Most disgraceful performances by defending champions

Watch the second Moorer fight to see what happens when a chinny guy keeps getting drilled by Holyfield but wants to fight.

 

What was disgraceful about the performances of the defending champion in these fights?

Or did you misread/misunderstand as most disgraceful selection of challengers?

 

It was the most frustrating high profile title reign I can ever recall. And every time he was penciled in for a fight I always thought "OK this is gonna be the guy to rid us of Ruiz" and then through some sort of shenanigans he would retain. This was the guy who thanks to him and his promoter separated the undisputed title once again shortly after it had been unified.

 

It was disgraceful for them to perform agisnt these guys period.

 

Ugh. This is why you could see Klit's fights live on ESPN 3.

 

Well - low punch output I can forgive to a certain extent, and at least the Fury bout was not a foul fest from Wlad.

That said, Wlad/Povetkin only yielded a combined 198 connects (according to the recorded stats) - though, in this case, we can see clearly why there was a low punch output. Wlad spent more time fouling than punching.

Don't get me wrong, Wlad's performance against Fury (and I highlight Wlad's performance since it was him defending), was extremely poor. But nothing will ever convince me that there was a worse Championship display (certainly not at Heavyweight) than what I witnessed in the Wlad/Povetkin fight. It was an utter disgrace.

 

I am here for the John Ruiz hate. He was a crap champion, and not a real champion in my eyes. Nothing personal, but to call a fighter of his quality "heavyweight world champion" is an insult to the sport. I really don't think Roy was a "real heavyweight champion" either, just for beating a fighter who is among the worst titleholders at HW ever, if not the worst. It's sad when your crotchety trainer whining is the most entertaining part of your broadcast.

 

Tim Witherspoon vs James Smith II

 

Klitschko vs Fury, just a total acceptance of defeat, all that punching power and no effort to unload or go for broke. His corner had no urgency unlike Steward who would have been screaming at him and punching his chest. I dont know if I have ever seen another champion reign so long and so easily let go of the belt

 

All respect, I'm just genuinely curious. What was so disgraceful about it? They both got paid millions (I believe Ali got a bit more), Ali antagonized Holmes to no mercy before the fight, and Ali most certainly was led to believe he could fight.

True, Ali was not even a ghost of himself and shouldn't have been there. But whose fault was that, really? Not Holmes.

Holmes just wanted to validate his title and finally get a great payday. Was that in itself disgraceful?

Again, I'm honestly just curious.

 

Holmes contributed to his former employer’s brain damage for a pay check.

 

But are we sure Holmes knew that?

 

Lewis vs Rahman, I realize Lewis was sort of on his way out by that point and he did avenge it, but really he should not have lost in the first place

 

Everybody saw it. Terrible fight.

 

Haye was a defending champ against Klit who was a defending champ, Haye fought like a pu55y