Most disgraceful performances by defending champions

Did that^ not sound ridiculous in your head, before you typed it? Because it sure looks ridiculous now you've posted it.

 

Well when it comes to disgraceful behavior by beltholders, it doesnt get any worse than John Ruiz. Ruiz was terrible. In fact, worse than that. Not only did he have all the ability of high grade clubfighter, but he used his connections with Don King to get title shot after undeserved title shot, and a free pass for his illegal holding tactics and other shenanigans that should have gotten him disqualified in virtually every fight against decent fighters. He "won" by breaking the RULES against excessive holding.

Not only this, in several fights by blatantly overacting to draw bogus low blow calls to get crucial point deductions (Thunder, Holyfield II) or a bogus DQ (Johnson). His entire career against world class opposition is utterly fraudulent.

And, then, the gift decisions, the worst of which being the Golota fight. Golota should have won that fight, it's one of the worst robberies of the period. Golota outlanded Ruiz, had him on the canvas twice and there was actually a (RARE) point deduction for one of Ruiz's illegal moves. Yet somehow "all the King's judges" gave the nod to Ruiz. Shameful. And yet another example of how a powerful promoter took a mediocre regional fighter and made him an (undeserving) beltholder

Ruiz is exhibit A of how corruption damages boxing, elevating a talentless hack to levels his ability never merited. Without Don King, he's a regional beltholder, at best.

 

It wasn’t a defense if he didn’t make weight.

 

Maskaev against Okello Peter and Valuev against What The Heck Beck.

 

Holmes against Ali.

 

He was paying homage to Jersey Joe Walcott. Sorry if that went over your head.

 

Y'know, somebody said Douglas vs Holyfield and I rewatched that one. Personally I thought Holy looked razor sharp and in perfect form. It was less about Douglas sucking than Holyfield being from the next level up.

 

But Douglas quit. Holyfield isn’t one shotting any 240 pound heavyweight in the second round.

 

Agree with this. Wlad was the one mostly at fault imho, but Povetkin initiated a ton of clinches too, particularly in the second half of the fight. So of course Wlad was only too happy to take advantage. Povetkin should have let rip once he got in range but inexplicably hugged as well. The referee should have enforced the rules and deducted points for clinching early on. When it's a proper boxing match it gets more even, even though I still fancy Wlad.

THAT ALL SAID, Wlad is not the only guy to have engaged in egregious huggery. Johnson, Ali, Ruiz etc are all examples of heavies that abused the clinch.

 

Maybe. IDK. He looked pretty scrambled by that shot which was perfectly timed. On the other hand you could be right. Maybe he thought that if he turned it into a slugfest he could win it because he was getting his ears boxed off. Maybe he realised that he would lose the slugfest as well and called it quits.

 

Michael Spinks lineal championship

 

I can top that easily : Wlad vs Fury. Both men not only disgraced themselves, but boxing's marquee division and thus the sport itself in it's entirety along with every true champion that ever lived. Combined they landed 138 (i think that's a generous assessment, btw) punches in 12 rounds. Boxing has yet to recover. Apparently I'm the only one that sees this. I don't get it.

 

Watch the second Moorer fight to see what happens when a chinny guy keeps getting drilled by Holyfield but wants to fight.

 

What was disgraceful about the performances of the defending champion in these fights?

Or did you misread/misunderstand as most disgraceful selection of challengers?

 

It was the most frustrating high profile title reign I can ever recall. And every time he was penciled in for a fight I always thought "OK this is gonna be the guy to rid us of Ruiz" and then through some sort of shenanigans he would retain. This was the guy who thanks to him and his promoter separated the undisputed title once again shortly after it had been unified.