Some fights just baffle me that they were made and matchmakers in boxing have made some weird decisions down the years. What fights were obvious to you before the fight that the underdog would win? Mine: Sergio Martinez vs Kelly Pavlik - Pavlik had never lost at 160 but it was obvious after the Hopkins fight that he'd lost something mentally. He was a big favourite for this fight but i really didn't give him much chance and won cash on Martinez points. To me, it was a clear stylistic disadvantage and a clear high risk/low reward fight. Sergio had lost his last fight and Paul Williams would have been a much better stylistic match-up for Kelly, plus it would have been a bigger win at the time. I thought it was a clear case of poor matchmaking at the time and it proved as much.
Not necessarily the Ishida fight but i thought the crazy active schedule they put Kirkland on post prison would lead to a big loss because he just got out of jail and now your pairing him so frequently with little time to prep for each fight, prob really ignored what Ishida could do I guess this is huge hindsight but Wlad vs Sanders looking at the risk with a potential Lewis bout but i guess you could say Sanders wasnt a physical specimen lost to Rahman and Tubbs and was semi retired, i dont know to me it was risky but this is with all kinds of hindsight Roy Jones vs Glen Johnson considering the big KO loss to Tarver just before Michael Grant after a KO loss and injury vs Lennox takes on Jameel McCline who was on a roll and gets blown out JMM vs an unknown in Chris John in John's back yard seemed so stupid when after the Pac fight he probably had so many better offers
Not casting aspersions on you, but I doubt many had been tipping Pavlik against Taylor for too long before their first encounter... It's often forgotten now, but on the doubleheader of Taylor vs. Spinks (WBC title defense) and Miranda vs. Pavlik (WBC eliminator), it was seen as a foregone conclusion among boxing's wise heads that Taylor and Miranda would pummel their way to a much anticipated clash that had lots of trash talk built up - enough so that the favorites spent the press conferences jawing at each other instead of focusing on Spinks and Pavlik.
Miranda failed again later with this. Miranda and Pascal were angling towards each other talking trash and both won their fights on that card....but both lost their NEXT fights (Abraham, Froch).
Top Rank tried to keep Kelly at 160 long past his expiration date. They even tried to lure him back with a Chavez fight. Let's see what Kelly does at 168.
that recent puerto rican fighter dulorme getting matched up with the guy that stopped him i forgot his name
Ortiz-Maidana was horrible. There were rumors already that Ortiz chin is not all that great. Maidana was a completely unknown fighter with heavy right hand. A spell for disaster.
Abregu. I think Dulorme's team was trying to get him on the fast track but this guy was at least two levels above his best opponent up to that point. Generally, if you want to test really young, unproven fighters you should do it against guys coming off a loss or who has been been stopped before. Abregu isn't spectacular but he's a rough customer and a seasoned vet who had a fairly competitive fight with Bradley FFS. Bad matchup...
