If You could change the outcome of one classic fight?

I'm not going 'classic' fight on this post but more like some of my favorite fighters. So here we go:

Armando Muniz v Jose Napoles I - Let's be clear, Muniz destroyed Napoles in this fight, but Jose was well protected by Jose Sulaiman. He was never not going to retain his title in Acapulco that night and the corrupt referee and commission went right along with the charade. Despite Napoles coming back in the rematch with a solid plan, Muniz deserved the win and the title in their first match and I would have loved to have seen him crowned, even if it was just for a few months.

Ruben Olivares v Alexis Arguello - everyone knew Olivares was one of the great bantams of all time, but I always felt he was equal to the task at 126 as well. However, I do admit he was in full party mode by this time and in a fight of no importance, he could have been dropped or even stopped. But in a serious fight, Ruben was still whipping himself into immaculate condition. And he came in pristine for the Arguello fight. after a slow start, the Olivares engine revved up and he was doing one impressive job of not only outpointing Arguello but putting a thumping on him. What's more, Ruben was only 5'5" to Arguello's 5'10". How was he doing this? And there seemed to be no slowing down as he entered the 13th - just 2 rounds away from victory - when he runs into a left hook that finished matters. Had he received that win - with the career we know Arguello was going onto - Ruben would have had an immense ranking among all-time feathers.

Rodolfo Gonzalez v Antonio Cervantes - this bout was a 10-rounder about 2 years before either of these boys won their respective titles. They were both marginally rated at the gates of the top 10. By all accounts a real barn-burner with both fighters down during the contest. Gonzalez, however, picked up a cut, which progressed during the contest. The doc calls the contest at the end of the 8th round in a very close contest where 2 officials had Gonzalez ahead by a point and one official had Cervantes ahead by a point. If Gonzalez could have made it to the finish line and got the win, he would have street-cred that most would have remembered him by with the title reign that Cervantes would go onto have. It would have always been that 'wow' moment when looking at their records.

 

Durán doesn't get robbed against Hagler

 

Norton-Ali III

If Norton had won the title there that he deserved, his reputation would have got a little bump, and we might not have had the excuse for title division, although I guess they would have found and excuse sooner or later.

 

I’m aligned with those who would only want to see clearly unjust decisions/officiating changed. One example of same, at least imo, would be Tommy Hearns getting the nod over Ray Leonard in their rematch. Even Ray admitted that Tommy whooped his ass. Lol.

 

Trinidad vs Vargas. If No low blows I think Vargas wins that fight.

Tapia vs Ayala II. TAPIA got robbed in that fight.

 

Toney-Peter I. Thought at the time, Toney had done the impossible and overcame Sam Peter through 12 rounds of savvy boxing, only for the robbery of the scorecards to get announced. Toney was never the same after that. He performed far worse in the rematch and was never the same force at HW again. It felt like one of those Boxing's Powers-That-Be moments where they decided they didn't like James Toney and he would not be allowed to succeed.

 

Ken Norton vs Larry Holmes, I scored that to Norton, considering that was at the end of Norton’s career, that would have definitely boosted his legacy, because, if I said the same about a loss early on in his career, that can have other effects, like him becoming less switched on etc, therefore not being able to get the wins to build his legacy, but by the Holmes fight, he already had his best wins and he most likely wouldn’t have gone on much longer after beating Holmes anyway, and whatever losses he did take, it wouldn’t have made his legacy any worse anyway by that point.

 

Had Fenech got the correct decision against Nelson I often wonder whether that would have ensured the hunger remained.

That disgraceful decision seemed to knock the stuffing out of Fenech and flatline his career.

 

Charles over Marciano.

Would solidify him as a top 10 HW, the P4P #1, the first two time heavyweight champion and give him (another) one of the greatest wins in history.