Fights where we didn't know a fighter was "shot" going in...

Chandler - Sandoval.

 

Conn v Louis 2 Haye v Bellew 2 . Williams v Ali?

 

Fenech - Nelson 2 is an excellent example.

 

Good example - there really was no indication that Chandler was done until the fight happened.

 

Is that a safe conclusion? He was disposed of before he could really show anything.

 

That's a good point, but I just feel like a non-shot Norton wouldn't have been blitzed and overwhelmed like that. Or it could just be that Cooney had a good strategy to go all out and not let Norton have a chance to do anything.

Just thinking about that fight makes me angry at the ref who should have stepped in earlier when Norton was defenseless and getting mauled.

 

Sonny got blackballed from the late 60's potential title fights.

 

Yeah, like it was Hearns who "shot him"...a crushing ko defeat like that can cause all the stars to align in your orbit mighty fast...and all of a sudden.

 

Manny Pacquiao-Oscar De La Hoya. We know De La Hoya was past his prime, but he was still the favorite and expected to be too big for Manny.

Glen Johnson-Roy Jones: Roy had gutted out a tough but fair win in the first Antonio Tarver fight, then got caught with a perfect shot in the rematch. Roy was expected to beat Johnson.

Cristano Espana-Meldrick Taylor: Taylor went from "past prime" to "shot" in this fight. There were definitely signs that Taylor was declining after the first JCC fight and leaving 140. He did look good against Aaron Davis when he won a WW title, but was dropped twice in his win over Glenwood Brown less than a year later. I guess his team saw the writing on the wall and cashed out and put him in there with Terry Norris. Just watch him in January 1992 against Brown and then October 1992 against Espana. Huge drop.

Terry Norris-Sugar Ray Leonard: We knew Leonard had declined, but not to THAT extent. He was expected to beat Norris.

 

Hatton said he literally had the worst training camp ever for Pac, in fact I'm sure I remember him saying he literally cried in his ring walk on the way to the ring under a towel. I'm going to try and dig out some sources for this as it might be me chatting bollocks, but I know there were major problems when he brought Floyd Sr in for the fight.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/17182090

Apologies, it wasn't during the ring walk. He had a break down two weeks before the fight, got put on his backside by one of his sparring partners and claims to have peaked to early. Considering Hatton's style of fighting and that he was into the 12th year of his career at the age of 30, which he spent predominantly at the same weight class, I think it's fair to assume that he wasn't far off a shot fighter at that point.

 

Fenech faced the real Azumah in the second fight. Not the one with malaria.

 

Anyone who saw Norton’s fight against Scott LeDoux knew Kenny was completely done.

 

Disagree, French was the same fighter as the first. Difference is, Nelson was not suffering from malaria and was in much better shape for the rematch

Nelson ruined fenech

 

Mike Alvarado for the second Rios fight was awful. I'm not sure if he was shot or doing meth, or both.