Underdogs outclassing Champions/heavy favorites !!!!

Probably the most shocking of victories is the unheralded underdog completely outclassing a champion or a heavy favorite....Seen a few in my time but here are some examples....

JOHNSON vs Jeffries..
ROSARIO vs Bramble
NUNN vs Tate
HINES vs Hilton

Almost felt like putting Taylor vs Chavez..

All completely one sided where the favorite didn't belong in the ring with the challenger or underdog...

Of course Hilton scored a couple of wild swinging knockdowns but lost the other 35 1/2 minutes of the fight...Bramble was one of my favorite fighters as well.....headed for a showdown with Hector at the time..

Any better examples........or more to add to the list??

Ricky Burns vs Graham Earl, Burns tenth pro fight.

Don't remember that one Galvy.......

Think Benitez was 17 when he beat Cervantes..

Honey v Curry.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Don't remember that one Galvy.......

Think Benitez was 17 when he beat Cervantes..

Yeah great achievement.

Holyfield-Tyson always springs to mind. Regardless of what revisionist history says, Tyson was expected to do away with the (seemingly) over the hill Holyfield with ease - instead, Holyfield won just about every minute of every round, bar a couple of tough moments, before stopping him in style.

Forrest-Mosley is another one. Mosley was deemed by some as the top man pound for pound, but Forrest mauled him all night and was on the brink of getting him out of there early, too. He turned what was supposed to be a one-sided beatdown totally on its head.

Thought of that but it was quite close wasn't it for the first half of it...

But Tyson was something like 8-1 so I guess at them odds you're probably right..

Was Leonard favorite against Benitez????

I'll throw one out from left field..

Pazienza was a big favorite for his rematch with Greg Haugen....and got an absolute schooling..

Can't believe you've not mentioned buster v Tyson.

That's a great shout, Truss.

A more obvious one - Tyson vs Douglas, of course.

Barrera against Hamed? Though not on the same scale..

John h Stracey v Carlos Palomino, Carlos who? battered Stracey massive underdog.

Douglas and Tyson is a little controversial..Did he make ten etc...

But I'll accept that one..cheers..

Barrera-Hamed is pretty close fists....He did kind of outbox him 8-4....

CONTENTIOUS one hey!!

Burns v Martinez

Ricky Burns is popular on here tonight...

Looks like he has a few fans on here..

Good point, Barrera didn't really outclass Hamed, but did outbox him.

Yeah Burns has been getting stacks of credit today! Lovely bloke, a good fighter, but short of being amongst the true elite, to my mind.

Katsidis had just had a one sided hammering hadn't he!!!!

So people shouldn't be too excited.

Two real beatings at the hands of Marquez and Guerrero - got to take a lot out of you.

Also, as I mentioned on another thread, Burns did move up rather than face Broner, the most legitimate challenge to him, after all. Fancied the shopworn, but still dangerous, Katsidis, as opposed to the young, unbeaten, hungry lion in Broner.

A very shrewd move, in hindsight.

spot on..

Randall v Chavez, not outclassing, but a massive upset no less, also put him down for the first time in his career.

Given we were talking about it before - Braddock-Baer

Fists of Fury wrote:Two real beatings at the hands of Marquez and Guerrero - got to take a lot out of you.

Also, as I mentioned on another thread, Burns did move up rather than face Broner, the most legitimate challenge to him, after all. Fancied the shopworn, but still dangerous, Katsidis, as opposed to the young, unbeaten, hungry lion in Broner.

How do you know this? He's never seemed an untruthful type so I believe he was struggling to make the weight at SFW, the guy is huge for a SFW as well to be honest and all the reports for the Nicky Cook fight was that he was basically starving himself to make the weight...

No to be honest I probably believe Ricky, he seems an honest guy and is very likeable...however, I'd question why he said he's be up for the Broner fight only to decide he had outgrown the weight just as it looked close to getting made. He obviously knew for some time that he was outgrowing the weight, why not say this earlier? I believe him, but I do think the emergence of Broner sped up the move somewhat, and fair play, as I imagine Broner would have taken him apart.

I imagine Broner would have beaten him also, the guy looks on another level to be honest... But if he realised he would definitely lose and part of it would be down to not being able to be in the best position to do it because he was struggling weight why not move up? He still took on a fight he was pretty heavy underdog for to be fair...

True, we can't knock him too much.

