The best-ever performances from fighters making their world title fight debut?

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How do, fellas?

The Salvador Sanchez versus Naseem Hamed thread the other day got me on to thinking about a couple of Sanchez's performances, in particular his absolute master class against Danny Lopez where he won the WBC Featherweight title. Sal was about as punch-perfect as you can get in that fight, and in terms of giving a fantastic example of how boxing should be done right across the board (counter punching, defence, stamina, combinations, focus - the lot) it's probably one of the most complete showings of his or any era.

Then I started thinking how impressive it was that Sanchez did all of that to a fearsome-hitting, tough and very experieced like Lopez so early in his career. He was barely 21, stepping up in class (the bookies weren't giving him much of a chance) and it was the first time he'd ever contested a world title - and yet he tore Lopez to shreds. I began to wonder if this might have been the best all-round performance / win of any fighter in history in their debut world title fight, and predictably plenty of other candidates started cropping up in my head.

So what the hell - I had a go at putting them in some kind of (rough, please remember that!) order. I'm only going on fights that I've seen with my own two eyes, so if there are any you feel I've missed, then let me know below, as well as picking the bones out of the order I've put them in. I've tried to give more or less equal importance to a) the quality of the actual performance, and b) the quality of the opponent. Other factors, like whether or not they were the underdog and how good a fight it was from a spectator point of view, have also been given a bit of consideration.

The greatest showings in debut world title fights!

1) Muhammad Ali beating Sonny Liston, 1964
2) Ray Leonard beating Wilfred Benitez, 1979
3) Salvador Sanchez beating Danny Lopez, 1980
4) George Foreman beating Joe Frazier, 1973
5) Frankie Randall beating Julio Cesar Chavez, 1994
6) Lionel Rose beating Mashiko 'Fighting' Harada, 1968
7) Michael Nunn beating Frank Tate, 1988
8) Carlos Monzon beating Nino Benvenuti, 1970
9) Lloyd Honeyghan beating Donald Curry, 1986
10) Ruben Olivares beating Lionel Rose, 1969
11) Wilfred Benitez beating Antonio Cervantes, 1976
12) Meldrick Taylor beating James 'Buddy' McGirt, 1988
13) Roberto Duran beating Ken Buchanan, 1972
14) Floyd Mayweather beating Genaro Hernandez, 1998
15) Jose Napoles beating Cutis Cokes, 1969
16) Andre Ward beating Mikkel Kessler, 2009
17) Young Corbett III beating Jackie Fields, 1933
18) Nonito Donaire beating Vic Darchinyan, 2007
19) Evander Holyfield beaing Dwight Muhammad Qawi, 1986
20) Livingstone Bramble beating Ray Mancini, 1984

Honourable mentions to Thomas Hearns hammering Pipino Cuevas in 1980, Naseem Hamed bedazzling Steve Robinson in 1995 and Hector Camacho overwhelming Rafael Limon in 1983.

If you've got any other suggestions of magical performances from fighters taking to the world title stage for the very first time, or if you want to query the order I've got the above in, then fire away lads. Cheers.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Rowley won't like this but I'm putting up one of my favorites...Gentleman Jim Corbett who people forget beat a legendary monster...Not only beat him but outclassed him..........Sure John L was a Boston boy and past his best...But it still took skill and bottle...

Peter Jackson would have done it sooner an better had the world been a fairer place/Sully not been such a ducker/racist

Eubank stopping Benn was pretty impressive. Despite all the hype around the fight, he wasn't expected to do so well under so much pressure