Horrendous Matchmaking Decisions ..

The 80's alone had several instances of bad decision-making- besides the wisely quoted Norton-Cooney debacle. (although Saintpat's explanation above is pretty convincing the more I read it....)

Let's herald the genius move of having #1 rated Robin Blake fight super-spoiler Tyrone Crawley (on I think 19 days rest no less) and get schooled with a title shot in the balance.

Steve Hearon deciding being the #1 ranked fighter at 140lbs wasn't enough to deter him from signing to fight giant 147lber Lupe Aquino and get his ears boxed off is worth mentioning again too. All for a measly 10 grand.

I'll throw out Derrik Holmes getting tossed in with prime Wilfredo Gomez way too early in his career. Holmes had real talent and showed it even against Gomez before getting his jaw broken and bounced off the canvas like a basketball as a result. Ruined a potentially fine career.

One from the 70's to close on- #1 ranked Jimmy Heair, guaranteed a lightweight title shot for his next fight, overrode his manager and got himself booked to fight Rudy Barro at the Olympic. Got beat, slid into journeyman status. and no title shot His manager himself detailed that one in Ring Magazine no less.

 

Norton didn't seem the same though. Brutal to watch.

 

Yeah I don’t know what his feelings on the matter were. He got a very close and questionable decision over Tex Cobb. Got decked twice and got away with a draw against Scott Ledoux. Got sparked in one round by Shavers two years earlier. Then he signs to fight a guy who’s practically young enough to be his son, has every physical advantage AND was a proven puncher ( his kryptonite. )

 

Matching Oleg Maskaev against Lance Whitaker just 5 months after his brutal KTFO loss to Kirk Johnson was a horrible idea

Matching RJJ vs Glen Johnson just 4 months after his KO loss to Tarver wasn't the best idea as well

 

Meldrick Taylor and Terry Norris was a bad idea, though maybe I’m just looking at it in hindsight

 

Someone mentioned Ali v Holmes...people should have went to jail for that imo.

 

Lennox Lewis vs Michael Grant
Mike Tyson vs Peter McNeeley

 

Roy Jones v Vinny Pazienza.

It looked like a horrible mismatch on paper and was one in reality.

 

I think that's why it was made.

 

Throwing David Reid in with Trinidad at the time they did wasnt too bright. But i guess the concern was with Reid's droopy eyelid would hasten his career anyway.

 

Simon Brown being thrown in with Bernard Hopkins was unnecessary and hardly a high point of Hopkins middleweight reign.

 

Putting John Tate back in the ring quickly after his ko loss to Weaver against Trevor Berbick was ridiculous .

 

Im surprised nobody mentioned potentially the biggest matchmaking blunder ever: in 1925/26 Dempsey fought tooth and nail to avoid fighting Wills in favor of Tunney who he believed was the easier fight. He suffered a one sided beating losing his title and three weeks later a rusty and positively geriatric Wills was dominated by Jack Sharkey.

 

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Two matchups always stuck in my head that had me saying, "WTF is wrong with them?" Whether it be the matchmaker, promoter or manager, I don't know. But matching Gratien Tonna against Ronnie Harris and David Tua against Chris Byrd had me shaking my head. Two ponderous type of punchers against slick boxers. What is wrong with this picture? And of course, they fought to type and the slicksters won.