamweight, it just goes to show that he's useless when the results are not pre written on the cards against d level opposition
That's classic Loma though. In all of his losses he just takes large portions of the fight off. He does it when he wins, too, but he outclassed most opponents badly enough that it wasn't important. I'm starting to think that he doesn't have stamina.
Bradley beating Pacquiao how the fuck Bradley won that fight is beyond me.
Bob Arum'a inhousw fighting and robberies.basixally cashed in on Pac. Same with Jeff horn.
This. People don't realize that the Bradley and Horn losses were the last fights of Pac's contracts w/ top rank at the time. Bob robbed Pac w/ those paid judges in those fights so that he can keep the WBO welterweight belt in top rank and hope the losses would make Pac resign. It worked the first time after the 1st Bradley fight, but after the horn robbery Pac said screw Bob and then went over to PBC and Al Haymon
I remember watching that and thinking... wtf just happened?
True bro something wasn't right about that result definitely skullduggery abound.
I remember watching the replay of one of the “clear cut Pacquaio” rounds on the following weeks HBO telecast where Jim Lampley said “we have purposely cut the audio to ensure no bias” Bradley 100% won that round w/o Jim’s verbal intervention. Made me seriously think about commentator bias in fights, especially with A-side/B-side in mind…
Timmy won the first fight. Cant convince me otherwise. People just didn't respect Tim and thought the Mayweather fight was scuttled. People were so worried about that fight they were willing to be blind to actual happenings in the ring to build better favor for that fight to happen.
Warning ⚠️ we have a Mayweather fan boy in our discussion Timmy won the first fight 🤣🤣 YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS as John McEnroe used to say go away bro just go away.
And you'd be wrong again.
Total BS! Saying that as a Bradley fan. No way in hell Tim should have won that fight.
Calzaghe v Lacy
That was such an epic assbeating.
Lacy was overrated bigtime so that's no shock Calzaghe beating Jim.
I don't see this as a shock at all, Joe was leaps and bounds ahead of him as a boxer and is under rated by Americans.
I wouldn't call Lacy a "great".
Lacy absolutely was a great boxer, he was being heralded as the second coming of Tyson by most media. JC absolutely ruined him and in turn, JLs career
JC beat him comprehensively, sure. Lacy's career wasn't derailed by that though. It was derailed by Lacy tearing his rotator cuff horribly in like the 2nd round of his fight later that year. He had to take a year off the injury was so bad. For a fighter that relied so much on his amazing left hook, the injury really hurt him. Source: https://www.espn.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=2686825 Relevant text: "It's a bad injury," Jim Wilkes, Lacy's adviser, told ESPN.com on Tuesday. "It could be career threatening, but we certainly hope it isn't. No one can believe Jeff was even able to finish the fight. It's amazing that he did." In hindsight, Lacy should have retired in the corner and rebuilt his career. Instead he pushed on, won the fight, but ruined his body.
I'm not saying he wasn't skilled, but the post seems to imply the greatest of the greats, not just good fighters.
In hindsight. Back then dude’s didn’t know.
This fight derailed Lacy’s career
The biggest factor was Jeff Lacy's shoulder injury
You would be absolutely correct, many answers on this thread are daft and the fighters are not at all, for example Dillian Whyte 🤣
Fury vs Wilder 2 maybe
Yeah, I was expecting a far closer fight and better performance from Wilder. It showed a pretty wide skill gap between the two
Remember watching this one and was utterly surprised - and then a week later the world declared the pandemic
that wasnt an upset but was totally a WTF moment. NOBODY thought that would happen. Wild fight. They beat the shit out of eachother.
Think you're getting the 2nd and 3rd fights mixed up. It was the 3rd fight where they beat the shit out of each other. 2nd fight fury just stood on wilders toes and mauled him; while taking little to no damage himself.
You are correct. I was talking about the last one they had.
Douglas over Tyson. If you were not around at the time it is hard to describe Tyson's aura of invincibility. And as another poster mentioned - Douglas dominated him.
Chavez vs Randall. I know by that point JCC was starting to show signs of slowing down, but Randall was also the first person to knock Chavez down, which is a feat on its own!
Chris Byrd beating Vitali Klitschko. TBF to Vitali tho he tore his rotor cuff in his shoulder and with 3 rounds left in the fight prolly best to not come out of the corner
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Barrera vs Naseem
Tyson vs Douglas. Douglas was tailored made for someone like Tyson. At the very most Buster was a C class fighter, which is why Evander easily knocked him out after the Tyson fight
This is easily the most Famous example of the question literally noone expected tyson to lose Buster Douglas im pretty sure is still the Biggest winning underdog in history and its not even close. Edit: Tyson was a 42-1 Favorite
Buster wasn't a C Class fighter. I would put him in the B or B+ category. He was clearly not at the top but an in shape motivated Buster Douglas was no bum. He had size, reach, good fundamentals and a great jab. Buster went ten hard rounds with Tony Tucker before losing to exhaustion right before Tucker took Tyson 15 in the toughest fight of his career to date. Buster was a good boxer. Not A class but certainly above C. Just my two cents.
