Biggest Upsets?

James Buster Douglas vs. Mike Tyson

 

Not as big as Tyson-Douglas, but Liston-Clay I was 8 to 1.

Tyson was 42-1 over Douglas.

 

Rahman vs Lewis was certainly one of them.....

 

Biggest upsets?

Trying to stay away from the 'cliche'. Time seems to dull the shock, hence Douglas/Tyson seems more shocking than Ali/ListonI, but both were huge. Also there can be a cultural shock, an 'unbeatable' hero finally coming unstuck.

So working in that 'context':


Corbett/Sullivan

Johnson/Jeffries

Dempsey/TunneyI

Hagler/Leonard

Chavez/RandallI


And a few less well remembered:


Gonzales/Pascua

Gonzales/Sorjaturong

Former alphabet title holder Dingaan Thobela losing to 16-142-7 British Journeyman Karl Taylor.

Forrest/MosleyI

Drayton/Kaylor and Bruno/Smith on the same bill.

Andries/Harding

Quarless/Tate

 

Believe it or not the year 1984 alone had some of the biggest upsets in boxing history:

Livingstone Bramble KO14 Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini I
Gene "Mad Dog" Hatcher tko11 Johnny "Bump City" Bumphus
Juan "Kid" Meza ko1 Jaime Garza
Jose Luis Ramirez tko4 Edwin "El Chapo" Roasario II
Mark Medal tko5 Earl "The Pearl" Hargrove
Rocky Lockridge KO1 Roger "Black Jack/Black Mamba" Mayweather
Greg Page KO8 Gerrie Coetzee
Charlie "Choo Choo" Brown W15 Melvin Paul
Azumah Nelson KO11 Wilfredo Gomez

 

You're a smart man. The following Sullivan had in America will NEVER be matched.

 

Tyson vs Douglas
Ali Vs Foreman
Barrera vs Hamed
Clay vs Liston
Rahman vs Lewis I
Foreman vs Moorer
De La Hoya vs Trinidad

 

Tyson losing to Douglas is like a top 3 upset in modern sports history

 

Not just losing, but HOW he lost. A Rahman vs Lewis thing could happen to anyone.....except Holyfield.

 

Moorer losing to Foreman was also huge

 

I wouldnt call Mosley vs Forrest an upset what so ever!

 

With hindsight maybe, but at the time the best pound for pound fighter, fighting a title holder who was struggling to be a household name in his own household...

 

McGovern-Gans was such a surprising result that people (perhaps justifiably) automatically assumed there was a fix.

Lloyd Honeyghan beating the crap out of Donald Curry was a massive upset.

In Australia the shock of Nelson trouncing Fenech in their rematch was seismic.

Tarver stopping Jones Jnr like that was a huge surprise and had people read******g their p4p lists frantically.

 

Great shout.People have no concept of just how big a shock that was.The weight drain didn't come into it when the gulf in class was predicted to be the be all and end all.

Arguello losing to Fernandez whilst he was in his absolute pomp was a huge upset as well.

Ray Leonard and Ali pulled off two of the biggest,but Buster's is the greatest of all.Just bought a book about that."The Last Great Fight"