Aside from the odds, what was arguably the greatest mismatch in heavyweight boxing history?

Carnera v Loughran? Was Loughran old in that one?

I was at the Vitali v Johnson fight. Kirk was though of as an up and comer legit contender…but I suppose hindsight. We didn’t get our money’s worth

 

Just sift through the early record of any highly regarded heavyweight when his manager was building him up and you'll likely find several fights which arguably might be regarded as among the greatest mismatches in history. Example: Mike Tyson had seven first-round knockouts in his first 10 fights.

 

Re: the Johnson fight, Jack is on record saying " Good for me that I didn't fight Bob when he was younger, even when his punches missed, the sound was like a swarm of bees " wow ! keep well.

 

I agree, London was better than Dunn but was way out of his depth and pretty much gave a non effort v Ali.
Dunn, whilst massively overmatched was on a decent run in the couple of years preceding the Ali fight,with wins over Roy Williams, Neville Meade, Bunny Johnson, Danny McAlindon, Terry Kruegar and Bernd August (for euro title) and gave an honest effort v Ali.

That said, it was still a poor match but not as bad as Coopman

 

No mismatches among those fights?

 

Holmes vs Texx Cobb.

Made Howard Cosell quit boxing.

 

London more or less admitted that he stayed down against Ali which in fairness wasn’t his style as despite his limitations he was a brave so and so.

 

That and his unapologetic view on what the sport was becoming. Much like Teddy Atlas, Cosell refused to tow the line when he broadcasted and just said whatever he felt like. Sometimes he would call B.S. fights B.S.

 

Maybe foreman vs Roman ?

 

Possibly the biggest one.