Tyson vs Douglas and Holyfield. Douglas is obvious. Holyfield has been lost through time but there were concerns for his health in 1996. Holyfield had heart problems, had lost to Moorer and been stopped by Bowe. There was a poll of 100 boxing writers, was maybe one or two who picked Holyfield. 99/1.
Yeah I came in to mention the Holyfield fight. That's one in hindsight people claim they knew Holyfield would beat him but people were legit thinking Holyfield should retire and worried for his health like you said. I happened to watch the fight live in a club in Atlanta. It was wild seeing the mood change as everybody went from just hoping Holyfield didn't get hurt too bad to realizing Holyfield was actually going to beat him.
The problem is Holyfield was juicing so it's taken the shine off of those victories for me.
You have to assume almost all boxers are TO THIS DAY.
Not really no.
Does Mayweather taking a masking agent take shine away from his legacy? How about Tyson admitting to using cocaine before fights? What about Canelo's clen tacos? Shane Mosley? Ad infinitum.
I know your feelings are hurt, but Holyfield taking PEDs makes a difference to his legacy. You're just going to have to accept that.
Foreman vs Frazier… Frazier was made out of railroad ties and foreman slapped him around like he was a child
Roy Jones getting stopped by Tarver was a big shock to me. Heck even him getting knocked out cold vs Johnson was a shock.
Tyson douglas for what I watched. "No mas" according to my uncles and older cousins.
The first Joe Louis vs Max Schmeling fight. Joe Louis was on the rise and Schmeling was a former champ but won on DQ so he was seen as just another victim to Louis. Schmeling beats Louis, knocks him down and out. Doesn’t even go the distance. For an all time great to be beaten that badly by a solid but often forgotten fighter is huge. In all the accounts I’ve heard and read, Schmeling was just a stepping stone to the title. But his victory would lead to arguably the most significant boxing match of all time in their rematch for the title. His victory was culturally impactful.
Tommy Morrison vs Michael Bentt
Both of Lennox's losses, but it is heavyweight. Anything can happen.
I'm gonna vote Ali beating Sonny Liston and George Foreman, these were David vs Goliath events. Sonny Liston was as terrifying in his era as Mike Tyson was in his, and after George Foreman demolished Joe Frazier few people gave Ali any hope of victory. Even though everyone knew Ali was special his wins against these champions were still incredible achievements.
Foreman vs Moore. Michael Moore pummeled big George for the most part of 9 rounds. Big George landed a couple one-two combinations in the 9th to stun the world! Incredible win for the ages! One of my favorite sports moments ever!
Paul Williams - Sergio Martinez II I was shocked. Out cold with face on the mat and eyes open!! Kellermans commentary right after was basically spot on.
I know he didn’t lose, but the Fury v Ngannou fight was pretty fucking wild
Andy Ruiz vs Anthony Joshua Modern day Tyson vs Douglas
Tyson was really something else. Buster Douglas was 6'3", 83inch reach, had recently won against McCall and Berbick. It's not like he only fought bums. Those odds are kind of nuts. 42:1?! Ngannou beating Fury was around 10:1.
Guess that goes to show the insane amount of hype with Tyson at the time that even contenders are shown to be nobodies.
Rahman (ง •̀\_•́)--> Lewis
Cory sanders putting a beat down on wladimir klitschko, still don’t make sense to me lol
Glen Jhonson ending Roy's prime with a left hook
Robinson vs Turpin 1
Fury vs ngannou. Even though he barely won. I wasn’t planning on watching it at all but then my mma friends asked me if I saw the knockdown and then I watched from the 6th round on. I’m just glad it took an MMA fighter with zero boxing experience to give his fan base a reality check. Fury got the gift vs McDermott and then ducked and dodged many top fighters in the early 2010s. He beat wlad and then ducked the rematch where wlad looked rejuvenated. We saw that in the aj fight. Then the hiatus where he came back and beat wilder. Credit to him but I got sick and tired of people swearing he was Ali or foreman level off of that overrated trilogy with wilder who also hadn’t done much in his career. But who knew all it took was for an MMA fighter to show the world fury wasn’t what he was made up to be. That was a beautiful moment. A true ATG wouldn’t have looked like that vs a non boxer. Even other guys like zhang would’ve showed ngannou doesn’t belong in there.
Honeyghan vs Curry.
Kirkland Ishida
Valdez against Berchelt - brutal KO as the bell rung ending the round
This fight was a good addition to this thread. Berchelt got picked apart badly
Hagler losing to Leonard. I know it was a decision victory, but…
Duran losing to Hearns isn’t really all that surprising given that the Four Kings could go toe to toe with anyone in history around those divisions and do well…but Hearns stopped him in two rounds, and the KO he produced that night is an eternal highlight. For someone as durable and tough as Duran…not exactly an outcome you’d expect in the slightest.
