If speaking of heavyweights, during that late 60's/early 70's era we also saw Chuck Wepner pull off a huge upset win over the heavily favoured Forrest Ward, who was highly decorated as an amateur (the winnner of the Golden Gloves, National AAU, and Pan Am Games during his last year in the ammys), and when he entered the pro ranks, he did so with much fanfare from people who viewed him as a young phenom of sorts.
Really knowledgable pick. Considering Nick Wells' great amateur record, Mike Koranicki knocking out Nick Wells is up there also.
A near upset... Wilfred Benitez, who'd just been stripped of his first light-welter belt (WBA, as a 17 year old against Antonio Cervantes), took on Bruce Curry. The Benitez team probably considered it a tuneup for regaining the title and a big money match down the road with the new superstar Sugar Ray Leonard. Curry had only 14 pro fights under his belt, but the Benitez people may not have known about Curry's amateur record. He ranked only slightly below Leonard in the U.S. at a time when the light-welterweight division was a very tough crowd. I was briefly on one of Bruce's amateur teams, sparred with him a couple of times and watched many of his fights. He was very, very good. Bruce knocked Benitez down three times and lost a highly disputed 10 round split decision, which forced a rematch. Curry lost that one by majority draw but gained a lot of respect, which led to a shot at the WBC title, which he won a few years later.
I'll always remember watching when Steve Robinson beat John Davison for the vacant WBO Featherweight Title in '93. Davison had 3 losses but was considered a lock for it since Robinson was a journeyman and had just 2 days notice. Instead Robinson overwhelmed him, and went on an unbelievable 2-year run as a fighting champion before running into a prime Hamed.
Kid Longoria was considered one of the best prospects in boxing and a likely future heavyweight champ before he was shockingly knocked out by Memphis Al Jones. Jones climbing off the floor from repeated knockdowns to knock out Boone Kirkman was also a stunning upset
Stevie Johnston was undefeated, but only had eleven fights, and was pretty lightly regrded when he faced Sharmba Mitchell- who was coming off a loss to Leavander Jonson, and undoubtedly was looking to get back into the win column. Johnson, of course, proceeded to spring the upset by knocking Mitchell silly in the 9th round, and went on to enjoy a stellar career, but, the fact remains, he was the prohibitive underdog going into what would turn out to be his breakout fight.
Leon Spinks - Muhammad Ali Kevin McBride - Mike Tyson Danny Williams - Mike Tyson Buster Douglas - Mike Tyson Zahir Raheem - Erik Morales Hasim rahman - Lennox Lewis Max Baer - James Braddock
I don't know, both of those guys were at similar junctions in thier careers, although Berbick had a few more fights and had already challenged for the world title. Nevertheless, I'd say they were both on par with one another.
Page was the definite fave and Berbick was thought to be a relatively safe fight believe it or not. Holmes had beaten him by a fair size margin and Page was expected to do similar. Turns out Berbick was both underrated and stylistically awkward as hell for Page.
