I rewatched Tyson-Bonecrusher Smith last night. The promotion called it a Superfight. Going in, it was highly anticipated. It was going to be a war. Of course, that's not what happened. What were some highly anticipated fights in history that turned out to be snoozefests? I'll start with that Tyson-Smith fight. It was boring because Bonecrusher kept grabbing, Tyson won almost every round, and you knew that Smith, that night, was unlikely to catch Tyson with a single good punch and stop him. Michael Spinks - Dwight Muhammad Qawi. This was supposed to be a war, but as I recall Spinks was cautious but effective throughout and Qawi was never able to mount an effective offense. I haven't watched it since it happened. Checking Boxrec, I see the scores were closer than I remember, though. Maybe Leonard-Duran III, although I don't recall expectations being that high for that one.
Although Terrell had a spoiling style, his unification match w/ Ali should have been a good fight at least, and it wasn't. Ali had a few fights that went that way. Quarry 1, Ellis, and Spinks 2 should have been very good fights, but none were. Foreman's fights w/ Frazier and Norton had the potential 2 be great slugfests, but George cut them short. Marciano-Walcott 2 is an obvious disappointment, as were the Liston-Patterson fights. Holmes vs. Leon Spinks. McClellan vs. Jackson 2. All heavyweight bouts save 4 the last, but I think superfights that weren't r most prevalent in the heavyweight division.
See, I really enjoyed Spinks-Qawi. It wasn't a brawl or punchathon, but the tension and expectation that something could happen was palpable the whole time, and never lifted. Later, perhaps disappointed that there were no explosions, we could look back on it as an artful display of boxing and controlling an aggressive fighter. Spinks was nothing short of brilliant. That fight was truly his opus.
We all sort of knew going in that Mayweather-Pacquiao would not be a good action fight. Same with Mayweather-De La Hoya. But there was high hopes for Trinidad-De La Hoya and that was a dud. To make it worse, it ended in an unpopular decision. Barrera-Morales 2 was expected to be another great fight but it was merely okay.
In my lifetime it’s been Trinidad-De La Hoya. I was so excited about that fight. It was huge and it was awful. Mayweather-Pacquaio was a major snooze but I totally expected it and wasn’t disappointed. Lewis-Holyfield I had me pumped too and it was a bit of a bore.
Morrison-Foreman was expected to be a good fight, two powerful punchers, one of whom had a shaky chin, but it was disappointing. People expected Juan Diaz and Michael Katsidis to be an all out action fight, but it was more controlled and tactical than expected. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t a FOTY candidate like many expected from their styles. Katsidis’s cornerman was really weird. You would expect him to tell Katsidis to be more aggressive and instead he would say stuff like “you’re boxing beautifully, I have never seen such loveliness”
