This content is protected 5.Vince Phillips TKO 10 Kostya Tszyu Kostya Tszyu entered his fight with Vince Phillips as a huge favorite. He was undefeated, held the IBF junior welterweight title and had huge knockout power.Phillips pressured Tszyu and the two engaged in many notable exchanges. The fight was toe-to-toe an extremely close entering the ninth round, when just over a minute in, Phillips landed the shots that rocked, hurt and ultimately stopped Tszyu's undefeated streak. Phillips forced Tszyu along the ropes and unleashed hell. He landed several clean, hard shots that had his opponent out on his feet. Nothing was holding him up but the ropes and the stoppage was totally justified. 4.Lamon Brewster TKO 5 Wladimir Klitschko Few people had even heard of Lamon Brewster, much less gave him a shot, when he traveled to Germany to challenge Wladimir Klitschko for the vacant WBO heavyweight championship.And after four rounds it didn't appear that we would ever hear from him again. Wladimir unleashed a hellacious assault on Brewster culminating in a fourth-round knockdown. But Brewster was able to withstand the assault, leaving Wladimir seemingly out of gas in the fifth. Brewster began backing up the bigger man with hard shots and forced a standing eight count when he battered his foe along the ropes. Klitschko was out on his feet and collapsed to the canvas after the bell for round five prompting the referee to stop the fight. 3.Hasim Rahman KO 5 Lennox Lewis Lennox Lewis entered his 2001 fight with American challenger Hasim Rahman as a heavy favorite. He was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, having won that honor two years previous by defeating Evander Holyfield. Hasim Rahman, on the other hand, seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. His only real win of note had come against the late future champion Corrie Sanders. But he had also been knocked out by heavy punchers Tua and Oleg Maskaev. As the fight began it appeared as if Lewis wasn't in the best shape of his career, he would later admit to not taking Rahman seriously enough. And in the 5th round Rahman landed a monster right hand against Lewis when he was on the ropes. Hasim Rahman had pulled one of the biggest upsets in history and had secured the undisputed heavyweight championship. 2.James "Buster" Douglas KO 10 Mike Tyson In heavyweight history there was no bigger upset that this one. James Douglas entered the ring a underdog for the fight in Tokyo in 1990. Tyson was the undisputed heavyweight champion, an undefeated knockout machine who beat most guys before they stepped into the ring. Nobody, but gamblers looking to make a historic payday, gave Douglas any sort of chance to beat "Iron" Mike.Douglas was winning the fight when in the eighth round he was dropped by a vicious Tyson uppercut. He rose by the count of nine, a fact that remains highly disputed to this day. Many have argued, including Tyson promoter Don King, that the count went well over nine seconds and the fight should have ended.in the 10th round that a badly beaten up Tyson finally succumbed to the pressure. Douglas landed a huge uppercut that staggered the champ, following by several punches while Tyson was reeling that deposited him on the mat. He would not beat the count, making this one of the, if not the biggest upsets in boxing history. 1.Muhammad Ali KO 8 George Foreman Muhammad Ali entered the fight with Foreman, after "Big" George had just blasted out undefeated heavyweight champion Joe Frazier in two rounds and did the same to Ken Norton. Ali, many felt, would struggle with Foreman's size and power. Most expected him to try and stay outside and outbox the bigger man, using his speed and reflexes to avoid George's power. But that's not how it went down. Ali was very aggressive early in the fight, fighting, rather than boxing Foreman. Starting in the second round, he would sit back on the ropes and allow Foreman to unload. Many of the shots were deflected or blocked. The strategy, later called "rope-a-dope" exhausted Foreman. He expended so much energy and barely landed anything damaging to Ali. He was primed for a major fall, and that's what happened when Ali dropped him and stopped him in the eighth round. It was a stunning upset, especially given how it went down.
Foreman vs Ali is not a bigger upset than Douglas vs Tyson. There's also a few others i think that deserve mentioning over some of your other picks. Corrie Sanders vs Wladimir Klitschko James Braddock vs Max Baer Kirkland Laing vs Roberto Duran Fritzie Zivic vs Henry Armstrong 1 Billy Backus vs Jose Napoles 1 Lloyd Honeyghan vs Donald Curry Sugar Ray Robinson vs Randolph Turpin 1 Evander Holyfield vs Mike Tyson 1 Leon Spinks vs Muhammad Ali 1 Michael Bentt vs Tommy Morrison Max Schmeling vs Joe Louis 1
No way was Ali-Foreman a bigger upset that Douglas-Tyson. The latter was most probably the biggest upset of all. Muhammad was an underdog against George but he was very much a live one. It was a great victory,arguably Muhammad's greatest but not a great upset.
147lbs Soldier Bartfield beating a prime 161lbs Harry Greb, tops anything I've read in this thread so far
Douglas-Tyson was a far bigger upset than Ali-Foreman Ali-Liston 1 was also a bigger upset, at least with the oddsmakers. Liston was around a 7 to 1 favorite, while Foreman was around a 3 to 1 favorite . Spinks-Ali 1, Barkley-Hearns 1, Toney-Nunn, Randall-Chavez 1, Holyfield-Tyson 1, and Rahman-Lewis 1 were huge upsets.
Ali-Foreman #1? Oh dear. Terrible call. 3/1 at fight time wasn't it? As mentioned, Liston was a much bigger surprise.
Since we're dogpiling on, I'll point out that Brewster wasn't an unknown at all. He was one of the top US am heavyweights in the 90s and got multiple TV slots as a prospect even though he stumbled against Etienne and Shufford. And Rahman's career trajectory was upward, not downward. He was literally was coming off the biggest win of his career until that point and it was shown on HBO. He literally earned his title shot. He almost beat Maskaev and Tua too.
Ali-Foreman was not an upset, really. Pongsaklek Wonjongkam vs Sony Boy Jarro was as astonishing a boxing result as has occurred in my lifetime. Should be locked on the list.
Ali vs Foreman was definitely an upset but not as big as OP is making out to be. Ali was a former champ, and number one contender multiple times.
He was a 4-1 dog. There are several of those every year. This is an all time list. I mean every fight where the betting favourite doesn't win is an upset, so yes, I mis-spoke, but the idea that it is among the top five upsets in the sports history is ridiculous. He was something like 8-1 against Liston the first time. So it's not even the biggest upset of a fight involving Ali.
