I have my favorites fighters, and I HATE to have to admit to their worst nights. I build this one man up , and am certain he is a TOP 5 ATG - But Duran looked flat against Benitiez. Leonard and Hearns both beat him, and it is hard to look past Duran struggling with him. I can only say he did not look good, for whatever reason, and had no fire. But none the less. I have to admit it. How about you?
Azumah Nelson- worst performance I guess would be against Pea but also above his best weight and looked flabby and slow runner up Jeff Fenech he just couldn’t slow Jeff down. Lost in this is some amazing work Nelson does with his back to the ropes to keep it competitive. And it is more competitive than I thought when I watched it live. But Jeff still took a close decision in my mind and on my card. But Jeff really made him look ordinary for this fight.
Floyd Patterson - Sonny Liston^^ There are so many examples where slow starters got annihilated by heavy hitting sluggers within seconds: Ken Norton vs Cooney, Shavers, Foreman. Or supringsing counter punch KO's like Jones - Tarver. It is a shame when a promising fight is over before it even started. Especially when it is your idol who is lying down on the ground within seconds. But it's even more frustrating to see your favorite fighter totally helpless and clueless in a whole fight... getting outboxed for several rounds without any chance, and not being able to execute his strengths. I'm talking about: Tyson - Holyfield 1 Tyson - Lewis Ali - Patterson 1 Maybe not the worst performances at all but kinda the sadest to watch.
Ali vs Young- It looked like such an unatural unbearable fight on paper and it was nothing less then that in practice on top of that Ali was in really subpar condition- Awful, awful fight.
I’ll go off fighters from my lifetime. Trinidad-Hopkins - Tito didn’t look right, fell behind and couldn’t get in the fight. I don’t even count the Winky fight since that’s basically useless as he was a shell of himself then. Juan Manuel Marquez - I don’t really count the Mayweather so I’d say his worst was Norwood. I felt he won, but Norwood was there for the taking and it was an ugly, low output fight and Marquez was dragged down to that.
Fury has had a few McDermott 1 was really young Pajkic got knocked down Cunningham the only time I’ve seen him getting outboxed. Froch Groves 1 was down on the score cards Dirrell was lucky to get the win Marciano None. The man was perfect
Holyfield v Byrd was tough for me. Maybe not necessarily his worst performance but beginning of the worst
Matthew Saad ,Muhammad v. Andrew Maynard. It's on youtube. Saad bears no resemblance to the fighter he was in his prime.
Boza v. Ali Kareem Muhammad. This fight showed how far Boza had slipped. He looked shot but squeeked by.
Haglar losing to Leonard bugs me. Wasn't so much a bad performance, but I think he could have applied pressure earlier in the fight. Sleepy start.
For a fight that went the distance I will go with Erik Morales vs Zahir Raheem. Erik, coming off the first Pacquiao fight which will be both his signature win as well as one of the most entertaining fights of his career, which says a lot as he was in many an entertaining a fight. He REALLY showed up for that fight and he gave one of the best performances of his whole career, especially when considering it was Manny Pacquiao in the other corner. While the fight was very competitive through all 12 rds, Erik clearly won. I wouldn't go anywhere near saying he dominated Manny in that fight, but I think he handled him very well. Going from that triumphant achievement to the performance he put forth in his next fight with Raheem is like night and day, yin and yang, from the pinnacle of his career to the sub-basement in one fight. Granted he was totally robbed of a knockdown at the end of the 11th round by the referee, it was a moot point.
