Interesting Fights That Were All Set, Then Someone Lost a Tuneup

Frank Fletcher vs. Marvin Hagler 1983-scypion
Duran vs Ayala 1982-Roberto's fork & knife and "The Gifted One".
Duran vs. Arguello-Fernandez and Alex's fear
Leonard vs. Pryor summer 1984-Howard
Saad vs Spinks-Braxton
Spinks vs. Qawi 2-Davis 84
Schmeling vs. Braddock-fear
McGuigan vs. Nelson-Cruz

 

Im not so sure McGuigan v Cruz fits into this category. Cruz was a last minute substitute for Sosa and the Nelson fight was not exactly done and dusted as eastwood, moreso than mc guigan, was very hestitant to make the match up

 

Yes I stand corrected...I also sense Barry didnt want that fight

 

The deal was Lennox Lewis fought Razor Ruddock & Riddick Bowe fought Evander Holyfield Then the two winners were to meet to decide who the real World Heavyweight Champion was. All Parties agreed to this.
When Newman saw how Lennox destroyed Ruddock he backed out. It was nothing to do with Mercer at all at that point. Mercer fought Jesse Ferguson & got beat by him. So Newman set his sights on Ferguson instead. This was after Bowes supposed defence against Michael Dokes. Two "defenses"against unranked opponents was Bowes answer to ducking Lennox. Newman thought that was the way a champion should act I guess

 

McGuigan woulda took it no problem, it was more eastwood. Having said that, he fought charm chitule in an eliminater for the commonwealth title, of which nelson was champion. Nelson then relinguished the title so he couldnt have wanted him that much

 

Norton-Holmes II
Tyson-Holyfield in June 1990

 

Nigel Benn v Leonard or Hearns

Lost to Mr Eubank Sr

 

One that comes to mind was Oscar DelaHoya vs Hopkins. Then Oscar went in and lost to Felix Sturm. Disappointing...and now well never know how Hopkins vs DelaHoya would have went.
Personally I see Bernard winning on a 7th round body shot. Probably wishful thinking Oscar had to much pride to go out like that.

 

Juan Manuel Lopez seemed to be on course to fight Yuriorks Gambia to unify 3 of the 4 major feather weight belts, around 2010.

Orlando Salido who has just simply had an incredible career for so many reasons pulled off a pretty big upset at the time beating juanma down over 8 rounds.

They would end up rewatching about a year later in one of the best fights of 2011 in a brilliant fight where Salido would rise off the canvas to stop Lopez again.

 

Didn't Norris crushing defeat against Mullings derailed a potential fight with Oscar ?

 

Yes i'm sure Bowe was so offended that you wouldn't buy his autograph no one asked to hear how you (probably didn't) disrespected a legend of the sport to his face it isn't something to flex you idiot.

 

Harold Johnson was in line for a Heavyweight title shot for a couple of years in the early sixties. Felt now that he'd won the Light-Heavyweight title and was coming towards the end of his career, it was time to try and cash in as much as he could and get a big Heavyweight payday to retire on. After being Jones in 1962 he told Don Dunphy that he was looking forward to hopefully moving up to fight Patterson for the title, as he "could sure use the money", and the following year Liston was ringside to see him defend against Pastrano in an effort to build up the hype for a potential Johnson-Liston showdown.

Pastrano's form had been relatively patchy and he was still seen as an underachiever who had talent, but never rose to the occasion when it mattered most. Was supposed to be Johnson's last defence at 175 and a fairly safe opponent for him to look good against before challenging Liston....Instead Pastrano sprung the 6-1 upset and Harold's hopes of a Heavyweight title shot went up in smoke.

 

Google examples of someone getting their ears boxed off and you’ll find the video of Pastrano vs. Johnson. What a performance.

 

Haha, well I don't know about getting their ears absolutely boxed off, @Saintpat....But I do think it was a superb performance by Pastrano and I agree with the decision, despite Johnson and his team complaining that they were robbed. Pastrano by a couple of rounds on my card. Excellent fight.