In my case it was Dokes vs. Coetzee I dont know why but with that right hand, I gave Coetzee a fair chance of pulling it. And tbh, that year there were far bigger upsets like Jeff Chandler vs Oscar Muniz 1 and Juan Laporte vs Gerard Hayes..how this ended as Ring Magazine's upset of the year is kind of baffling. You?
A lot of people on here will say Parker V Wilder. Although, I thought Wilder would beat Parker, and was shocked at just how awful Wilder was that night. Had Kabayel beating Makmudov and he was a big underdog. And CBS to beat both Okolie and Riakporhe. Not sure how but the bookies had Wallin a big favourite somehow against Chisora. Zhang was a big underdog to beat Joyce first fight (Joyce was 1/14!) and I was expecting a very close fight then compared to the bookies - I knew Joyce would be in for a tough night. Same with the first fight between Whyte and Povetkin.
Larry Holmes vs Ray Mercer. Mercer was a hot fighter at the time with his devastating KO of Tommy Morrison. Holmes skillset and savvy would carry the day despite his age. Hopkins beating Trinidad. Following Hopkins for a few years I knew he was waiting for an opportunity like this. His size as well as his defense would be a problem for Trinidad.
I remember two matches in particular, Roy Jones Jr - Glen Johnson and Sam Soliman - Jermain Taylor. Roy Jones Jr. - Glen Johnson if I'm not mistaken he was also U.O.T.Y. for Ring Magazine. Roy was obviously a much better boxer than good Glen but he was coming from the heavy knockout loss suffered in the rematch against Tarver, and already in the first fight with Magic Man he had shown clear signs of decline. Australian Soliman was defending his IBF middleweight world title and was the bookmakers favorite against Taylor. The American had lost badly against the last 3 top fighters he faced, Pavlik, Froch and Abraham, but these 3 were stronger and much more powerful than Soliman, whose best asset was a high workrate. Technically Taylor was on another level, the Australian boxer then also injured his knee during the match and was knocked down several times, losing on points.
Ryosuke Nishida vs Emmanuel Rodriguez.. for the IBF Bantamweight. if you speak about more old upset we can say Amnat Ruenroeng vs Zou Shiming for IBF Flyweight.
Winky against Mosley. Wright was a 5 to 2 betting underdog. I’m assuming that these odds were largely due to name recognition from the Oscar bouts, because pretty much everyone in boxing circles knew that Winky at 154 was an awful matchup for Shane.
Fury v Wlad My mates called me mad but I called it before the fight. Wlad wasn't in a good place and Fury had the style to take advantage.
you weren’t surprised by Holmes vs Mercer? Holmes had done what, lose twice in a row to a light heavy, get blasted out by Tyson, then knock over a few tomato cans? And Mercer was on fire, just about killed Morrison. I remember watching that one with my father. He almost couldn’t watch. He was a big Holmes fan and was seriously worried it was going to be like when Ali fought Holmes. I was like 14 and concerned I was about to see my dad cry. Nope. Instead we watched Holmes get his mojo back in real time.
No not really surprised. As I said before Mercer was hot fighter but his skillset was limited. Styles make fights. In his previous fights Mercer though he won showed his limitations. Mercer showed a concrete chin but Morrison punched himself out after about 3 rounds of hitting Mercer with everything. Tommy wasn't ready for primetime. In winning the WBO title Ray was losing to Damiani before landing sort of a lucky punch.
Wlad vs Fury. I have no idea why people favored Klitschko so much... it was obvious that Tyson Fury was a style nightmare for the 39-year-old long-time champion who had been fighting for a decade using the advantage of speed, height or physical strength, or preferably all three. Here he had none. At the same time, I believe that rematch would belong to Wlad. I also had no doubt that Tony Bellew would defeat the rusty Haye. I also believed in Usyk when he moved to heavyweight, and few people gave him a chance in the fights with Whitearspoon and Chisora.
