What is statistically the worst defeat a top fighter suffered?

How many people backed Rahman v Lewis

 

Nunn v Steve Little

 

An obvious one was Buster Douglas somehow beating Mike Tyson.

Another one I remember very well was Lloyd Honeyghan dismantling Don Curry.

I also recall several of my uncles being shell shocked at new kid on the block George Foreman KOing World champion Joe Frazier in the 2nd round.

 

Duran vs Laing was at the time stunning
Aaron Pryor losing to Bobby Young . Nobody really knew how far Pryor had fallen

 

Jimmy Carter losing his title to Wallace Bud Smith and then losing the rematch. Smith after beating Carter the second time would go 0-11 and finish 31-24-6 18 KOs never winning another fight.

 

Not many!

 

A weird one: Moorer vs Foreman

Moorer was the young dominating champion, had just defeated Holyfield and it looked like he was poised for a long reign... and then came along Big George.

Not taking anything away from Foreman's win, but he had no bussines defeating Moorer, who was comfortably ahead in all the cards and all he had to do was to stay away from Big George's punches.

 

World middleweight champ Nino Benvenuti getting stopped in 8 rounds by 10-5-1 clubfighter Tom Bethea in a non-title match.

 

Laing was so entertaining to watch and must of been quite exasperating to work with at times . Personally I think he was to good to really be considered on this list . Yes Duran is a true all time great so not a bad shout but Laing was the type of boxer who should of achieved a lot more than he did . I only fleetingly met him once as I passed him on the way to the toilet at the royal Albert hall many many years ago he wasn’t on the bill that night and all I can say is that he was very happy at the time .

 

Yes, he was a very talented boxer but at the time of the Duran fight he was coming off a recent defeat against a journeyman called Reggie Ford, a guy who Kirk could’ve beaten with one arm if he was on his game. In fact after the victory over Kirk, Ford lost every fight he had since …I think 7 or 8.

So it was after that poor performance against Ford and a scrappy win over another journeyman that he was lined up to fight the great Duran. Kirk appeared to be going through a dip in form, and he was expected to be flattened pretty early on.

Duran had just lost a 15 round decision to Wilfred Benitez and he needed a tune up to get him back challenging the big boys and Kirk…with his poor patchy recent form was seen as cannon fodder.

But Kirk hadn’t read the script…

 

Moorer 'dominating champion'? 'Looked set for a long reign'? Can I interest you in a bridge?

Michael squeaked past a man felt to be in heart failure and never managed a single defence.

Not sure what the original poster was asking us to identify but we just seem to be listing shocks and upsets again.

 

Hmm… bad defeats aren’t necessarily massive upsets or shocks by a no hoper against a red hot favourite. They can be a soul destroying defeat to a major rival. Tyson losing to Holyfield was one that springs to mind. But for me Hagler’s defeat against fellow ATG Ray Leonard was a demoralising one.

 

Saad right past Qwai getting beaten by Eric Winbush was a huge jump down from his championship days a year earlier ...

 

Dempsey losing to obese former lightweight Willie Meehan several times near his prime.

 

Man, far as I can tell Larry is still crabby about it today. Guess he's always been prickly.