Fists of Fury wrote:No to be honest I probably believe Ricky, he seems an honest guy and is very likeable...however, I'd question why he said he's be up for the Broner fight only to decide he had outgrown the weight just as it looked close to getting made. He obviously knew for some time that he was outgrowing the weight, why not say this earlier? I believe him, but I do think the emergence of Broner sped up the move somewhat, and fair play, as I imagine Broner would have taken him apart.

He had been saying for a while Fists that he would be moving up, well before the Cook fight.

The Galveston Giant wrote:

Fists of Fury wrote:No to be honest I probably believe Ricky, he seems an honest guy and is very likeable...however, I'd question why he said he's be up for the Broner fight only to decide he had outgrown the weight just as it looked close to getting made. He obviously knew for some time that he was outgrowing the weight, why not say this earlier? I believe him, but I do think the emergence of Broner sped up the move somewhat, and fair play, as I imagine Broner would have taken him apart.

He had been saying for a while Fists that he would be moving up, well before the Cook fight.

Contrary to the impression I seemed to be giving on the other thread, I do really like Burns. He seems a top lad, honest and respectable, and he's a good boxer too, was impressed with the manner of his Kats win although I'll never get particularly excited by a powder-puff puncher.

However, the Broner point does still rankle me. It was the convenience/coincidence of the timing that, despite whether he may have mentioned moving up previously, he was still talking a good game at SFW yet shot up to LW as soon as Broner was made his mandatory. He's a big SFW as you say, and I could see him moving up anyway in 2-3 fights time, however in Broner hadn't been made his mandatory for the Warren belt I genuinely don't think he'd have moved up so soon.

Foreman v Frazier 1

The undefeated heavyweight champ, slayer of Ali taking an absolute pummeling.

Wasn't Willard meant to walk over Dempsey.

TopHat24/7 wrote:

The Galveston Giant wrote:

Fists of Fury wrote:No to be honest I probably believe Ricky, he seems an honest guy and is very likeable...however, I'd question why he said he's be up for the Broner fight only to decide he had outgrown the weight just as it looked close to getting made. He obviously knew for some time that he was outgrowing the weight, why not say this earlier? I believe him, but I do think the emergence of Broner sped up the move somewhat, and fair play, as I imagine Broner would have taken him apart.

He had been saying for a while Fists that he would be moving up, well before the Cook fight.

Contrary to the impression I seemed to be giving on the other thread, I do really like Burns. He seems a top lad, honest and respectable, and he's a good boxer too, was impressed with the manner of his Kats win although I'll never get particularly excited by a powder-puff puncher.

However, the Broner point does still rankle me. It was the convenience/coincidence of the timing that, despite whether he may have mentioned moving up previously, he was still talking a good game at SFW yet shot up to LW as soon as Broner was made his mandatory. He's a big SFW as you say, and I could see him moving up anyway in 2-3 fights time, however in Broner hadn't been made his mandatory for the Warren belt I genuinely don't think he'd have moved up so soon.

I agree, although i seriously think he could have only managed another fight or two at the weight before his performances were affected. I obviously thought he ducked Broner too but was more than happy when i realised he had been offered a fight with Katsidis at the weight above, and for me that challenge was just as tough, it's easy to look back now and think it wasn't but Ricky made Katsidis look the way he did in there. So i think he timed it perfect as he wouldn't have got as much credit off the general boxing fan for what could have been a tougher/just as tough fight.

Enough with Braddock and Baer...Braddock won because he clowned the title away..

Wasn't outclassed and Braddock wasn't great.

Marquez vs Pacquiao....just pick any fight

Ali v Liston. Masterclass by Ali. Massive underdog also.

Donaire vs Darchinyan

Juan Manual Lopez vs Ponce De Leon

For a couple more recently.

burns martinez is a good example of underdog outclassing champion, burns katsidis is not

Drago vs Creed

Knowsit17 wrote:Drago vs Creed

Creed was past it and semi retired.

azania wrote:

Knowsit17 wrote:Drago vs Creed

Creed was past it and semi retired.

Though still a heavy favourite, mainly due to fighting in his own back yard mind.

Knowsit17 wrote:

azania wrote:

Knowsit17 wrote:Drago vs Creed

Creed was past it and semi retired.

Though still a heavy favourite, mainly due to fighting in his own back yard mind.

Drago was also doing a Pacman?

Ali v Foreman
Spinks v Ali
Bramble v Mancini
Norris v SRL
Cruz v McGuigan

rocky/apollo creed

no one saw that one coming