Can you remember a fight where people seriously considered a underdog to beat the favourite? For me i cant believe the amount of people who thought Mike Tyson would beat Lennox Lewis. Won a lot of money on side bets
Only casuals (and probably Lewis' haters) predicted Tyson to win - it was obvious that Tyson was beyond shot at that point. He looked awful against Brian Nielsen. Boxing writers had Lewis an overwhelming favorite in their predictions: Reporter Affiliation Outcome Al Bernstein ESPN Lewis KO 4 Ron Borges Boston Globe Lewis KO 6 Tim Dahlberg Associated Press Lewis KO 9 Bernard Fernandez Philadelphia Daily News Lewis KO 7 Colin Hart The (London) Sun Tyson KO 3 Mike Hirsley Chicago Tribune Lewis KO 7 Kevin Iole Las Vegas Review-Journal Lewis KO 5 Michael Katz Maxboxing.com Lewis KO 1 Wallace Matthews ESPN Radio Tyson KO 1 Joe Maxse Cleveland Plain-Dealer Lewis KO 5 Edwin Pope Miami Herald Lewis KO 3 Dan Rafael USA TODAY Lewis KO 5 Jon Saraceno USA TODAY Lewis KO 6 Lem Satterfield Baltimore Sun Lewis KO 5 Tim Smith New York Daily News Lewis KO 2 Steve Springer Los Angeles Times Lewis DQ 4 Calvin Watkins Dallas Morning News Lewis W 12 George Willis New York Post Lewis KO 10 13 experts actually predicted Lewis to KO Tyson quicker than he did Source - http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/boxing/stories/2002-06-07-tyson-lewis-cover.htm
The same can be said about Lewis - Grant fight. Grant didn't look impressive at all, the only top 10 fighter he fought battered him from pillar to post, and the same fighter (Golota) was destroyed in 1 round by Lennox Lewis. And even if you watch Grant's pre-Golota fights it was obvious that he was nothing special - his fundamentals were awful, he lacked speed and explosiveness. He had height and muscular body but that's it... I was shocked how many people had hopes for Grant in that fight. My prediction was Lewis KO, my friend predicted KO1 victory for Lewis and he hated Lewis really, really bad
I always liked the schooling Hopkins gave Pavlik as a 4 to 1 dog . .Mosley, Taylor, Calzaghe and some others picked Hop https://www.boxing247.com/weblog/archives/121570
Well before my time but was there anyone in the boxing world in the previews of the bout that was taken in by Ali's act and thought that he could come back after 2 years out and become a 4 times heavyweight champion against Holmes who Ali kept calling as just his old sparring partner? There would have been plenty of showbiz celebs and in the general public that would have backed Ali but boxing people?
At our gym we sometimes would do a ‘pick the round’ pool and everybody would put in like $5 and choose their round (we didn’t have to pick winners but I was sure Lennox would win). I took the second round and won the pot.
Probably missed loads, as I have been out the loop for a long time, and bookies are now far sharper, but the last time I remember the fancy cleaning the bookies out (UK) was when Scrap Iron Ryan was blown away by Jon Thaxton. A brilliant free night for all but the bookies and Ryan (at least for Paul it was non title).
I remember that fight saw Ryan beating Ross Hale the previous fight and fancied him strongly to beat Thaxton.How wrong was i
I think this fight may have been set up to make money. Not that Ryan and/or Thaxton did not fight on the level, I believe they did. It was just that anyone around the sport even just a little bit, knew style wise what was going to happen. I even remember watching a replay and it was mentioned that a lot of money had been put on Thaxton.
Vs Lewis, as a puncher, Mike had a long shot chance within a very small window (first 1-2 rds) to get to Lennox and put him out. As compared to the actual slower version of Tyson we actually saw, it’s not impossible to speed up Mike’s first rd efforts in your mind’s eye, in alignment with his prime self and see that it might’ve made all the difference. Mike had part success getting in close behind the jab but didn’t have the rest of his old self to follow through with defining shots in close, nor the stamina to do this for the first 3-4 rds. All credit to Lennox Lewis though. Despite being obviously nervous he was prepped for the initial blitz, not only to survive it but to ensure serious return fire, which he gave Mike even before rd 1 was finished. A very crucial rd and when you saw Lennox turn Mike back the way he did in the first rd you knew that was all she wrote as to what was a very slim chance for Mike in the first place.
