Underrated Wins - Name One

I hope @Russell is ok. Haven't seen him around in a while.

 

My immediate reaction to reading this thread was that it wasn't to make a list of guys who beat ATGs, but more to name a nice little win on ATG's résumé.

The two I'd pick here are Charles vs Basora and Canzoneri vs Bud Taylor.

Jose Basora is one of the lost fighters from that era. In an era as deep as the 40s, not everyone can be remembered. Especially if you're never champion or from an English speaking background. Basora was an awesome middleweight contender. He beat Jake LaMotta, Fritzie Zivic, and holds multiple wins over Holman Williams. He even has a draw with as prime a Robinson as you can get. A few months after beating LaMotta, Basora faces a young Ezzard Charles. Charles dismantled the tough Puerto Rican, and put a beating on him in the process. He dropped Jose in rounds 2&3, before dropping three times in the fourth, and KOing him in the fifth. Basora is said to have rallied in the fifth, and stunned Charles with some big shots but his recklessness led to his first KO loss.

Only five men stopped Basora. One was on a corner retirement. Twice were whilst past prime, and against huge Punchers (one of whom being Robinson in a remtach, where Jose was KOed in one). The fourth was a TKO at the hands of Jake LaMotta. And the fifth, was by Ezzard Charles. The way he beat such an astounding fighter is truly underrated. It really adds a bit of depth to Charles' middleweight run, along with the Burley, Christoforidis and Maxim wins.

Bud Taylor is so underrated on pound for pound lists IMO. The guy beat two top 30 P4P locks in Canzoneri and McLarnin, as well as Pancho Villa. He's a top 20 BW no question IMO, and a borderline ATG. One of the dozens of wins which Canzoneri holds over elite opponents. This one tends to go unnoticed.

 

Earnie Shavers KO 1 Ken Norton. Now we look at that fight as a foregone conclusion. "Of course Shavers knocked out Norton. Norton could never survive against big punchers, and Shavers was one of the biggest." But at the time Shavers was considered done. He'd given it all against Ali, then lost badly to the unheralded Larry Holmes. He was a tune-up for Norton, who was on the way to a Holmes rematch. But Shavers got a new lease on life, trained well, and upset Norton, earning a September title shot rematch against Holmes.

Gerry Cooney KO 1 Eddie Gregg. Eddie Gregg had been on TV a few times, looked halfway decent, lasted 8 rounds against prospect James Broad (his only loss), beat Tex Cobb, and had some other decent wins over opponent types. And Cooney, who'd been out of the ring for a year and a half, who only had two fights in four years (one in a more or less setup against his sparring partner) and who was still in the middle of fighting various demons, blows out Gregg in 86 seconds! I thought for sure Gregg would give him some rounds. But now that quick comeback KO is just another insignificant win against another nondescript opponent.

 

Two from the same era and weight class:

Ray Mancini shutting out Jose Luis Ramirez over 12 rounds.

Alexis Arguello going to the UK and picking apart Jim Watt for the WBC 135.

 

I feel that as famous as Jerry Quarry is, that he gets underrated for his wins over Patterson and Lyle, which were really quite impressive.

 

Ezzard Charles also gets underrated for many of his wins over Walcott, Louis, Maxim, Layne, etc..

 

Toney over Holyfield really impressed me. People don't like to give James credit for it, but Holy fought on competitively for years after, even edging the giant Valuev in some people's eyes. Toney picked his shots wisely in the early going, then turned it up and beat the hell out of him.

 

Nothing about Charles is underrated.

 

Mike McCallum's two round demolition of Julian Jackson in 1986. Julian went on to have a long and successful career but I dont remember anyone handling him so efficiently and quickly, even well after his prime.

Have to also mention Julian Jackson's two round stoppage of Terry Norris. Terry was chinny but know one ever brutalized him quite like that.

 

that is a matter of opinion

 

George Dixon's win over Frank Erne.

 

Rodolfo Martinez switch hitting and turning southpaw to offset the extremely formidable Borkhorsor.

Enrique Pinder and Luis Ibarra managing to edge by respective prime versions of Rafa Herrera and Laciar. Laciar's own beating of Mathebula and Mathebula himself managing to slip and counter his way past Tae Shik Kim.

Robinson against the very good Docusen isn't always mentioned amongst SRR's better wins, but Docusen looks to have been an excellent fighter.

I'm still a sucker for Conteh one-sidedly flummoxing Yaqui Lopez with one good hand tbh when Saad, Spinks etc had such trouble with him.

I'd love to see Esparza's fight with Harada in Japan and if that win was legit. Him actually managing to get an official decision over there against a popular atg is very interesting.

There are so many to pick from.

 

The WBO title was a Fourth Rate title at that time. Steward had some sort of deal with the WBO. Nobody put much stock in it. Thats why hardcore fans dont really even think of Moorer has having ever held a 175 lb title. Darius might be underrated because he held the WBO title and rarely traveled. But at least they only had one champion per sanctioning body in each division back then. It was bad enough there were so many sanctioning bodies.

 

I didn't realize this thread was nine years old until you posted this. No idea about Russell.