Biggest upsets in the original 8 weight divisions?

the ultimate upset was... the splintering of the divisions!!!

 

Billy Backus v Jose Napoles and Honeyghan v Curry at WW. I go with the latter as Napoles getting cut was always a possibility, whereas Honeyghan didn't seem to have a prayer v Curry who had looked excellent up until that bout.

 

Hw: Douglas over Tyson
Light heavy: Johnson over Roy
Middle: Toney-Tiberi, if that counts
Welter: Mayorga over Forrest
....

 

Toney won though?

The nature of Nunn-Kalambay, if THAT counts?

 

HW-Douglas-Tyson
Cw-Thompson-Haye
LHW_ Johnson-RJ
M-Leonard-Hagler
lm-DuaneThomas-J Mugabi
W-Honeyghan-Curry

 

...

 

For middleweight, I would definitely say Al McCoy beating George Chip.

 

Heavy: Tyson-Douglas
Light Heavy: Jones-Johnson
Middle: Robinson-Turpin
Welter: Curry-Honeyghan
Feather: Gomez-Sanchez

Couldn't think of one for Fly or Bantam. I thought about the first Duran-De Jesus fight for Lightweight, but I figured I was overlooking some other upset.

 

Eloy Sanchez-Jose Becerra at bantam.

 

For 'world title' fights, and trying to not use hindsight, my starting points are:


Fly: Wilde/Villa

Bantam: Jones/Johnson

Feather: McGuigan/Cruz

Light: Bramble/Mancini

Welter: Honeyghan/Curry

Middle: Turpin/RobinsonI

Light Heavy: Siki/Carpentier

Heavy: Ali/ListonI

 

:deal

 

I just went with the fights I actually saw happen at the time, not stuff from before I was born.

Heavyweight - Buster Douglas stopping Mike Tyson
Light Heavyweight - Mike Rossman stopping Victor Galindez
Middleweight - Iran Barkley stopping Thomas Hearns
Welterweight - Shane Mosley stopping Antonio Margarito
Lightweight - Livingstone Bramble stopping Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini
Featherweight - Steve Cruz outpointing Barry McGuigan in the heat
Bantamweight - Richie Sandoval stopping Jeff Chandler
Flyweight - Vic Darchinyan stopping Irene Pacheco

At Bantamweight, Chandler was the man. If a bantamweight could be feared, he was. Junior Jones-John Michael Johnson is a good pick. Jones was really hyped, but his title-winning fight against Julio wasn't televised most places and he was still pretty new. So watching him lose to Johnson wasn't earth-shattering.

At featherweight, I wanted to put Salvador Sanchez outpointing Danny "Little Red" Lopez. When I watched it live, it was a shocking upset. But Sanchez became an even greater champ than Lopez did. Jorge Paez dropping Calvin Grove three times in the last round to win the title was pretty sweet, too. But Grove wasn't much of a champ. So I went with Cruz-McGuigan.

At Lightweight, nobody thought Bramble was going to beat Mancini that night. I almost put Sean O'Grady over Hilmer Kenty. Kenty was becoming a star along the same lines as Hearns, Pryor, etc., and O'Grady had a lot of wins over nobodies. After O'Grady lost to Watt, I remember watching on television when he and Kenty agreed to fight, and I thought Kenty was going to kill him. O'Grady's dominant win was pretty surprising to all. That's kind of forgotten now. But Bramble came out of nowhere, so I went with that.

At welter, Mosley will be viewed by historians as a far better fighter than Margarito. But going into that bout, Mosley was expected to get absolutely destroyed. Discovering Margarito's loaded gloves before the fight and Mosley beating him just made it a HUGE night. I always thought Honeyghan-Curry wasn't as big of an upset as people made it out to be. Lloyd losing to Jorge Vaca was a bigger surprise to me at the time. And I think Judah-Baldomir was "odds wise" the biggest upset in welterweight history. But it didn't feel like it was as I was watching it. Mosley-Margarito was a shocker. So I went with that.

Leonard outpointing Hagler was a strong choice at middleweight, but that night nearly everyone was rooting for Leonard. It was a fun night. Barkley was given no chance to beat Hearns, and Hearns beat him to a bloody pulp, and then Iran struck. For a time, Hearns-Barkley was the fight I showed people to encourage them to watch boxing.

Rossman stopping Galindez in the prelim to Ali-Spinks II was messed up. Galindez was the champ since I'd started following boxing. Seeing him lose to Rossman was really shocking. And Galindez proved it was a fluke in the rematch. Jones-Glen Johnson was just as shocking as Galindez-Rossman 1, but Jones was coming off a second-round knockout loss. So, to me, that made Rossman-Galindez a bigger upset. Galindez won a lot of close decisions, but Rossman stopping him was just weird.

 

What is also kind of forgotten now is how weird some of those names sounded at the time they scored their upsets.

"Buster."

"Iran."

"Livingstone."

We don't even think about it now. But those names seemed so odd at the time. And when those guys won, it made their wins even more peculiar in a way.

It was like "What's a Livingstone Bramble?" ... kind of thing.

I don't know why I thought of that.

Got to go.

 

Ali Vs Liston 1st
(The Skinny Loud Mouthed Kid..Floored by Cooper, - Against the Monster who Destroyed Amongst Others Williams (x2) Folly, And Patterson in his last two !)

Frankie Randell Vs Chavez

Buchanan Vs Laguna (On Laguna's Scorching Home Turf)



Stevie Cruz Vs McGuigen (Damn Heat )