Big fights that never got made

The sad truth is too many match ups in boxing and MMA are based on fighters getting past certain opponents, not being made unless they win a belt etc If a fight was made as soon as it was interesting then we'd all be much better off.

Fury vs Price, Quigg vs Frampton, Murray vs Baker vs Macklin, most recently Pac vs Floyd, how many fights must these guys risk before facing each other. Pac took it one fight too far and this always the risk.

 

Personally I find it hard to fault Arum with the two fight we got in Pac/Marquez 4 and Gamboa/Farentas (sic?) on that card. I've been more interested in a pac/marquez rematch than pac/mayweather for a while as I didn't think pac would stand a chance.

 

Randomly I watched that fight last night, great fight, some bizarre score cards though, one judge had it to Marquez 9-3!

Barrera was just one of those awesome fighters that even when they lost they still kind of won.

Collins/Calzaghe would have been interesting.

Hagler/Leonard rematch would also have been good, although I am one of those that sees that first fight as a pretty clear victory for Leonard.

Mayweather/Cotto also would have been a huge fight at the time as would have the Mosley fight a few years earlier.

Would also liked to have seen Adamek/Haye a few years back too.

 

Pryor-Leonard, although admitedely, Aaron was probably too small to be as effective at welterweight.

Foreman-Tyson

Tyson-Bowe

Pedroza-Nelson

Nelson-McGuigan

 

The thing with these fights is that right now they would only be big domestically, whereas in a few years they could be on a world level. More at stake, more money and the winner getting a huge lift.

 

I don't tend to follow that line of thinking that natural fights are best left until there are titles involved. It hasn't seemed to harm Groves or Degale that they fought each other and if we had kept to that line of thought we wouldn't have had real barn stormer's like Macklin/Moore and fights like that!

If you say you're the best in the country as Fury and Price both seem to think then put your money where your mouth is and prove it, making financial excuses or political excuses to avoid fighting your closest rivals is part of what is killing the sport. If Fury fights Price and gets sparked out then Price moves up and Fury gets a wake up call and goes back to the drawing board before stepping up to world level or vice versa.

Interesting to see that Moore actually beat Macklin yet never got the world title shot whilst Macklin has now had two, it doesn't always mean the loser is damaged goods, Degale is now holding a better belt than Groves despite the loss to him. Lets just get the best fights made, bollocks to the belts, bollocks to the TV revenue.

If boxing becomes as big as it was in the 70's and 80's then there is more money in the sport for all concerned and more for everyone so I don't buy the financial aspect of waiting to make these fights. Domestic cards are huge anyway and Groves/Degale split close on to a million for their fight did they not?

 

Balboa KO'd Lang in Balboa v Lang II

 

I wish Jones Jr fought Calazghe prime vs prime ... in my opinion Calazghe would of been ko'd!

 

I think the Degale/Groves fight was seen by the Groves camp and ****** as a fight they would win comprehensively. With Groves' 0, decent name, and very marketable past between the two, the fight seemed at the time a great move for Degale.

The reason both are doing fine is because it was a disputed and close decision, not a brutal loss.

Don't think Quigg and Frampton are at the level yet to get the exposure that they deserve, a world title would guarantee the public would get invested in the fight.

Fury/Price would be a big fight now yes, but think of the size of Bruno Lewis. I don't think this definitely needs a title at stake, but at least get them both a little higher up the scale so the winner could possibly get a shot at Wlad.

 

Good points, I hadn't really considered the closeness of the Degale/Groves fight, it could really have gone either way I had it as a draw. Having said that though, Macklin got pretty badly sparked against Moore and came back stronger as did Haye after Thompson. In regards to the camps being confident of victory, if they're saying their man will be world champion then they should be confident of beating their closest domestic rival in my eyes.

Quigg and Frampton would definitely be bigger in a year or so and I am sure they'll fight eventually, they're both young so it's not so bad. With Fury and Price though I don't see the point in delaying it much longer. Both of them lose in brutal fashion to Wlad and neither will likely fight Vitali before he retires so why delay a huge fight and wait for it to be for a worthless vacant alphabet title. Neither will have a beaten a world champion for it and if it is against someone like Arreola or Povetkin as will probably be the case they'll both be scrapping for the fight anyway so the best way to see who moves up to the world stage is fight each other first!

Fury/Price would be absolutely huge anywhere in the NW of England, I think they're in danger of delaying it too long, one could get KO'd unexpectedly and it all falls apart and never happens. It's a big fight right now they should do it next summer.