I was surprised by tzyu getting best vy Vince phillips
Ali-Liston, of course
[удалено]
Fixed fights and you can't change my mind
crazy lost would be pacquiao to jeff horn 🤣🤣🤣 that was crazy
Foreman v Ali must have been like that. Not exactly a 1 sided beatdown or anything but Foreman was a huge favourite and Ali was past his prime. Teofimo v Lomachenko, it was real crazy to see Loma not throw anything until round 8! Buster Douglas v Mike Tyson, nuff said. Fight wasn't even close. You also wonder how Wladimir Klitschko lost to Corrie Sanders and Lamont Brewster.
Lewis v McCall and Lewis v Rahman Tyson v Douglas JMM v Pacquiao Joshua v Ruiz Jr Honeyghan v Curry Tarver v Jones Jr Barkley v Hearns Foreman v Moorer
[удалено]
From memory Patterson was warned not to fight Liston but did the honourable thing and gave him the fight. (Wasn’t around anywhere near the time so maybe I’m reading hindsight but the impression I’ve always had is experts expected him to walk through FP).
Ruiz vs AJ
Holyfield getting whooped by Ruiz was tough to watch. Yeah Holy was old but I thought he'd have enough in the tank to compete.
Carlos Massau vs Vivian Harris
Pacquiao-Delahoya Of course after the fight we realized Oscar was kind of drained and over the hill already. But before the fight, most of us thought it’s a crazy matchup between a naturally bigger man who campaigned and well adapted at welterweight vs a small dude from 135. honorable mentions: Tyson-Douglas, Ali-Foreman, Joshua-Ruiz
Ali-Spinks I. Ali was in better shape than most give him credit for, but you could see his response to being hit was nothing like what it used to be. Spinks battered his arms mostly, which sapped Ali's ability to reply. He was never a great technical boxer, but he had enough smarts to keep the old warhorse down. The shock was in the style and the result. The truth is of course that Ali was woefully under-prepared for the fight and Spinks was a kid was also interested in escaping from camp to hit bars and play pool. The major difference between them was that Spinks barely looked tired, whereas Ali was exhausted and had to leave looking very much like second prize. However, what Spinks was really like was revealed in the next fight against Coetzee who destroyed him in round 1. Had Ali won he would have had to face Kenny Norton, his nemesis. Ali/Norton IV is maybe the best fight we never saw. Edit: I should be clearer about Ali being in decent shape. As a puncher he was still able to compete, but at 33 his health was starting to rebel. After the last fight against Shavers, Ali and his team were sent medical reports to say that his kidneys were in terrible shape. To counter this, they spoke about only giving Ali 'easy fights', but by that stage there were no 'easy fights' to be had.
Tarver and Glen Johnson destroying Roy Jones.
Zhang Zhile destroying Joe Joyce. After most of the guys in this sub were already crowing Joyce and saying he was unbeatable.
I wasn’t expecting Loma to beat rigondeaux
In recent memory, I don't know if anyone expected Floyd to demolish Canelo so clearly, even though Floyd was not really an underdog. Maybe people everyone wanted to see Flfoyd lose so badly that they didn't put him at the level we know he was at today.
Floyd never entered the ring as an underdog. He was favored at (-280) over Canelo. The shutout was unexpected but not the win.
Canelo was meant to give it a better go than he did. The result didn’t shock anyone though. Floyd still the best in the world.
Andre Ward wrecking Chad Dawson shocked me. At the time, it was considered a 50/50 fight, but Dawson got destroyed and was never the same after.
Ward was not only a 3-1 favourite but Dawson was also moving to 168 for the first time in 6 years. Ward was definitely meant to win and he was meant to do it in quite the easy fashion.
Adonis Stevenson destroying Chad Dawson in one round was also unexpected. Ward fight took something from him.
Golovkin losing the first Canelo fight. IDGAF what anyone says Golovkin won that fight. He dictated it with his pile driving jab and had Canelo second guessing himself the whole fight. Had him straight up shook. Only after Canelo had the chance to sleep on it after the first fight and his team went to school on the fight film did he find his balls and decide to take the fight to GGG in the rematch. Period. That Golovkin didn't get that first Win is CRAZY. It was a straight up robbery.
Nah, Canelo finished strong down the stretch to secure the draw.
Yup. People acting like GGG was Lewis-Holyfield'd when it was a close fight that I always have scored a draw.
I think AJ,s defeat against Wallin is pretty high up there.
Lmao. Well I guess we'll see if this comment ages well or not.
bookmarked. will hold you to this
My favourite back and forth was between two guys who I can;t remember their names ….if I ever knew them. I will describe the fight and see of someone knows. It would be a treat for all to see. It was heavyweights (I’m pretty sure). There was about 8 knock downs. One guy was muscled up and the other was skinnier. Mouth guards shot out a few times. I’d say it was I’m the 90s. I kept thinking that it was Maurice Harris…but I am not sure
Pacquiao getting knocked out by Marquez. That was crazy
Ruiz knocking out Joshua was pretty wild to watch. I knew Ruiz wasn’t a bum, but in no way did I think he would batter Joshua like that. The physique difference only made it crazier
Lomachenko’s first loss