Matchups that looked great on paper that produced duds when they happened

Tony Sibson-Mark Kaylor should have been a classic middleweight war in the vain of Sibson-Lucas or Kaylor-Gumbs (and later Kaylor-Christie) not a forgotten 12 round tactical battle.

 

I was expecting a lot more from Pavlik vs. Hopkins. There were some thinking that because of Bernard's age, and how good Pavlik looked in some of the fights leading up to it, that Pavlik might be the first to stop him. I thought it was possible as well, but Pavlik just looked lost throughout that fight. Was pretty disappointed that it wasn't even remotely competitive.

I thought Tyson-Bonecrusher Smith would have been more exciting than it was. I didn't think Smith had much of a chance, but was expecting some good exchanges here and there, but Smith was in survival mode throughout. Probably Mike's most boring fight to up to that point in his career, and maybe at ANY point in his career.

 

The poster children of disappointing fights are DLH-Trinidad and Leonard-Duran III.

 

Ruiz v AJ 2 was an odd one. Because it already had happened and was a great fight but was one of the most boring fights ever.

 

Winky Wright vs Trinidad. Felix couldn't do anything and lost every round

 

Recently Golovkin vs Jacobs two big punching Middleweights i expected some good action but it was a tactical chess match that never caught fire.

 

I would also add Holyfield-Douglas to this. Douglas was coming off the KO of Tyson, and in the three fights prior to that, looked great in stopping Mike Williams, plus wide UD wins over Oliver McCall & Trevor Berbick. Seemed like he had put it all together at that point in his career, but came in at 246 vs. Holyfield (he was 231 for Tyson), looked totally flabby, and gave a crap effort. If Douglas had shown up in the same shape, and gave the same effort he did vs. Tyson, Holyfield-Douglas could have been a great match-up.

Judging by the shape he was in for the Holyfield fight, and the fact that he took 6 years off after being stopped in that one, seems pretty safe to say that his heart wasn't in it for whatever reason. Kind of strange that he just kind of fell apart after a career win. I guess he just couldn't handle being in the spotlight very well.

 

Some people don't handle success well and Buster seemed to have self-destructive tendencies. After the Holyfield loss he gained a huge amount of weight (I think at least 100 lbs) and almost died of diabetes. He started boxing again to literally save his life.

 

Oscar de la Hoya vs Felix Trinidad definitely did not live up to the expectation that most were anticipating.

Marvin Hagler vs Roberto Duran was a much more tactical fight that most people might have expected.

Carl Froch vs Arthur Abraham looked like a fight that could have been very entertaining but it turned out to be one sided where one guy was punching while the other guy shelled up the whole fight.

 

I think he almost lost every second of every round.

 

Hagler-Duran wasn't one for the ages, but it was a pretty good scrap. Hagler couldn't be outfought but he could be out outthought. Duran fought a smart fight.

 

De La Hoya v Trinidad has to be the worst I remember. Both prime and undefeated, two world belts on the line, and the biggest welterweight fight since Leonard-Hearns. Disappointing doesn’t really cut it.

Pac-May was so far past the peak time for it to happen that it was somewhat inevitable that it would disappoint but Pac’s showing was especially underwhelming.

Jones-Toney was personally disappointing as I was a big Toney fan and I expected a great fight but what we got was a great performance from Jones but a bit of a dud as a contest.

Chavez-Whitaker was somewhat similar in that only one guy performed to expectations but it was pretty dull - the most excitement was the scorecards being announced.

 

Klitschko vs Haye

 

I personally don't think any of the ones you mentioned were duds (I enjoyed them all).

A dud is Chris Byrd/Davaryll Williamson (which everyone knew would be bad but it was even worse than everyone thought it would be) or Wlad/Haye which was a real dud or Rigo/Donaire where Nonito looked shockingly inept.