1986 - The Year Of The Upset

By Trussman66, a 606v2 forum member.

Lost quite a few things in 1986. A few girlfriends, a few Boxing bets to my brother, a few fights, the will to live at times. However for these Champions they lost much more and even worse it came completely out of the blue.


Jan 1986 - Samart Payakarun upsets the rock chinned great Lupe Pintor in the 5th round to win the 122 pound title in Bangkok. Pintor who had lost his belt on the scales earlier that day by coming in over the limit was an overwhelming favorite !!!. Payakarun considered to be one of the best Muay Thai boxers in history was thought to be no great shakes as a regular boxer but proved many wrong with a quality performance. He'd later surrender his title to Jeff Fenech and be forced to go into a Monastery for the disgaraceful way he lost the title.

Mar 1986 - Trevor Berbick upsets the 3/1 Heavyweight Champion Pinklon Thomas at the Riviera Hotel in Vegas. Thomas who'd just creamed Weaver and beat the respected Witherspoon was considered the number one Heavy and loved to let Larry Holmes know it. Berbick, who'd lost to the Cruiser ST Gordon sometime earlier was considered a no hope journeyman, beat the Zombie-fied Champion by majority..

Mar 1986 - Richie Sandoval the darling boy of Top rank loses his Bantamweight crown to Canizales on the Hagler-Mugabi card....Canizales who was shutout by Jeff Chandler was considered little more than a stepping stone to the good looking exciting Champion. Sandoval nearly died after being knocked down for the third time in the 7th round. Unfortunately another near victim of draining to make the weight. Sandoval never fought again. Canizales lost his belt in his first defence to the unheralded Pinango.

Apr 1986 - Crude slugger Dennis Andries outpoints the underachieving JB Williamson in London. Andries would be humiliated by Hearns in his second defence.

Apr 1986 - Spinks beats 2/1 favorite Holmes in their Vegas rematch. The smart money was with Holmes who most thought underestimated the former 175 pound champion. Promising an aggressive approach to the rematch many expected the blowout the first fight was meant to be. Many thought Holmes won but Spinks took a split. Holmes comments on Vegas judges being a bunch of drunks probably didn't help either

May 1986 - The great Wilfredo Gomez loses his 130 pound crown to the trial horse (21-9) Alfrdo Layne in Puerto Rico. Though Gomez was a sizeable favorite, Some insiders thought the three division champ was completely done and picked an upset. They were right. Layne has to be one of the worst champions in history.

June 1986 - Mcguigan loses to part time prize fighter Stevie Cruz in the Vegas heat. Huge underdog which spoilt a proposed unification clash with Zoomy Nelson. Mcguigan's original lumbering opponent Sosa was forced to pull out late and was replaced by a cagey boxer which probably didn't help. Neither did the weather.

June 1986 - Tyoshi Hamada knocks out big favorite Rene Arredondo in one round to win the 140 pound title. Hamada an unheralded fighter from the Orient was fighting at 140 for the first time. Arredondo would squash him in a rematch a few months later.

June 1986 - Evander Holyfield wins the Cruiserweight title in his 13th fight against the respected Qawi. Despite never going past 8 rounds and being a professional for less than a year and a half. Voted fight of the year by The ring magazine.

Sept 86 - P4p number one Curry loses to 6/1 underdog Honeyghan in Atlantic City...A proposed $10 million fight with Hagler goes down the river.

Sept 86 - 4/1 underdog Rosario upsets a potential million dollar showdown between Camacho and Bramble by blowing away the Rasta Man in two rounds in Miami.

Dec 86 - Big favorite Tim Witherspoon blows a 1.3 million fight against title and his WBA against former victim Bonecrusher Smith by getting stopped in one round in New York.

Dec 86 - Kronk favorite and gifted Southpaw Jimmy Paul loses comfortably to the unheralded strongman competitor from Alaska Greg Haugen in his IBF Lightweight title fight. Paul had just been KO magazine's pin up of the month and was being considered for a unification with Camacho in 87. Paul had impressed many with his upset of the unbeaten Robin Blake and his beatdown of cop turned fighter Harry Arroyo.


http://www.sportstitans.com/legends-from-the-golden-era-of-boxing/james_photo_2.jpg

'Lost quite a few things in 86' ... Your virginity to a Puerto Rican rent boy.

Certainly a few shocks that year. Was holy qawi seen as an upset? I know holy was green and had barely fought anyone with a pulse, but wasn't sure what the odds were. Hell of a fight regardless.

milkyboy wrote:'Lost quite a few things in 86' ... Your virginity to a Puerto Rican rent boy.

He was from Venezuela actually...  

By Trussman66, a 606v2 forum member.

He told me he was Mexican..

The last good England team went out of the World Cup to a cheat goal.

Next Q&A session should be with Truss.
Q.1) How do you see your career as a writer panning out? Having just made the step up from 'forum poster' you already have work published in a sports journal. What does the future hold for you and new career as a writer?

Q.2) So far when initiating a new topic, you have referred back to it as a 'thread', in line with what it actually is and what it is referred as in the world of internet forums. Will your stance on this matter remain or will you now refer to any 'New Topic' or thread as an 'article'?

Vanity fair next...Mate

Nice stuff again, Truss.

Had this debate with you before, I know, but it always surprises me how highly rated Bramble was before losing to Rosario. Well, not so much how he was rated, but how much of a huge favourite he was going in.

I love his two fights with Mancini, but both of them were life and death affairs and Ray had started to look a bit off-colour in the wake of the Duk Koo Kim tragedy. It's not as if Mancini was ever regarded as unbeatable, either, albeit he was for a short while probably the brightest star outside of the Heavyweights in the wake of Leonard's first retirement.

