Your Fondest Underdog Memories

from my own time I always remember when Michael Bentt blitzed Tommy Morrison in one round - Tommy walked into an incredible punch to first get his senses scrambled!! What a huge punch that was - the moment when the fight was waved off was just sensational to - think I remember the corner men practically flying in over the top ropes (sure one of them crash landed) - it was a heroic moment and i remember feeling well chuffed for him - it was shown on the build up to Bowe-Holyfield II through the night special in England and I remember they asked Lennox Lewis in the studio how he felt and he said (very much with tongue in cheek) "Bentt stole my knockout!!" But you could tell Lewis sounded just as chuffed for him

 

For recent ones...

Well there was the Pac-De la Hoya

Everyone was telling me that Pac would be murdered. It was a mismatch, etc.

Well, it was mismatch. But in a way that made me happy as a Pac fan.

 

I developed a fondness for Danny Williams when he beat Tyson, Harrison, Skelton.

 

Gene Hatcher koing Johnny Bumphus from back in 84, the same night that Livingstone Bramble beat Ray Mancini for the WBA lightweight title. Hatcher won the WBA jr Welterweight belt.

 

Hopkins-Trinidad
Hopkins-Tarver
Quarry-Lyle

 

Holyfield-Tyson 1

Everyone in hindsight says Tyson losing wasn't that big a surprise,going in nobody,except Ron Borges(who's opinion I don't rate anyway) gave Holyfield a chance to last 3 rounds let alone win.Even Ring Magazine was tipping a first round KO for Mike.

The reason being was how old,tired and physically spent Evander looked in the third Bowe and Czyz fights.Evander was gassing badly early in fights and couldn't even floor the much smaller Czyz so how could he compete against a force of nature like Mike,who (to a casual fan) looked just as fast and powerful as ever,admittedly against guys who were hand picked to unravel against him.

Well we were all wrong as Evander out muscled,out thought and out fought Tyson for a truly heroic underdog win that forever placed Holyfield amongst the Heavyweight elite and had people re-evaluating Tyson's true standing.

A great boxing moment imo.

 

Still Ali over Foreman,after all these years. As an Ali fan,this was the most emotional one. For an overall shock,Douglas - Tyson.

 

I liked Toney taking apart Holyfield. Much like the above mentioned Tyson/Holyfield 1 bout, most people thought Evander was going to tear Toney up.

but the first round was everything. Toney gave him his shoulder like he always did and Evander fell for it. Hook line and sinker. It was exactly like Bernstein was saying that you have to move your feet and then throw the hook at toney. But there was Evander lunging and not using his feet. And when he did clip toney, nothing happened.

the beauty was about 2 rounds later when James just took the guy apart in there. Countered him to death. Made Holyfield miss by just a whisker and James sure wasn't missing much when he threw. Everything was landing flush and Holyfield could not do a thing about it.

And Toney was throwing lead right hands that were landing flush. Evander tried raising his hands to help his defense and Toney went immediately to the body with big hooks. I thought going into the fight it was crucial to do that & never did like Evander absorbing body shots anywhere near as effectively as he could a headshot.

That bodywork sure did give evander alligator arms in there and took away that left hook. Beautiful. Toney just did everything systematically and kept subtracting things away from Holyfield. What I found somewhat strange was the announcers not seeing a knockdown or the tko coming.

 

I was/am a huge Holyfield fan but when Foreman and Cooper gave him problems I got excited.

On the other hand... Holyfield's losing performances vs. Bowe x2, Lewis (the rematch), Byrd, and Valuev were impressive.

Most of Mickey Ward's losses.

Gatti's losses to Robinson, Manfredy, and Ward.

Patterson's, Rodriguez's, and Ruelas's losses to Gatti.

Manny Pac was the underdog in the first Barrera fight... WOW!

Other underdogs that won big-

Johnson KO9 Jones
Tarver KO2 Jones
Hopkins W12 Tarver
Hopkins W12 Pavlik

 

Marco Antonio Barrera defeating his arch-rival Erik Morales in the highly awaited rubber match in 2004. The Mexican always excelled when he entered bouts as the underdog, and this time was no exception. Perhaps his greatest ever triumph.

 

Seeing Tyson getting ko by Douglas on TV. Not sure why, pehaps at the time Tyson was so unbeatable it seem.

 

Fenech - Nelson I

 

Leon Spinks ko in the Olympics

 

Ali-Foreman
Duran-Barkley
Armando Muniz-Billy Lloyd

The last one was a particular favorite of mine. Billy Lloyd of Philly had whacked out Zovek Barajas twice in back to back matches. Barajas had recently beaten Muniz and stopped Billy Backus, so those KO's were monstrous and put Lloyd in the top ten. When Muniz signed to fight him everyone thought he was nuts. Muniz was a favorite of mine. I saw the fight and, my God, I was jumping on the furniture as I watched Muniz literally pound Lloyd to the canvas in the 1st round. Good times.

Scartissue