Fights that you thought would be boring/one sided but actually turned out to be a great fight

Good thread Flo, as per. I was of the mind that Joshua would lose that one actually. I thought Wlad had enough to jab his head off stop him. Although, I was like 2 weeks into boxing lol I was mostly copying my dad's opinion.

Donaire vs Inoue is definitely my pick. Absolute war in a fight I thought wouldn't go beyond 4.

 

Donaire's awesome, man. Real bad dude. Underrate H2H at 118, the guy has a real equaliser in that left of his.

Couldn't be a nicer guy either

 

I thought JC Chavez would run over Frankie Randall in their first fight.

It turned out to be a great fight and the biggest upset since Douglas v. Tyson

 

Anthony Joshua versus Andy Ruiz I. I thought Joshua was going to cautiously outbox him to a decision like he did the second fight. Instead it turned out to be a war.

 

Cory Spinks vs Zab Judah 1 and 2

 

Weaver-Holmes I

Mike Weaver was a nobody that Holmes was obviously using as a stepping stone. Not only did he knock down Larry, but he had him practically out on his feet later in the fight. Granted, Holmes was (mysteriously or arrogantly) fighting with a bad cold but...

Mike went on to become a champ himself for a couple of years.

 

Mayweather-Maidana 1

I thought Maidana was tailor made to make Floyd look good despite his win over Broner. But Maidana gave Floyd fits and roughed him and bullied him along the ropes and didn't give Floyd time to mount any kind of effective counter attack. Mayweather did better the second half of the fight but I thought the decision was razor close and could have gone either way or been a draw. It was a good fight either way.

 

I thought Anthony Mundine was going to get his head caved in by Sergey Rabchenko (who was european undefeated champion at the time).
Clottey was destroying Mundine in the fight before Rabchenko and thought there was no chance he was going to win..... He Pulled out a split decision and won the fight

 

Like lots of folks at the time, I thought Shavers had no chance against Ali.

Not known for his stamina and now he is fighting a guy with that in spades. And Earnie hardly had the best of footwork and dipped to throw anything. Could not see how the Ali jab and movement would have any difficulty with this opponent.

Problem was of course, this version of Ali was far removed from the guy facing Norton in yankee stadium even

 

Ken Norton vs Scott LeDoux turned out to be a helluva slugfest. Going in it appeared to be an easy tuneup for Kenny but after a few rounds it became apparent he had nothing left.

LeDoux battered him senseless late and maybe my memory fails me but I remember thinking the ninth or 10th was a 10-6 round if ever there was one.

 

What, no Juan Martin Coggi?