2nd greatest HW upset of all-time?

Holmes-Mercer

Mercer's belt wasn't on the line cos they didn't consider Holmes a serious opponent.

 

Depends. Hart over Johnson, Braddock over Bear ( it it was on the level ), Rhaman over Lewis, and Douglas over Tyson are good picks.

Many felt Ali, a then 10-1 underdog over Liston was a big upset, and years later few gave Ali a chance vs. Foreman.

 

I would have said Liston - Clay however the more I know about this fight the more I feel the mafia was involved and Liston was forced to throw the fight, certainly the 2nd fight seems to bear this out.

Ali-Spinks would probably be my next pick. What was Spinks when he fought ali something like 7-0.

Holyfield - Tyson I wasn't THAT much of an upset, I know because I picked Holyfield to beat Tyson. All anyone had to do was look at the opponents Tyson was fighting. Hell half of them fell before they were even hit. And the amount of time he was actually in the ring wasn't much. So I consider this almost on the same level of Tyson - Lewis, hype but no substance.

 

Ali vs. Liston, Ali vs. Foreman, L. Spinks vs. Ali, Foreman vs. Moorer, Holyfield vs. Tyson

 

Louis vs Schmeling (and it could also be seen as perhaps just as great of an upset)

 

Great post. It's correct that most thought that Cassius was going to be horribly exploited by Liston and that it wouldn't go beyond 3 rounds.
The thing is against Cooper he was clowning around with his guard down and going backwards with his chin in the air when he was tagged by Cooper's left hook.He didn't ride the punch like he was able to do in the rest of his career.It also must be remembered that although he wasn't elite Cooper could take your head off with that punch,and taking another view we could say how did he manage to get up!
Against Liston he was obviously totally focused and stuck to the game plan and really Sonny just couldn't get set to get his big punches off,plus Ali was also quite aggresive in there unloading quick combinations and was not passive like some of Liston's opponents which I think surprised Sonny.
All in all a great call because of Ali's aura as an all time great we forget just how much of an upset this fight was at the time.

 

this is a good shout. sullivan was the first official heavyweight champ and was expected to
plough through corbett , outweighing him by almost 2 stone.
. Corbett had other ideas and used speed and footwork , lateral movement to wear Sullivan down. this was uncommon back then. most fights were just all out , bare knuckle slugfests.

 

I disagree. The biggest HW upset was Liston vs Ali 1. Ali was a guy who in has last 3 fights was knocked down by cooper and doug jones. If you just look at that, and ignore what Ali did after (yes I know he was not in his prime at this point) but one would be nuts to conclude that Ali would beat Liston. Given how much bigger, stronger and harder hitting Liston was than these other 2. The Tyson loss was not entirely unpredictable, he was dropped in training by oliver mccall and if you watch the fight again you will see it. He was drinking, sleeping with japanese girls, and thought he'd ko douglas in 1-3 because douglas lost to 5 guys tyson already destroyed with ease.

To me douglas losing to holyfield so horribly was a bigger upset than douglas tyson because at that point there was no reason to believe a lhw evander would beat the guy who just made tyson look like a beating horse.