Most impressive win in the history of boxing?

Sandy Saddler KO 4 Willie Pep.

Pep was 134-1-1 and had held the featherweight title for six years.

People like to say Pep was a shell of himself but he had dominated the division after the plane crash and was a 3-to-1 favorite. There’s no contemporary source that describes Pep as diminished going into the fight and apart from two more losses to Saddler he didn’t get beat again for almost four years.

In fact he had one loss to anyone other than Sandy in a span of 102 fights over nearly 10 years, the vast majority of those wins coming after the plane crash.

Saddler completely dominated and dismantled one of the greatest fighters of all time.

 

Yes, that is what I mean, Moorer was dominating him up until then. If he wasn't dumb enough to trade with Foreman in the last round, Moorer would have won.

 

Frazier vs Ali makes sense, since they were both at their best, properly prepared.
Duran vs Leonard also makes sense.
But of these are great choices, but the others are not, since:
- Liston was way older and didn't prepare properly;
- Tyson was boozing, womanizing, doing drugs and didn't prepare properly;
- the heat of Zaire got to Foreman even more so than Ali did.

 

Tyson was not prepared for that match.

 

Joshuas beating by Ruiz was stunning

 

You aren't wrong about that.

 

I'm impressed that you winded up in a place where every fighter you admire won his fight when his opponent was at his very best and when he lost he was at his very worst. That is sophistry of the highest order. Good job. Good effort.

 

Forum Tua's demolitions of Tyson, Louis, and Marciano in separate threads have got to be up there, considering how his record leading up to those bouts gave little indication of his greatness.

 

Impressive is different from unexpected.
Impressive? Probably I would go with Tyson knocking out cold Michael Spinks in the first round, in 1988.
Spinks was an olympic gold medallist. He was undefeated. He had several impressive victories under his belt. He had been undisputed champion at the Light-Heavyweights for a long time and was the first man to beat Larry Holmes for the heavyweight title.
Tyson went there and destroyed him like he was some bum.
You can't watch this fight today and don't think that Mike Tyson was unstopable. I cannot imagine the feeling when this happened in 1988.
Tyson's win vs Spinks was easily the most impressive win in the history of boxing.

 

I was there live. It was the greatest display of pure, focused savagery I’ve ever witnessed.

 

He may have learned that from the Alex Stewart fight. Foreman clubbed Stewart to the canvas 2x in the 1st round before Alex started to stick and move. Foreman didn't expect that kind of adjustment.

 

I've tried to imagine the pressure on Louis there, given the historical context. There he was, a black man in 1938, who had found himself turned into the champion for democracy in a match against a guy who had recently whooped him, with the entire free world watching and rooting for him. He must have felt like he'd let the entire world down if he lost. Add to that the racial context as well. Just, wow. That has to be the most pressure any single athlete has ever faced in recorded history.

And then for him to not just win, but to so thoroughly trounce Schmeling in one round. Imagine the sense of relief after the adrenaline left.

I can't imagine. Talk about a man who could perform under pressure.

 

Then he joins the army in WWII, helps train soldiers, raises Money for War Bonds....and the US govevernment screws him over for back taxes, making him destitute.