Fighters who blew a career high pay day, by underestimating an opponent

Tommy Morrison- Michael Bentt

 

Sugar Ray Robinson who kept pricing himself out of a third Carmen Basilio fight. While waiting for the unheard of fee he wanted, he lost his title to Paul Pender for $50,000.

 

When Tracy Harris Patterson and Kennedy McKinney were WBC and IBF champs, the talk of them meeting was electric. Two popular American super bantamweight champs. It was unheard of for that weight. Everyone wanted this one, but the two kept farting around, not putting pen to paper and they both lost their titles within a week of each other to Hector Acero Sanchez and Vuyani Bungu, respectively. Strike while the iron is hot, guys.

 

Exhibit A:

Tommy Morrison against Michael Bennt
Although, in retrospect, Bennt was very talented. But, it has been said that Morrison undertrained for that fight.

I think, in retrospect, Morrison should have fought a stiff in a non-title fight rather than fight a WBO title fight.

 

Unfortunately for Tommy, there is no such thing as a non-title fight at heavyweight once you are champ. Remember, what makes a non-title for a lower weight class is over the weight.

 

I believe the Larry Holmes vs Marvis Frazier fight in 1983 can be called a heavyweight non-title fight. The WBC refused to sanction it since Frazier wasn’t ranked in their top 10 but Holmes went ahead with the fight anyway and it was still scheduled for the title distance of 12 rounds. Had Frazier won the title would have been declared vacant which is the normal procedure for non-title fights.

 

A 5 million dollar payday for a fight with De La Hoya was awaiting Terry Norris, all he had was get by Keith Mullings. The De La Hoya fight would've been a good purse to retire with and Norris had a good chance to beat the still inexperienced De La Hoya. Norris got stopped by Mullings, lost his next two fights and then had to retire due to health concerns.

 

Ray Mercer v Jesse Ferguson

 

That's not quite true. Sandy Saddler lost several times as champ in non-titles as did Flash Elorde and don't forget Roberto Duran lost to DeJesus in a non-title. These were over-the-weight matches where the title is not at stake. It used to be a viable avenue for a champ to keep himself sharp without the possibility of losing his title while earning a payday. Duran and Victor Galindez would often fight non-titles without any risk. As for the Holmes-Frazier bout, they both trained for a title bout and the fact they threatened Holmes with vacating his title says a lot about the fact that there is no such thing as a non-title at heavy. The title is always on the line. I think the WBC got into a snit about sanctioning fees. Of course it had to do with money. It's not like they were ever concerned with a fighter.

 

Tony Ayala Jr thought that woman would be an easy opponent, but she KOed him for 16 years....

 

Frazier vs Foreman