Cancelled Fights over the years

One I really wish we had was Harold Johnson vs Sonny Liston, Johnson was a helluva boxer it would’ve been Liston’s stiffest opposition.

 

Man that Shavers-Cooney fight would have been fun.

One I didn’t see mentioned here was Foreman-Holmes around ‘00. They signed, both received their advances, then the money for the event fell through (weirdly).

 

Pulev—Joshua bc Pulev got hurt. The fight wasn’t rescheduled until years later after Pulev had beaten Hughie Fury in a mandatory.

Povetkin—Wilder bc Povetkin failed a drug test.

Povetkin—Stiverne bc Povetkin failed a drug test.

I also remember Wlad—Fury II being more complicated than Fury being “medically unfit.” Fury had issues with testing positive for steroids (apparently the fight could still happen?) and cocaine (after the fight was signed). Wlad really got jobbed there.

 

M, I love the effort you put into this. I can throw a few more to you but I don't have exact dates at my disposal.

-The Harold Johnson v Mauro Mina bout you mentioned was one cog in the wheel. When Mina pulled out through injury, Henry Hank was subbed. But then he too was injured in training before the offer went to Pastrano.

-It may have been '64 that the Eder Jofre v Jesus Pimental bout was set, but Pimental's manager Harry Kabakoff had his fingers way into this with disputes with George Parnassus and a Texas promoter. For a finish Harry just pulled Pimental out of the bout.

-In late '69 the Olympic Boxing Club signed Sugar Ramos against future lightweight champ Rodolfo Gonzalez to a 10 rounder sure to sell out the arena, but in November Ramos pulled out with the flu. It was re-signed for December but in between dates Gonzalez took a fight in San Antonio. Although Gonzalez won, he was cut during the bout which cancelled the December date. And it was never rescheduled.

-The rematch between Mike Rossman and Victor Galindez was luckily rescheduled but Galindez ran out on the original date the day of the fight with ABC cameras waiting for him and the fight to start. He apparently had a dispute over the officials.

-Larry Holmes v John Tate was cancelled when Tate was either hurt in training or got sick - I don't remember. This would have been a fantastic fight before the Weaver debacle, but this bout was during his comeback when he was clearly damaged goods and simply beating tomato cans. This would not have been much had it happened.

 

*Wlad—Fury II. Hadn’t had my coffee.

 

In September 2018, Oquendo was slated to fight Manuel Charr for the WBA heavyweight title, but the fight was called off after Charr tested positive for a banned substance. [

 

http://es.pn/2rGSwnP

Shannon Briggs—Oquendo, cancelled due to Briggs’ T levels.

 

@Mastrangelo I wonder if there’s a way to track down what the next round of fights would have been in the aborted USA championships put on by ABC in association and promoted by Don King (ended by scandal revealing The Ring’s U.S. ratings, on which participation was decided, were being rigged to favor fighters King controlled through proxies, with fake results being added to fighters’ records to justify their inclusion).

I don’t know if there was a bracket, per se, but they were running cards for several weeks and obviously winners were supposed to advance to face other winners.

EDIT: The tournament was suspended by ABC on the day of or day before a semifinal card was scheduled to take place in Miami: April 16, 1977.

On that card was scheduled Larry Holmes vs. Stan Ward at heavyweight and Frankie Baltazar vs. Francesco Villegas at junior lightweight.

Exhibitions by Muhammad Ali and Esteban DeJesus (not against each other haha) were also on the planned card.

No idea if we can find any other planned semifinals that never happened, but here’s two lost fights I had never known about with the Holmes and Baltazar bouts being called off.

https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/17/...nded-pending-an-inquiry-two-bouts-called.html

 

Actually, as weird as it sounds, the first attempt at Tunney/Dempsey was also canceled by a governor over a potential race riot too. Sure, Tunney was white, much like Dempsey, but many felt he was simply too white. Dempsey was noted to have said "I don't know what's going to happen if I fight that walking mayonnaise jar. People could get real crazy like." But some scholars like Bud Melman and Calvert DeForest have mentioned that the "race riot" was not about whiteness of race but Tunney causing people to riot by running away a lot, almost as if in a footrace. We'll never know the real reason, as that governor has been dead since the San Francisco Carport Day Parade of '27. He was trampled to death by a blow-up carport and visiting California state because of the special event. He would leave home in a New York state Pierce Arrow Coupe...and return in a San Francisco city body bag.

 

Spinks-EM Muhammad 2, when Eddie didn’t make weight.

Same with Corrales-Castillo 3

 

On a serious note, Dempsey was Jewish (or his mom was). I’m guessing he and his people were able to bury that to the general public bc of his last name.

 

Mike Tyson vs. Oleg Maskaev was scheduled to take place on the Lennox Lewis-Vitale Klitschko undercard on June 21, 2003. The reasons cited in Wikipedia for Tyson pulling out (the wiki page for Tyson-Etienne looking at the aftermath) were Tyson filing for bankruptcy and suing Don King.

Lewis tried to exercise an immediate rematch clause with Tyson but Mike said he needed a couple of tuneups first.

Here’s confirmation of Tyson being cleared and at the bottom of the story is names Maskaev as the opponent:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2003/apr/23/boxing.johnrawling

Tyson also canceled a Jan. 19, 2002, fight with Ray Mercer to instead accept a fight with Lennox Lewis.

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/08/sports/boxing-canceled-bout-sets-up-tyson-lewis-title-fight.html

Kind of ironic that Gerry Cooney has the rep for pulling out of fights but you never see that about Tyson, who canceled more than his fair share of bouts in his career.

 

Ray Mancini pulled out of a May 27, 1983, bout with Kenny Bogner in South Africa (coupled with a Frank Sinatra concert per reports) with a broken collarbone.

Roberto Duran’s challenge of Davey Moore for the junior middleweight title was also scheduled for this event and moved to Madison Square Garden a few weeks later after the South Africa card was canceled.

Mancini and Bogner were again slated to fight in September 1984 in a non-title fight (after Ray lost his crown to Livingstone Bramble) but this time Ray pulled out with a cut in training.