Fighters that were afraid of an opponent but ended up KOing them

Well, he wouldn't even acknowledge Young's presence right after their fight, and through the years, Foreman is about as closed mouthed about Young...maybe moreso, than he is for any fighter....won't credit him for anything.
I keep up with all things pertaining to Jimmy Young, as I am probably one of his three biggest fans here.

 

Good call. In Dempsey's book its clear that he was very impressed by Willard's physique and he knew that he would need a special performance. Boy, did he deliver.

 

Benn V the G man.He admitted after the fight he was crapping himself before hand .That's why Benn came out the way he did against McClellan ,throwing him self at him ,to face his fear head on .That's the way to beat it .And I believe that once he'd been down in the first round he knew he come through the worst. Once he got that in his mind the fight was half way won .

 

He certainly didn't look supremely confident did he ? Maybe with his long lay off and all the crap going on in his life ,he wasn't feeling his usual confident self .

 

Kirk Johnson acted like he won the heavyweight sweepstakes million dollar payday after KOing Oleg Maskaev.

 

I've read Tyson say he was scared for all 3 fights after Rooney was fired: Bruno, Truth and Buster. Remember he canceled the December 1989 fight with Ruddock in Canada as well.

 

So he did .Wasn't it a injury picked up in training that caused the cancelling of it ?Just shows what damage it caused getting rid of Rooney.

 

Gene Tunney said that he had to stop reading the newspapers before the first Dempsey fight, because the way that they were writing him off was demoralizing him.

 

The idea of Foreman being afraid of Frazier might be hard to swallow in hindsight, but lets look at the circumstances going into the fight.

Foreman had beaten nobody of any note at that point, and Frazier had been built up into a head to head monster, following his victory over Ali.

Yes it would have taken a big leap of faith for him not to be afraid!