Saddest fights you ever saw?

Roy Jones could have his own "Sad ending" thread.

 

True. Think it was pretty clear it was over for him regardless tho. Too much excess in that 3 years off. Got too used to being able to bounce back from his excessive living with youth and hard work. This time he,d left it too late...his excess was too much and he was ageing. Only himself to blame really...still sad to see someone not have it anymore. Think senchenko was a ten rounder. He was done tho. Timing was gone and wasnt coming back anytime soon. He would have got hurt badly against the younger guys coming through.

 

Lot of good shouts in this thread.
I felt bad for De La Hoya against Pacquaio. And I feared for his health. And going into the fight most ppl felt confident he was too big for PAC. To see him so helpless round after round as he got pounded was a shock. He fought everyone, not much more can be asked to see him go out pitifully on his stool was a big shock.

 

You've nailed it as ever, Ra's. All those citing Ali-Holmes, Duran-Joppy and the like. What are they thinking?

 

Bowe-Golota II was hard to watch. The post-fight interview just rubbed salt in wounds.

Kenny Norton v Cooney. Ken was a decent man and deserved a better ending than being a stepping stone punchbag. As someone who feared big hitters, it took some balls to even get in the ring with Big Gerry and it was a shame it ended in humiliation. Kenny's stunned face as he sat in the corner after the ref let him take a few unprotected bombs is a haunting image.

Patterson - Liston. Knowing what a decent man Floyd was, it's hard to watch him get publicly humiliated twice, especially with the fairweather rats JFK and Sinatra both shunning him afterwards. I wish Floyd had fitted in a couple of defences against them before he took on Sonny. Becomes even sadder when the only good that could have come out of those fights - a chance for redemption in life for Sonny whom I truly believe had it in him to be a good man - didn't happen either.

I assume we're not including tragedies which are obviously sad otherwise, for me, the thread begins and ends with Johnny Owen. Just seeing that frail fella and his heartbroken dad and trainer is the hardest thing to watch.

 

Gatti Vs Gomez.

 

There are a few fights I refuse to ever write about because re-watching them would be a misery for me. Ali-Holmes, Marciano-Louis, Vinny Paz vs Duran (even though I have a mutual friend with Paz). Hopkins vs Joe smith jr., Jones vs Calzaghe.

 

What was that about JFK and Sinatra shunning Patterson?

 

Evening hook. Before the fight Floyd was summoned to JFK to defend the title for decent Americans etc. Afterwards he refused to speak to Floyd. Sinatra too. I think I read it in David Remnick's 'King of the Hill', a bio of Ali but with comprehensive profiles of Liston and Patterson.

Pretty sure that's where I got it from but have read so many that I get a bit confused. Even if it isn't in that book, I hope you won't regret reading it. It puts the 60s and where boxing fitted in during that era into clear perspective as well as being a good boxing book.

 

Tho it wasn't 'brutal' in any sense, one that still sticks in my craw is Ali-Dunn. The Dunn-Dagge fight, I think, was supposed to be the tune upper with the winner facing Ali. Even before the fight Dagge said, even if he won, he wouldn't face Ali, because he wasn't in his class. Simply another one of Ali's bums of the month he faced during his 2nd reign, getting big bucks that he should have given to charity. A better fight would have been me challenging my next door neighbor's 12 year old son. Totally embarrassing!

 

Cotto Martinez.
Cleverly Kovalev.

I felt really bad for Bowe after having lost all that weight for the Golota rematch only to get his nuts pancaked all over again.

Tyson vs Lewis was another sad sight to witness.

 

Dempsey-Willard gets sadder and sadder every time I watch it....so does Chavez-Haugen.

 

Haugen teased a hornet's nest and paid for it by getting stung to death....that along with being the ritual sacrificial American pinata in front of a record crowd of screaming, foaming at the mouth mostly drunk Mexicans who already hated Americans, especially a mouthy white American....sure, you could say that Haugen brought it on himself...turned a promised beating into a vengeful, slow torture of an ass beating...but it was sad anyway. Sad because of his lack of pre-fight wisdom mostly, as well as the spectacle of it all for the previously mentioned mostly drunk Mexicans.

 

**** Ali,...what a charmed, rich life he lived...loved and idolized by so many...so what that Holmes beat the **** out of him...at least Larry purposely didn't deck him or splatter him on the ring apron like Marciano did Louis. It coulda been far worse.

 

Bowe deserved what he got from Golota just for having a racist little fat wad of **** like Rock Newman with him.