Best Boxing Matches That Never Happened

Sugar Ray Robinson vs Charlie Burley

Emile Griffith vs Jose Napoles
(earlier)

Salvador Sanchez vs Alexis Arguello (spelling?)

Khaosai Galaxy vs Jiro Watanabe

Joe Frazier vs Sonny Liston
(bit old but eh)

George Foreman vs Jerry Quarry
(Though maybe then we don’t get RITJ?)

Yuh Myung-Woo vs Chang Jung-Koo
(Worst thing Korea has ever done)

Roberto Duran vs Antonio Cervantes

 

I clicked on this thread because I slightly misread the title. I thought the OP meant one of the fighters who took part (presumably the loser) denied the fight had ever taken place, rather like Vitali Klitschko denying for years that Pele Reid had ever fought him and rendered him unconscious.
My example was of a kickboxing fight, but it did feature two guys who had professional boxing careers. I'm sure there must be other examples within the sport of boxing where one person denies the fight ever happened.

 

Mia St. John -vs- Bridgett "Babydoll" Riley

Mike Tyson -vs- George Foreman

Larry Holmes -vs- Pinklon Thomas

Roy Jones, Jr. -vs- Nigel Benn

James Toney -vs- Bernard Hopkins

Hector Camacho -vs- Meldrick Taylor

Antonio Margarito -vs- Ricardo Mayorga

 

Benn v Jackson
Bruno v Mason

 

Michael Nunn against Thomas Hearns and Mike McCallum was definitely a missed opportunity at the time as well. Nunn ended up fighting the guys that beat them instead (Iran Barkley and Sumbu Kalambay) but it would have been interesting to see how he well he fared against those two ATGs.

 

It nearly happened, and it’s a tough one to call, we’ve had dedicated threads on that one. It’s largely a question of Bruno tending to run out of gas or freezing.

 

Hagler-monzon
Liston-quarry
Marciano-nino valdez
Henry cooper-eddie Machen
Frazier-lyle

 

Hagler vs Hearns II
Pryor vs Leonard
Benitez vs Cuevas
Foreman vs Holmes
Foreman vs Tyson
Foreman vs Shavers
Fairweather vs Williams
Tyson vs Bowe
Fraizer vs Norton

 

I’ll go with Matthew Saad Muhammad-James Scott.

This has war written all over it with Scott’s smothering, body-punching attack and Saad’s ability to weather a B-52 bombing strike and surge back … but would that body work sap him?

Let’s say in a mythical world where Scott got a furlough to fight in Atlantic City some afternoon on CBS.

 

Trinidad missed out on a few big fights vs Quartey, Mosley.

Marvin Johnson vs Dwight Muhammad Qawi would've been savage.

 

Vasyl Lomachenko vs Mikey Garcia is another fight that should have happened back in 2018. Garcia made the foolish decision of avoiding Loma by moving up to WW only to get bamboozled by Errol Spence Jr. Very disappointing career he had.

 

Solid list. I'll add Hearns-McCallum.

 

Many good mentions, but don't think I've seen McClellan-Jones yet. I would also have liked a Jones-Hopkins rematch earlier, like 2002.

 

There so many but I will say that :

Minimumweight : Chayaphon Moonsri "Wanheng Menayothin" vs Ricardo Finito Lopez or Chayaphon Moonsri vs Ginjiro or Yudai Shigeoka.

Light Flyweight : Kenshiro Teraji vs Kosei Tanaka, Ryoichi Taguchi vs Kenshiro Teraji, Brahim Asloum vs Kenshiro Teraji, Pichit Chor Siriwat Vs Masamichi Yabuki



Flyweight : Pongsaklek Wonjongkam vs Wisaksil Wangek, Masao Ohba vs Amnat Ruenroeng, Pone Kingpetch vs Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Venice Borkhorsor vs Masao Ohba, Sot Chitalada vs Amnat Ruenroeng
, Chocolatito vs Amnat Ruenroeng

Super Flyweight :
Katsuya Onizuka vs Khaosai Galaxy, Moon Sun-kil vs Masamori Tokuyama, Yota Sato vs Katsuya Onizuka, Kazuto Ioka vs Khaosai Galaxy.


Bantamweight :
Nordine Oubaali vs Zolani Tete, Junto Nakatani vs Fighting Harada, Khaokor Galaxy vs Nonito Donaire, Veerapol Sahaprom vs Takuma Inoue, Shinsuke Yamanaka vs Nordine Oubaali, Pungluang Sor Singyu vs Rau'shee Warren...