Bigger upset at the time: Rahman-Lewis or Tarver-Jones?

Rahman vs Lewis.

Rahman was a solid, hard punching contender, but the lasting image of him going into this fight was him getting knocked out of the ring against Maskaev less than two years earlier. His vulnerabilities as a fighter included punch resistance and a penchant for suffering defensive lapses; and those weaknesses played directly to Lewis's strengths. Yeah, Lewis had been knocked out a few years earlier, but he had avenged that loss and was coming off a dominant victory over a well regarded flame thrower in David Tua.

The only thing that might have prevented someone for betting the house on Lewis was the news that he had apparently been shooting scenes for Ocean's 11 around the time of his training camp. Otherwise, there wasn't much reason to think the fight would be that competitive, let alone think a win for Rahman would be possible.

Meanwhile, RJJ had just managed to defeat Tarver the first time around by unpopular decision, and had taken a hiding in the rounds he dropped. Some of that was attributed to the weight cut, but the way the fight unfolded indicated that RJJ was always going to be troubled by a tall, skilled southpaw with severe power in his left. Jones getting waxed that early was obviously a shock, but Tarver had already proved that he could stay with Roy the first time around so it wasn't all that much of a surprise to me that he was able to improve on the result in the rematch.

 

Coming into the fight with Jones, he had avenged the loss to Harding by bouncing Eric off the mat three times, defeated former champ Reggie Johnson, stretched Chris Johnson, and then shut out Montell Griffin. He was in very good form and was the clear heir apparent to RJJ had the latter opted to stay at a higher weight. Having watched those fights, and having seen the way Roy struggled with a counter-punching Harding, I, at the very least, figured Tarver would be able to test Jones in a way that he hadn't been tested throughout much of his run at LH.

 

It's telling that Johnson-Jones won Upset of the Year in 2004, as opposed to Tarver-Jones II.

 

Pretty wide scorecard, imo. Had it 7-5 RJJ and you could certainly get to a draw.

Tarver had enough success with the jab to put RJJ on the ropes, and then hammered him when he was there. RJJ did score well to the body, but only won because he staged a rally in the last couple of rounds. Even then, it was one punch at a time for him the whole night. Roy looked pretty faded that evening.

 

The kids in my jr high school and the guys at my gym would imitate Roy Jones. They would try weaving their upper body, countering, and fighting with the hands down to throw quick hayemakers and hooks. 80% of them looked absolutely horrible but it made the fights entertaining, especially the guys at the bus stop.

Jones was on the cover of video games, rap albums, and was in the Matrix. He was perceived as invincible, Lewis was not.

I don't remember a single soul imitating Lennox Lewis or asking their coach how to fight like him.

I don't get how this is even a discussion. Odds don't mean anything if one fight was far bigger and more talked about than the other.

 

Umm....

 

I mean, Jones was the bigger star for sure. But the perceived gulf btx Tarver and Jones was less after the first fight than the gulf btx Lewis and Rahman. Lewis was coming off a string of wins that included victories over some guys with world-ending power, so the puncher's chance that Rahman had wasn't really considered that much of a chance at all.

 

For the 3rd time now, Lennox was not seen as invincible like Jones and people still expected Jones to take care of business in the rematch. The Tarver fight was perceived to be an off night against a decent opponent after a long career and weight draining from heavyweight, not an even matchup between equals like the Jones vs Toney or Ali vs Frazier was perceived.

The fact people didn't think much of Rahman or the odds being heavily against him does not change the fact it didn't make as much noise around the world as Tarver vs Jones--especially due to how incredibly brutal the Jones KO was. Jones was NOT perceived to be chinny and that if anything he might lose by decision, certainly not by savage KO. Lennox getting stopped was always in the back of people's minds due to the McCall KO. People WERE taking note of Lennox's weight gain, lack of focus playing chess, starring in movies, etc. Jones WAS focused and was in shape in spite of all the media attention, it's just that Tarver had his number.

When a fighter as popular as Jones loses at the peak of their career and there isn't a lack of focus/no injuries or anything wrong with them, it doubles the shock. Unlike Lennox who had been in several gruelling wars (2 intense battles with Holyfield, the McCall loss, controversial decision with Mercer that could have gone either way), he was approaching 40 and getting fat, etc. Jones barely had a mark on him and was making world ranked guys look like amateurs.

Y'all must have forgot lol.

 

I only brought up my school and the gym i trained at to highlight the Crystal clear difference in popularity between Jones and Lewis back then to anyone who had even a slight interest in boxing.

It wasn't just casuals tho. We aren't talking about a 90's Mike Tyson situation where many of the hardcore fans understood that he wasn't the same and wasn't beating the big boys of the division anymore. Only casual fans were shocked that he could lose to Lennox or Danny Williams but the writing was on the wall first with the Douglas KO and then emphatically after Holyfield humbled him.

Jones was thought of as invincible by respected journalists, reporters, writers, coaches, networks, other fighters, etc. Lennox was NOT. Jones was technically undefeated and hadnt had to struggle in hardly any fights other than Hopkins and Tarver, both of which he had won anyway. Lennox went life and death with several boxers and had at least 1 brutal ko loss BEFORE the Rahman fight.

My point about his popularity with the mainstream was just the cherry on top.

Again, some of us did think he might have been slipping but they were A) NOT the majority or even a large percentage of people and B) they did NOT remotely think he could lose by KO.

These are all facts.

 

There were still lingering questions about whether the drop down to Light Heavyweight would cause lasting harm to his ability, though. And, while most observers were indeed picking RJJ to win, there were a couple that were picking Tarver to reverse the result in the second fight (referencing an article from Doghouse Boxing where Charles Brewer and Aaron Pryor both picked Tarver, along with at least a couple of staff members).

No one was picking Rahman, even taking into account Lewis's lax traning regimen.

Agree to disagree, I guess. I just remember RJJ getting dropped by another southpaw, Lou del Valle and Tarver having a lot of sustained success against RJJ and even buzzing him a couple of times during the first fight. , So, it didn't seem out of the realm of possibility to me that he could get the win the second time around. So maybe my personal lack of absolute shock colors my answer to this question.

 

I must say that I was shocked at how it seemed his legs and reflexes just weren't up for it anymore. Dunno why it happened so fast as I've heard some theories like rapid weight loss. But I thought he would easily beat Tarver in their 1st. Then just 2 fights later, he gets blasted out by featherfisted Glen Johnson. Wow

 

Voting is close Lads lol