The Big Fights That Got Away, That Were Supposed To Happen.

Like to of seen Benn v Nunn in 89

 

Was that actually ever going to happen though?

 

Chavez vs Camacho (84)
Aaron Pryor vs SRL & Duran
Duran v McCallum
Toney vs Benn & Eubank
Jones vs Benn
Holyfield vs Jones (at HW 03)

 

Looked like it, Arum talked it up on ITV’s 1988 year-end show.

 

Blimey. I'm amazed Arum saw Benn as a conceivable opponent for Nunn. Nunn had just schooled Tate and Roldan in 88 and was a top ten lb for lb pick. Benn had barely scraped by Anthony Logan. Had the US audience even heard of him?

Funnily enough, Nunn may actually have suited that wild version of Benn more than Michael Watson.

 

Wasn't there also talk of RJJ v G-Man if Gerald got past Nigel Benn? That would have been something assuming McClellan wasn't damaged.

They could have had their dogs and c0cks on the undercard, too. Saved the promoter a few dollars.

 

Only in Ring magazine on the write-up on the astonishing Benn/Logan fight and of his equally astonishing KO record.

Arum thought once they saw Benn, they’d lap him up.

He’d of been the one guy who could’ve taken Nunn then!

 

Lots of anticipation over Jones v McClellan

 

It’s even more convoluted: Bert Cooper was a sub for a sub. After Tyson pulled out, Holyfield was set to fight Francesco Damiani. Then he injured his ankle and Bert stepped in on like a week’s notice.

 

Copying my post from a thread I started earlier this year on the Greatest Card that Ever Happened (and almost did):

The date was Feb. 23, 1981, a Monday. Madison Square Garden was booked.

The lineup:

Gerry Cooney vs. Ken Norton, heavyweights, 10 rounds

Matthew Saad Muhammad vs. Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, light heavyweight WBC/WBA unification, 15 rounds

Thomas Hearns (c) vs. Wilfred Benitez, WBA welterweight championship, 15 rounds

Wilfredo Gomez (c) vs. Mike Ayala, WBC super bantamweight championship, 15 rounds

Hilmer Kenty (c) vs. Alexis Arguello, WBA lightweight championship, 15 rounds

Aaron Pryor was originally slated to appear but backed out recovering from a (non-career-threatening) gunshot wound that set back his training, not sure of the opponent. I think some other names were also tossed around.

Purses went up to $1.5M for Hearns, Benitez and the Muhammads. Cooney and Norton were in the $1-1.25M range. All or almost all of the fighters collected big advances that they didn’t have to repay.

The promoter was one Harold Smith, aka Ross Fields, a con man who had found insiders at Wells Fargo Bank and managed to embezzle $21M with their help to fund his promotional enterprise.

Smith operated under the banner of Muhammad Ali Professional Sports, paying the ex-champ (embezzled) money for use of his name and some appearances to lend credibility to his operation. He had previously promoted Thomas Hearns-Pipino Cuevas, Saad Muhammad-Lotte Mwale, a lesser Mustafa Muhammad defense and several other fights involving the likes of Benitez (vs. Pete Ranzany), Andy “Hawk” Price and others. None, apart from Hearns-Cuevas, made money.

(He also had Muhammad Ali Amateur Sports, which had signed a number of 1980 Olympic hopefuls before the boycott, and which also promoted track meets attracting top U.S. and world talent. Again, always at a loss.)

But he spread money around like candy, handing out advances and ‘training expenses’ in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars, usually in cash, to gain favor of fighters and managers. He had done TV fights on several networks.

HBO was supposed to have been the televising agent of this extravaganza, but they had not yet come to terms when Wells Fargo stumbled across the theft operation, brought in the FBI and blew the whistle. A month or so before this card was to take place, the plug was pulled when Smith and his major bank benefactor went into hiding after the discovery.

Some of the fights would be remade: Cooney-Norton some three months later, Hearns-Benitez at junior middle a couple years later. Smith had already given advance money to Jim Watt, who would later lose his lightweight title to Arguello, and was planning Pryor-Arguello down the line.

His plan was to use the Wells Fargo money to take over boxing, supplanting Don King and Bob Arum as the sport’s major player, and, so he said, repay the bank off proceeds of this mega-card (which given the purses and no chance of a TV bonanza to fund it, was likely to actually be his biggest money-loser yet) before they realized the money was missing.

When Cooney-Norton did take place at the Garden, Miguel Montilla vs Domingo Ayala at 140 pounds was the chief undercard bout, with preliminary fighters Marvis Frazier, Jimmy Clark, Philipp Brown and Elijah Tillery filling out the card. The biggest card to take place on the Feb. 23 date was in Atlantic City, N.J., with Bobby Czyz and Freddie Roach in the top two bouts.

If only Wells Fargo had found out a little later, boxing would have seen perhaps the greatest card ever staged.

 

I think Pryor was supposed to fight Saoul Mamby in a unification at 140. It would have been the best card ever had it all come off.

 

These rematches were in negotiations:
McCallum-Jackson II
Jackson-Norris II

Whitaker-Camacho
Jeff Fenech vs. Antonio Esparragoza
DeLaHoya-Tszyu

 

The closest it got was in the 1988 ITV boxing review programme, when Arum mentioned it as a fight he thought would happen in 89.

 

Yeah, I especially liked Lennox’s - “I ‘ate you Bowe, you ain’t nuttin’ to me. One of these days I’ll get you for this!”

Okay, that’s a fantasy merging of quotes triggered by your avatar which has also given rise to a curious and immediate craving for fish and chips.

As to what Bowe said to Lewis after the Holy fight, unfortunately I didn’t have subtitles switched on.

 

Hide v Morrison - Anything could have happened!