Favorite boxing “what if’s”?

Foreman staying hungry, beating Ali, and with Archie Moore and Sandy Saddler still in his corner moving on to cement his reign likely leading into a collision with Holmes.

He retired at 28 and was a late starter. Plenty of time to transition into the 80's.

Alternatively, Walcott getting the nod against Louis.

 

What if Cus D'Amato had been in Tysons life throughout his championship years, would they have not become so troubled, or at least possibly less so and better managed?

 

What if - the young Cassius Clay's bike was not stolen......... Louis would reign supreme as the ATG Heavyweight .

 

What if Ali had n't have been exiled from boxing in the sixties?
What if Sugar Ray Leonard had n't have had retina problems?
What if Salvador Sanchez had n't have been involved in that traqic accident?

 

What if Eddie Futch allowed Frazier to keep fighting in the Thrilla of Manila?

What if Salvador Sanchez didn't die so early?

What if Hagler was awarded the victory against Sugar Ray Leonard?

What if Mike Tyson didn't lose to Buster Douglas and ended up fighting Holyfield in 1990?

What if Richard Steele didn't stop the fight with two seconds left in Chavez vs Taylor 1?

What if Mayweather and Pacquiao fought in 2010?

What if Sergey Kovalev / GGG were given the decision win in their first fight against Ward / Canelo?

 

He might have died. He couldn't see and Ali was just teeing off on him. Futch made the right call.

 

Yeah I don't see him losing to Young in this scenario. He'd likely be a far more dominant champion and hold the belt for quite a while perhaps, until he's aging and runs into a Young and hungry Tyson.

 

What if Cleveland Williams hadn't been shot?

He was in line for a WBA title shot against Ernie Terrell.

He had a KO victory over Terrell and lost a razor thin SD when injured. He also had Terrell ready to go in that last round. Luckily for Terrell, it was only a ten rounder.

The trilogy bout would've been a 15 rounder as it would've been a championship match.

Williams would be a solid favorite imo, and would go on to likely have successful defenses against the likes of Doug Jones (Jones rejected a $50,000 offer to face Williams on two occasions but I imagine a shot at the WBA title would be enticing) and Chuvalo.

If Machen didn't have the mental breakdown, he likely learns from their first bout, makes some adjustments, and beats Williams in a close bout.

If not, Williams is headed for a unification bout with Ali that he still loses but is much more competitive in.

 

Here's one that I've always wondered about, but don't ever see others bring up:

What if the ref for the 1st Pacquiao-Marquez fight elected to stop it after the 3rd KD in the 1st round?

Not only would we be deprived of an epic battle, but (more significantly) there probably would've been little demand for Pac to ever rematch Marquez, thus depriving us of an ATG rivalry & one where Pac (unofficially, at least) got the worst off.

 

Frazier was beaten badly but I recall Ali being so exhausted that he wanted to quit and have his gloves cut off. Hard to know how it would have looked had the fight continued on.

 

That's something I've always wondered myself. Would JMM have still been the great fighter that he ended up becoming now? The Pac fights really helped solidify JMM's greatness and it's also a great thing that the fans got to experience an ATG fight series.

Another what if scenario that I've always wondered is what if Pacquiao hadn't become so overly eager to stop JMM in the fourth fight that ended up getting himself KO'd? What would have happened if Pacquiao manage to finally stop JMM on cuts in their fourth and final encounter? Would we finally have seen a Mayweather fight the following year?

 

What if Felix Savon turned pro

What if Tyson never went to prison

 

What if Duran had stopped to win a title at light-welter on his way up? What if he’d got the decision over Hagler?
What if Ali had gone ahead with the proposed fight with John L Gardner in Hawaii after his Holmes loss rather than Berbick?

 

What if Muhammad Ali was never exiled? Would he defend the title more times than Joe Louis and retired undefeated?

What if Larry Holmes continued fighting after the second Spinks loss. Would he be able to regain the belt before facing Tyson and losing to him?

What if Mike Tyson never went to that party with Bobby Brown a day before the fight with Buster Douglas? How much better would he be if he didn't smash these 12 prostitutes and sniff all the coke? How would his career look like after that?

What if Vitali wasn't as fragile as he was. How would his reign look like after winning the belt in 2004?

What if Deontay Wilder faced Alexander Povetkin in May 2016 in Moscow, like he was supposed to? Would Sasha beat him to become the champion?

What if the ref would have waved off Tyson Fury in the 12th round of his first Wilder fight? Would that be it for The Gipsy King?

What if Jerrell Miller never got caought on PEDs and fought Anthony Joshua in June 2019. Would he be a tougher fight than Andy Ruiz? Would Joshua win and continue his reign as the best heavyweight on the planet?