I'm not sure if it was Bramble being overrated after beating Crawley or Rosario being underrated and writted off too hastily....Probably a bit of both. Rosario proved he was more than just a big puncher in the Randall fight (although I had that one a draw, in fairness) and while his loss to Ramirez was devastating, the fact that he'd outscored Ramirez him as a young pup first time out,and almost had him out of there in the return before it got flipped on its head, suggests that such a result was probably the exception rather than the rule.

He lost to Camacho, still a wonderful talent at the time, by just a single point on my card as well. Seems crazy in retrospect to think that everyone was betting the house on Bramble.

Bloody hell Chris!!
Going to challenge myself and try to find 10 fights on Boxrec that you haven't watched lol.
You watch a fight a night or have a marathon sess at the weekend?

Tyrone Crawley upset a guy called I think Romero who was considered a future champion and great prospect...He was pickem against Bramble and was outclassed..

The fact his style was diametrically opposite to Mancini led many to believe Bramble could deal with anything. ....

Why he was a big favorite..

aja424 wrote:Bloody hell Chris!!
Going to challenge myself and try to find 10 fights on Boxrec that you haven't watched lol.
You watch a fight a night or have a marathon sess at the weekend?

Haha, still plenty on my 'to see' list, mate. If I've got any spare time where I've got literally nothing else worthwhile to do I'll usually stick an old fight on. Always liked watching the old timers as a couple of family members gave me decent-sized video collections when I was a kid....So when YouTube came about I basically ended up watching a haldful of fights from bygone eras each week.

Hence the reason why nobody ever believes that I've got a girlfriend, a loyal group of mates, a job and have been on plenty of holidays etc!

Been a while since I had a marathon Sess...

aja424 wrote:Bloody hell Chris!!
Going to challenge myself and try to find 10 fights on Boxrec that you haven't watched lol.
You watch a fight a night or have a marathon sess at the weekend?

I wouldn't bother trying. I've always suspected when reading posts on this site that Chris is the 606v2 Boxing equivalent of Rain Man.

The big advantage Chris has is that he's young enough to be able to remember the fights after he's watched them. Though he gets a bit confused re how good James toney was.

I've watched a stack of old fights but I'm buggered if I can remember who won them or who was actually fighting in them.

I didnt even notice the silent beating hagler gave Leonard either, although apparently I'm not the only one.

Don't know why I bothered really.

You entered a Marathon once though, didn't you Truss?

Chocolate and peanuts all over your piece, or so the boys down at the bar said.

To be honest, I could probably put up a couple dozen local fights Chris hasn't watched... But I wouldn't put anybody through a large majority of those bouts.

milkyboy wrote: I've watched a stack of old fights but I'm buggered if I can remember who won them or who was actually fighting in them.

That must be Brilliant.

"What you doing tonight Milky?"
"I've got Haggler v Hearns to watch. Gonna be great. Haggler's met his match this time".

88Chris05 wrote:You entered a Marathon once though, didn't you Truss?

Chocolate and peanuts all over your piece, or so the boys down at the bar said.

Must have eaten chocolate about five times in 25 years..

Enjoyed plenty of "Nuts" though !!!

DuransHorse wrote:

milkyboy wrote: I've watched a stack of old fights but I'm buggered if I can remember who won them or who was actually fighting in them.

That must be Brilliant.

"What you doing tonight Milky?"
"I've got Haggler v Hearns to watch.  Gonna be great.  Haggler's met his match this time".

It might sound ok duran, but for every hagler hearns there are probably 2  de Leon nelson's

Deleon looked exciting when Holy was smacking the crap out of him..

What a fantastic year of boxing. Several of those fights were shown here in the Uk on mainstream free TV.

Quite a few Holyfield Cruiser fights got aired - remember him demolishing Rickey Parkey in a unification fight.

I'm pretty sure Holy cleaned out Parkey in 87....

Because I'm sure he beat Tillman after Qawi..

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:I'm pretty sure Holy cleaned out Parkey in 87....

Because I'm sure he beat Tillman after Qawi..

Yes, it certainly was, just reminiscing about the decent fights we were getting on free TV here. Don't get diddly-squat nowadays.

I remember Thomas vs Berbick being shown on late night TV (BBC or ITV), on the weekend here, certainly wouldn't get that now. Was 11 at the time - looking at that list, that was boxings heyday as I remember it; superb fighters and fights. The heavier divisions certainly lacking these days.

I'm surprised Berbick-Thomas didn't make you run a mile from the sport..

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:I'm surprised Berbick-Thomas didn't make you run a mile from the sport..

Tony Tubbs monumental, title winning effort against Tim Witherspoon was enough to prepare me for Pinklon vs Trevor

I suppose being young and a Frank Bruno fan, it gave me hope watching these guys labour.

Tubbs beat Page......Who blew it and got knackered while he was dominating...

I must have been snoozing by the end of Tubbs vs Witherspoon, it was 'Terrible' that got the Majority decision after 15 rounds.

Never sure if he threw the Bonecrusher fight or was just in pathetic shape.

They went at a hell of a pace for 15 rounds though for two overweight guys....

Geez most of today's the heavies would have died after five rounds at the same pace these days..

milkyboy wrote:The big advantage Chris has is that he's young enough to be able to remember the fights after he's watched them. Though he gets a bit confused re how good James toney was.

I've watched a stack of old fights but I'm buggered if I can remember who won them or who was actually fighting in them.

I didnt even notice the silent beating hagler gave Leonard either, although apparently I'm not the only one.

Don't know why I bothered really.

I noticed.