Give me examples of when this has happened before in boxing history...

I don't know about Ring Magazine, but a lot of people were picking Pac. De La Hoya had been putting fear into no one for a long time when he fought Pac. Some people just thought Pac would be too small.

 

Lacy was a betting favourite in the UK, that tells you something since odds makers will bias towards home fighters to offset the risk from the weight of betting.

Lacy was better regarded pre-Calzaghe that people care to remember, Marvin Hagler said Lacy was top 5 p4p.

 

Yeah I would say Calzaghe LAcy fits.

Lacy was top ten pound for pound and a HUGE favorite from what I remember.


And now everyone just writes that win off to Lacy being overrated and limited.

And I am NO Joe Calzaghe fan.


Keith

 

It's not written off as often as I see Pacquiao-De La Hoya written off, but fairly frequently I hear people downplay Hopkins-Trinidad by saying Trinidad was too small.

15 out of 20 people polled by The Ring picked Trinidad, as opposed to 18 of 20 for De La Hoya against Pacquiao, but Trinidad was a heavier betting favorite than De La Hoya was.

 

OOH, that is a good one too.

I didn't know anybody picking Hopkins at that time.

Keith

 

This is a brilliant example, and a fairly good parrallel since weight is the factor why many disregard the result!

 

Now, perhaps Floyd would have still won, maybe, but the reason he dominated the way he did was because Shane was a zombie that night.

 

By the way this is a really good question Popkins.

 

Yeah it was. It got me racking my brain.


Keith

 

Lacy was a much bigger favorite with boxing writers, as opposed to oddsmakers, who had him a slight favorite.

 

Tyson v Holyfield. Out of 40 experts, only one picked Evander.

 

Odds makers base odds on the expected distribution of the bets not just the likelihood of the event. Lacy was a betting favourite in the UK, you can read that as him being a pretty big favourite in their minds.

 

Want a bet? EVERYONE had Lacy - Ring said it was a forgone conclusion that Lacy would beat Calzaghe.

ODLH had just lost against Floyd Mayweather Jr and everyone was worried about how he'd go cooking himself down so much.

 

How about Ali - Spinks I? Ali was a huge favourite given how green Spinks was, and afterwards people just said "Ali was in terrible shape". The rematch probably doesn't help the revisionism

Lennox Lewis v Razor Ruddock - at the time Ruddock was a favourite and a beast. After, he had been 'softened up by Tyson'

Chavez - Frankie Randall I has some parallels, but of course it is Randalls signature win so it doesn't quite fit.

 

Good one, I love this fight Ruddock looks like a cartoon character who has had a rug pulled from under his feet on one of the knockdowns!