Mike Tyson choosing Holyfield in 1996 thinking Evan was washed up. Oops. Wilder choosing Fury in 2020 thinking Big Gypsy/dosser was washed up.
I don’t think either of those were cherry picks except maybe Fury cherry picked Wilder over AJ knowing that was the way easier road. People were clamoring for Holy v Tyson before he went to jail. that being said Lewis team picking Vitali and AJ team picking Ruiz for quick replacements both turned out bad. Maybe not bad for Lewis because it ended up being one of his best wins but he took a beating
I would say Ali vs Leon Spinks. Leon only had eight pro fights and was not a mandatory. Ali saw Spinks as a small and beatable guy that had a name because of how well Leon did in the 76' Olympics when he won gold. Ali did not expect that pace from Leon and he simply couldn't keep him off.
It was 2018. Yeah, he said he needed 4 tune up fights before fighting AJ, while he needed 2 for Wilder. They basically cherry picked each other wanted to freeze out AJ and trying to fool the public that they were the 2 best in the world.
Ali vFrazier 3 , AJ v Ruiz1, Wlad v Sanders,Wlad v Purrity,Lewis v McCall1,Ali v Norton 1.Ali v L Spinks 1.
Larry Holmes vs Michael Spinks I like Holmes alot but at this point in his career he wasn't interested in fighting the most dangerous opposition available. Spinks was a big name but a Light Heavyweight and surely Holmes thought this would be an easy win for him based on size difference so he could equal Marciano's record.
Yeah, I'm a big fan of Holmes as well, but after Cooney, he was just looking for easy/big money fights with some notable exceptions.
Tommy Morrison losing to Michael Bentt. Lennox Lewis was in the audience and he had been Morrisons next opponent for a big payday. Oh dear dear dear it all went horribly wrong.
Terry Norris, looking for an easy defense taking on the unimposing 14-4-1 Keith Mullings, who had lost 2 out of his last 3, only to be knocked kicking in the 9th. Nino Benvenuti - the world champ was looking for a tuneup and found the ordinary looking Tom Bethea with a record of 9-5-1 and who had lost his last 4 fights. Looked perfect to get the kinks out before the next title defense. But Bethea didn't read the script and stopped Nino in the 8th. Nino was lucky it was a non-title.
Angel Espada was ringside watching Andy 'The Hawk' Price as a prospective challenger for his welterweight title and watched Price outbox an 18 year old kid from Mexico for a nice win. After the fight Espada said to his manager, "I want him." The manager said, "OK, you want Price for your next defense?" To the manager's surprise, Espada, who was clearly in the market for a cherry-pick said, "No, I want that Pipino Cuevas kid." Ouch!
Holmes had a number of cherry picks go awry but his big fighting heart and determination staved off defeat. Witherspoon took him to the brink, as did Weaver and a lot of people scored his fight with Carl Williams for Carl. Tho he beat Bonecrusher handily he got busted up quite a bit too and even Bey got to an old Holmes a bit.
Holy was seen as washed up in '96 and was absolutely a cherry pick for Tyson. Bowe and Lewis were seen as the guys that were actual threats, Holy wasn't any more. Tyson dropped his WBC belt to face him instead of Lewis.