Which boxers whose only title shots turned out to be robberies didn't become world champ because the judges' verdict allowed their opponent to remain champ? I'll start: Maciej Zegan in Germany in '03. Ready, set, go!
Dave Tiberi. Not many bigger Toney fans than me, but he got a gift and a half that night. Turned out to be Tiberi's last fight.
I stayed away from boxing for yrs after that. What a silverspoon ***** Toney acted like after that.Tiberi beat his ass. I still get fighting mad.
Yeah, the post fight interviews just rubbed salt into the wound. Tiberi conducted himself with class, Toney acted as if he didn't even know the meaning of the word. Don't forget that attempted cheap shot by Toney at the start of the twelfth when they went to touch gloves, either. Everything about Toney that night was poor. I actually think there's a reasonable possibility that Tiberi might have stopped Toney if it hadn't been for that extended break between rounds five and six (Tiberi needed both his gloves changing, as you'll probably remember yourself). Toney had looked rubbery throughout the fifth as if he was having trouble just standing, and was getting hit cleanly with almost everything Tiberi threw. He looked like he not nothing left at all. That delay bought him a precious four or five minutes extra rest and also seemed to temporarily break Tiberi's rhythm. Toney had a decent sixth and seventh round after that. Obviously in the 8th Tiberi started taking over again. The only thing I'll say in Toney's defence is that he and Arum did agree to a rematch, where Tiberi could have earned a $500,000 purse (he got $26,000 for the first fight), but Tiberi stuck to his guns and retired. Toney did at least have the decency to acknowledge that the decision was a gift...It just took him until 2008 to do it.
Frankie Duarte against Bernardo Piñango. Duarte got a shot at Zaragoza a few years later but was hopelessly faded. Should have already won the title.
I personally thought it was too close to call the result an outright robbery, but Dan Schommer was on the end of a very contentious and probably slightly unfair verdict in his only ever world title fight against Eubank. Would have been one of the worst ever title-winning performances, but then again, Eubank's here was probably one of the worst ever title-defending ones.
Billy Graham....MSG...1951...Kid Gavilan....NBA Welterweight Title...Graham lost by a hotly disputed SD.
