Do you think that Ali beat Foreman is still the biggest upset?

tyson - douglas was 42-1 odds
liston vs ali 8 or 9-1
not sure about foreman vs ali but should have at least equal if not bigger than liston

foreman was 40-0 (37 KOs)
coming off wins against undefeated champ joe frazier who went 15 rounds with ali
TKO2 ken norton who had given all hell for 24 rounds at that point winning once

so it was a massive upset, top for sure

 

atsch

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Hello, McFly!

 

I would never consider it a big upset, just for the fact when it was happening alot of people believe ali was going to win. It not like sanders vs klitshcko, were it was suppost to be a cake walk for wlad. Ali one of those fighters when his skills were gone people still believed he could win. Kind of like roy jones, after tarver loss, it took several more losses for people to believe the talent was gone (myself included). I never thought that was a big upset, just like i never belived ali was in danger of losing or behind on the cards, i thought he won almost every round he fought in that fight.....

 

Hope - Proksa
26-0 Proksa was ranked #4 by The Ring and was being hyped up as the Polish Mayweather. Hope was 16-3 with only one KO win and having not previously fought anyone of note. Hope outfought Proksa to a 12 round MD. :bbb

Rasani - Sosnowski :rofl
Sosnowski was 46-4-1, a former European champion who had fought Vitali Klitschko just 17 months earlier. Blown up middleweight Rasani was 23-61-4 and had lost his last 18 fights. Sosnowski looked slow and lethargic throughout and the slick and black Rasani outmoved him to claim a draw :!:

 

SRL-Hagler was an upset of around the level of Ali-Foreman..

SRL was retired and came straight back to fight the reigning champ Hagler. Most people did not think SRL had much of a chance.

Tyson-Douglas was a much bigger upset than both.

 

Kha's first defeat was an upset too.

 

Wasn't the 'biggest' upset, but it terms of a story, it ranks highly.

 

buster douglas vs. mike tyson is i think the biggest upset in the history of the sport....

and if it isn't, i'd love to know which was...

 

Another 3:

Turpin v Robinson

Duran v Barkley

Foreman v Moorer

 

Turpin vs. Robinson was a HUUUGEE upset.

I don't think Ali/Foreman was really THAT big of an upset. . . Odds should have probably been something like +250-+300 for Ali, and Foreman @ -175 - -250.

Classic boxer against a classic brawler/puncher? Especially a boxer with the skill of Ali, and a puncher as crude as Foreman. . .

I bet a lot of guys on this forum would have called it.

 

I agree.

The thing was that some thought Ali was past it, but still many would have called it I agree.

It was somewhat like Hopkins vs Tarver/Pavlik/Pascal.

 

Not the biggest because in the back of everyone's mind had to be the lurking suspicion that George was a monster with very little "talent" - if someone could withstand his power, he wasn't exactly the complete package Tyson seemed to represent early with amazing speed and head movement. But it just didn't seem likely that Ali had enough at that point to withstand that kind of physical disadvantage.

Pac-Barrera had to be a pretty big one, and Pac-DeLaHoya, but nothing to compare with some of the crap that happened in Terry Norris' career.

Santana WX2 over Norris is still the biggest upset. I don't care what kind of circumstances, that no talent guy by the miracle of divine intervention has two wins over Terry Norris.

 

To chime in with the general consensus, there have been far more unlikely upsets than Ali-Foreman. While obviously still in the minority, there were plenty of people picking Ali to win, and it was perceived as a more difficult fight for Foreman than either Norton or Frazier due to styles.

Some that might not get much of a mention:

Fernandez-Arguello (a real WTF? outcome)
Corbett-McGovern (the featherweight Douglas-Tyson of the early twentieth century)
Salazar-Romero (mediocre journeyman stops the next big thing in a non-title fight)
Backus-Napoles (journeyman dethrones ATG)
Braddock-Baer (coming into the fight, Baer was more highly regarded than he came to be later)

 

Nope Tyson vs Douglas takes the cake for me.