Gun to your head - could you name 3 fights in history where you 100% believe a fighter took a dive?

Lots. Too many to mention.
Brian Nielsen - Thomas Williams (Williams tried and convicted of taking a dive in that fight)
Brian Nielsen - Tim Witherspoon (Witherspoon admitted to taking a dive)
George Foreman - Tony Fulilangi (Fulilangi admitted to diving, the punch that stopped him missed)
Tex Cobb - Sonny Barch (Barch admitted to taking a dive)
Willie Pep - Lulu Perez (all-timer)
Whoever this Jorge Kahwagi and all 12 of the guys he supposed stopped.

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Rick Parker, who promoted Bert Cooper, was profiled in a fixed fight story on 60 Minutes. Parker was later shot to death by Tim "Doc" Anderson after Parker reportedly drugged Anderson before a rematch with former NFL player Mark Gatineau when Anderson refused to take a dive.

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Wilder vs Audley
Ali vs Liston 2
De La Hoya vs Hopkins

 

Wilder-Martin?

 

Anthony Joshua-Hector Avila. Classic. Takes a couple hard shots. Looks at his corner. Goes down from the next shot. "Oh. My ear!" Does the slow climb up. When the referee says 10, he finally stands and complains, "Why did you stop it?

 

Beoncey 'suit of Sauron' Windy Miller almost knocking Scuba Scott unconscious with the sonic boom generated by the sheer force of his swinging, flailing, bionic arms. Wilder harpooning the bloated corpse of Bermane 'beached whale' Stiverne and Clenelo KO'ing Kovalev with a grazing hook that even Dubbleanal could have stood up to.

 

Paul Briggs vs Danny Green
Malik Scott vs Deontey Wilder
Jake LaMotta vs Billy Fox

 

I know you are a complete moron because you think Dubbleanal is clever and you keep typing it over and over. But if you think Stiverne took a dive in Wilder II, you are also the single dumbest person on this forum. And if you're trying to impress the ladies, the cucumber goes down the front of your pants, not the back. (LOL)

I'm putting you on ignore for just being a stupid troll. Don't bother commenting. I won't see it or respond. Ever.

 

Canelo legitimately knocked out Kovalev. Kovalev in no way shape or form took a dive. He was caught cold and dropped like a sack of potatoes. Kovalev had already been knocked out twice before he fought Canelo.

Those who claim Kovalev took a dive have major Canelo issues. They still can't accept what happened.

 

Stiverne looked like death warmed up in the second fight and yet YOU would still hold that up as being a great victory for Beoncey. Stiverne looked worse than a Covid-19 ravaged 90 yr old. And what's wrong with Dubbleanal? Don't knock it till you've tried it has always been my phylosophy and you've been Dubble dicked by Wilder and Ortiz ever since you joined this forum.

And please don't put me on ignore.....I don't mean to upset you really, honest. Just trying to change your misguided ways by pointing out how insane it is to continue supporting the most delusional hack in Heavyweight boxing history.

 

Define take a dive? Paid specifically to lose? Tyson Seldon doesn’t qualify then. Not in that sense.

The prevailing wisdom in this day and age is that you can’t fix a fight anymore. Not when fighters cut up purses of $30 million or so. Bruce Seldon got $5 million. Gamblers can’t fix fighters who command that kind of money. Fights used to be fixable when the purse would be a few grand, not a few mil.

But the Seldon scenario goes like this: Bruce Seldon had the title and not much else. He even got that by fiat, not by punches. He defended it against a nobody named Joe Hipp in an event about as well attended as a poetry reading in Abilene.

So, the plot goes, promoter Don King approached him with the proposition: Fight Mike Tyson and get a great payday, $5 mil to be exact, and escape with all your teeth and eyes and ears and enjoy it.

You have to think Uncle Don was not at all interested in another Buster Douglas. “The fix was in, but not that kind of fix,” Bob Arum explained. “King fixed it, all right, but by manipulating the ratings and rulings so that Bruce Seldon became champion by just standing there like a guy waiting for a bus.”

What happened was that the World Boxing Association took the title away from George Foreman because he wouldn’t defend against Tony Tucker, Foreman didn’t want a Tucker fight because nobody would show up for it but Tucker.

Seldon, who had been knocked out twice, was given a title shot against Tucker, for what obscure reason no one--with the possible exception of Don King--knows for sure. Pitting them for the vacant title was a little like Paul Tagliabue ruling that Tampa Bay and the New York Jets should play to see who goes to the Super Bowl.

Seldon beat Tucker on a decision and suddenly had a $5-million property at his disposal--but only if he fought Tyson.

“That’s how the fight was fixed!” Arum said. “You don’t have to pay Seldon to take a dive. He makes a career of going down without being hit. He went down without being hit against Riddick Bowe and to some extent against Oliver McCall.”

Taken from https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-09-15-sp-44299-story.html

Thoughts?

 

Seldon-Hipp was at the MGM Grand on the Tyson-McNeeley card. Not only was the arena sold out, it was the largest selling PPV in history to that point. I think it was a little more attended than a poetry reading in Abilene.

Also, Seldon stopped Tucker. He didn't decision him.

And people definitely would've shown up for Foreman-Tucker. But Bob Arum didn't promote Tucker. Don King did. And a Foreman-Tucker fight would've gone to purse bids, with Tucker being the mandatory. And Don King had more money and power than Arum did at that time.

Instead, Arum bribed IBF president Bob Lee $300,000 to rank Axel Shulz in the top 10 so George could fight him. Lee ended up going to prison for taking bribes.

Tyson fought Bruno and Seldon in 1996 because they had belts. When Tyson signed to fight Bruno and Seldon, there was no IBF champ. Foreman had been stripped of that belt, too. Mainly because Bob Arum wouldn't let George rematch Shulz. So the IBF stripped George. Then Arum wanted George to fight Moorer again. But Bob screwed up negotiations with HBO.

When George won the title, Arum got greedy. He didn't want to co-promote. He didn't want to lose purse bids. And George more or less faded away until his contract with Arum ran out.

So I don't think Bob Arum is an unbiased source for an article on the topic. Just my thoughts.

 

Bob always plays fast and loose when it comes to the truth. Your thoughts were bang on. Cheers.

 

Wilder vs Stiverne 2 is a good pick but Breazeale? That mother****er took his dive face first. https://gfycat.com/zanygrandflicker-heavyweight-champion-dominic-breazeale-boxing

 

I am not saying that you guys are wrong, but you do know that 'Spoon had a tooth knocked out during this fight?

Anyway, I have a list that has already been said, but I will add a few:

1) Mark Gastineau's fight with Derrick Dukes was 100% fake. Dukes was a TV wrestler that I remember from the ESPN wrestling show, and when asked point blank if the fight was fixed, he replied "you do what they pay you for." I liked the line so much I use it at work to this day.

2) Similarly, they drugged Doc Anderson for the rematch after he beat Gastineau. They put LSD in the water. Anderson shot the promotor.

3) In addition to Wilder-Scott, I am convinced that the Harrison and Liakovich matches were also agreements or sorts. Liakovich had the theatrical flailing. Harrison could be seen visibly screaming in horror when he realized that Wilder actually intended to hit him.

4) Though I don't think that Carnera-Sharkey was fixed, almost all of his early fights certainly were.