High Profile Fights In Which You Gave The Winner No Credit

There's been tons of high profile fights in the past which in hindsight should of never happened. A lot of these are freakshow/what if fights. Let's try to exclude the celebrity boxing from this one and strictly keep it world level meaning top 10 in a major organization. Which high profile/mega PPV bouts did you give the winner little to no credit? My picks are..

Saul Alvarez vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. 2017. Huge pay per view fight at the time, I remember it having huge interest with the Mexican fanbase and headlining the yearly cinco de mayo fight card made popular by Mayweather. Both of these fighters had a childhood rivalry, with Chavez even eclipsing Canelo in popularity in 2012, but suffered humiliating defeats to Sergio Martinez as well as Fonfora at LHW in a huge upset. At the time of their bout, Chavez Jr. was 31 years old with a record of 50-2-1 while Alvarez was 27 with a record of 48-1-1. On paper it sounds like a terrific fight but Chavez simply never lived up to his potential and just came into that fight to survive, losing every round. He would regress even further after the Alvarez fight going 3-3, even quitting against Daniel Jacobs in 2019 and losing to an ancient 50 year old MMA fighter Anderson Silva in 2021. Hard to really give Alvarez credit for that mismatch.

Ray Leonard vs Roberto Duran 3 1989 for the WBC Super Middleweight Championship of the world. Roberto Duran at the age of 37 had just become the WBC Middleweight Champion of the world, outpointing Barkley earlier that year in a fight to remember for the ages. Leonard had won the WBC LHW and vacant WBC SMW belts when he knocked out Lalonde in 88. He would later go on to fight to a draw with rival Thomas Hearns, in a fight where he looked vulnerable and where many people thought he lost. Interest started to build up between a 3rd fight between the two and the bout would go on to be called "Uno Mas" in a huge PPV event. The fight happens and Duran just couldn't replicate the magic he had earlier that year, he was extremely slow and looked his age. Leonard fought behind the jab most of the bout and won a lopsided decision. Duran after the bout fought a bunch more times until finally retiring in 2001 but never reached world level again. Their 3rd fight was their least controversial one but it didn't add anything to Leonards legacy.

 

I give Tyson a bit of credit for Holmes, although Holmes had lost his previous 2 fights to Spinks and had not fought in almost 2 years he showed a lot of versatility in that fight and would go on to have success later in his career, he didn't really absorb a ton of damage either unlike Ali in the late 70's/80's.. He came there trying to win and had a game plan but Tyson was just too strong at that point and his team had been figuring out ways to beat Holmes since Tyson was a teenager. I agree with Holmes-Ali, Ali was pretty faded by then, he should of lost to Norton 3 and perhaps even Earnie Shavers.

 

I agree for the most part, although I give Lewis a tiny bit of credit for the way he man handled Tyson and finished the fight. Although Tyson was a washed up drug addict at the time, he still had world level power and could fight for about 3 rounds. He almost killed Golota in their fight a year and a half prior and at least tried he best vs Lewis during the first couple rounds. I give Lewis way less credit than Holyfield on his Tyson victories, but more than Williams and McBride.