Fights who lost due to coasting through final rounds?

Delahoya vs Trinidad

 

Witherspoon against Holmes, Norton in the final round of Ali III. You just don't do this when challenging for a championship.

 

Holmes/Witherspoon is a good shout after having his best round in the 9th round, Witherspoon let his foot off the gas and decided to do his version of an Ali impression rather than going all out in the championship rounds

Me and @JohnThomas1 have discussed this before, and John has stated that Holmes made Witherspoon less inclined to attack. After Holmes rung his bell pretty hard in the 9th round with that right hand.

I think that's the difference between Holmes and the other 80s Heavyweight title holders, Holmes always kept himself in shape and was willing to go that extra mile to dig out the win.

 

True about that right hand in round nine, and the decision would not have been controversial if it had been scheduled for the Championship Distance. Like you stated, Tim wasn't going after Larry like that after round nine.

Your mention of other HW Title holders from the time reminds me that John Tate's corner stupidly advised him to retreat and coast for the final round against Mike Weaver, giving Hercules the opportunity to bomb Big John out. If Tate had continued smothering Mike against the ropes, he'd have retained the WBA Title via extremely lopsided decision. (I think Weaver only won round 12 out of the 14 completed rounds.)

 

Now I don’t think Duran coasted the last two rounds as such but I believe he was one point up on all the judges scorecards at the end of Round 13, and at the end of Round 15 he had lost by one point on the scorecards.

Obviously Hagler fighting at his specialist weight and knowing he needed to win the last two rounds was going to be extremely hard to subdue in the final six minutes. After all he was fighting for his title as though his life depended on it. But Duran was no slouch at MW…leading the great Hagler after 13 rounds was testament to that.…so he couldn’t have nicked one of the last two rounds? Was Hagler just too powerful for the Roberto during the final 2 rounds or was Duran easing off because he thought he’d done enough?

Whatever the answer, kudos to the Marvelous One though for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, but Roberto, man, you were sooooo close!

 

He also avoided the destructive habits common to HW's of the era. No trashing his health with drugs or alcohol. No partying or crazy **** with women to distract him. No stupid **** like staying up late the night before a fight. Certainly gave him an edge.

 

The classic example although not sure Oscar didn't start to run out of gas ...

 

No t sure he coasted but pretty sure he won nine of the previous fourteen cleanly ... as was 90 % of the press ...

 

Holmes turned the fight around in the ninth by coming back and landing some serious hard shifts but I agree Spoon beast the crap opus of Larry to the body that fight ... it was razor thin ..

 

I think the scoring for that fight was ridiculous .. credit to Duran for making it a fight and exposing the chinks in Marvin's armor which were mostly mental but to say Duran won or it was extremely close is a bit silly if you watch it with eyes instead of hearts ..

 

I had it by 1 point for Hagler. I do not think Duran was coasting the last round though, Marvin imposed his will on him. Great fight

 

Marvelous Marvin Hagler vs Sugar Ray Leonard WBC Title bout on April 6 1987, the WBC was the only governing body willing to sanction the title bout which was won by Leonard by decision.

 

He didn't lose, but Hagler likely ended up with a draw rather than a win in the first Antuofermo fight by taking it a little easier in the last few rounds.

 

I appreciate your opinion but the qualified judges did say that Leonard was the victor in 12 rounds. The loss could be Hagler's fault. In some fights, Hagler had his opponent in trouble or was winning but let his foot off the gas pedal so to speak, this also happened in Hagler's first title opportunity against champion Vito Antuofermo on Nov 30 1979, it resulted in a 15 round draw. I had my favorites too, but if they did not stategize correctly or were too confident going into a fight and faced a roadblock, it was on them. Like in the Muhammad Ali vs Leon Spinks on Feb 15 1978, Ali should have been too experienced for Spinks but Ali lost fair and square, he did not score enough to win. Same with Hagler, he was an active champion, he should have taken out a fighter who had been out of commission for 4 years, but he did not, the result, he lost.