Hopkins is being slated over his warm up opponent prior to his RJJ rubber. However picking such an opponent is a fine line between a 1 round walk over a spoiler who will make you look bad a rough house who may cause you a cut/injury someone who may whip you Buck Smith is the opponent who comes to my mind as the unknown who derailed a Kirkland Laing. Those over the pond may recall Laing as the opponent who shocked Duran. What is the biggest upset in a tune up?
Personally, I don't think that was really seen as a tune-up for Enzo. He was just in last-chance-saloon and it was a must win fight for him. Lebedev was actually picked by tonnes of people though. I think it was always going to be a difficult fight for Enzo.
Can anyone recall an example of a fighter with more defeats than wins & no record of punching power turning over someone who was tuning up for the big one?
Not sure everyone knew Enzo was done but everything was pointing to Warren setting up a rematch with Ola
Morrison Bentt. I can't recall who he was supposed to fight after Bentt, but I know he had just come off the biggest win of his career against Foreman. Getting blown out by an unknown fighter in 100 second effectively ended his career. Yeah, I know he got a mercey title shot years later, but that was the night that told everyone everything they needed to know about Morrison.
Sturm was undefeated and brought a world title to the ring. The fight was part of the plan to legitimise DLH as a middleweight and set up the Hopkins fight, but don't think we can categorise it as a tune up
oh i agree...i was just breaking balls. but to the casual fight fan, its oscar and sturm is unknown to the casual fight fan. oscar seemed about as reluctant to claim victory as ive ever seen a fighter who just "won"