This is the ultimate cherry pick gone wrong. This content is protected Took longer to wake the former champion than it did to contest the fight.
Hamed vs Barrera. Some folks were thinking Barrera was somewhat shot after his war with Morales and Hamed was seen as a lower weight Roy Jones with his natural physical gifts. Barrera took him to school that night.
DLH vs Pac. Oscar not fighting Margarito cause he didnt want to fight another mexican and instead chosing to fight a guy three divisions bellow it turns out that that guy (pac) was a special fighter who ended up giving him the worst beating of his career, made him quit, sent his ass into retirement and turned him into a degenerate crackhead cross dresser. BOOM thats a cherryping gone wrong.
That's the one, I believe they thought Ali needs an easy fight after Shavers battered him and Leon with only about 10 fights under his belt was the perfect choice.
Yeah, it's among the most incredible knockouts in a lineal title fight and i've never seen a guy so knocked out on his feet, ever, he was unconscious and unlucky enough to remain standing for a moment. Cardona was completely unranked, had lost almost every meaningful fight he had ever fought, and would continue to do so post-Avelar. Just one of those mad, mad nights where everything came off for the guy and where Avelar absolutely ignored all the warnings.
Was Pac-Barrera a cherrypick? I don't remember the details but I believe Pac was a massive underdog before that fight. No one heard of the man before. That was coming out party. Either that fight or it might have been the Morales fight
I had written off Duran even though he was looking better. Thought a young strong Davey Moore would handle him even with limited experience. I was just a little wrong. When I rewatch that massacre I get ill watching Roberto continuously rake the body when Moore has no ability to defend himself .
21-13-2 Lightning Little fighting Michael Nunn in what I assume was supposed to be a showcase for an upcoming Nunn defense against Benn. For some reason it was a title fight instead of a ten-rounder or whatever. Nunn went down in the first round and lost a split decision. When Shoji Oguma challenged undefeated Chan-Hee Park in 1980, it wasn't really viewed in Japan as an opportunity for Oguma, but instead as another instance of a washed-up ex-champion being used to bolster a current star's resume. The expectation was that Oguma would lose decisively and retire afterward. Oguma beat Park into submission and Park never got his career back on track. Oguma's first title challenge, against Betulio Gonzalez back in 1974, was pretty questionable too, as he hadn't done anything above domestic level at that point and got ranked by LOSING a ten-rounder to Gonzalez. To me that screams WBC looking to get a nice Japanese payday against a safe opponent, but Gonzalez went through the motions for much of the fight and ended up dropping the belt. Herol Graham, undefeated and already the WBA's #1 contender for the middleweight title, going along with a mandatory defense for his Euro title instead of just vacating the belt ahead of his world title shot. He'd won the Euro title by basically running through Ayub Kalule, and I guess he figured there wouldn't be much issue against a guy who had lost to Kalule. The subsequent loss cost Graham his unblemished record, his championship, and his title shot. Not exactly cherry-picking (actually, I have no idea if any of the other three upset winners I've listed were mandatories either), but clearly someone not quite knowing what he was getting into.
This fight happened before my time. I felt Moore was overhyped a bit from his previous fights. People weren't sure about Duran at the time, correct?