What's your favorite upset in Boxing History

Ali - Foreman

Also enjoyed SRL - Hagler and Hopkins over Pavlik and Tarver.

 

As a younger generation fan, it's got to be Tyson Fury v Wladimir Klitschko. As someone who didn't really like the guy beforehand (because all he said was just silly hype talk, as far as I knew) and who gave him no chance, and really didn't want him to win. When he did, I was really shocked. I was, and when I look back on everything he said before hand, in all the pressers, and all the face to face talk etc, the man really did know he'd do it, when absolutely no one else believed it possible. It's one of the more underplayed fairytale stories of recent times, the gypsy loud mouth who noone liked, showing the world they were wrong. In a way I've never felt in sport it made me immensely proud of a man who I previously didn't really have much time for, and went as far as making me, at this point, a huge fan. I'm frustrated as anyone with his antics over the past year but my respect even for that win alone will never diminish, and if he is to come back to the ring I won't ever miss a fight of his live for the rest of his career

 

As a sports fan in general I'm usually so critical and adamant I am not wrong, that when somwone proves me as wrong as TF did that night, the respect I grew for him is just huge. Could be nothing else.

 

As a young fight fan in the olden days, when I learned
of Max Schmelings statement "I seez somethings" and
proceeded to carry out his plan on Unbeaten Joe Louis' jaw
in a 12 round k.o.

1936-06-19 : Joe Louis 198 lbs lost to Max Schmeling 192 lbs by KO at 2:29 in round 12 of 15

• Location: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York, USA
• Referee: Arthur Donovan

• Photo of the weigh-in.
• Photo of the final knockdown.

• Louis was 24-0 with 20 knockouts. The previous year, he easily knocked out two former World Heavyweight Champions, Primo Carnera and Max Baer.
• Schmeling, a former World Heavyweight Champion, was 48-7-4 with 34 knockouts.
• The fight was promoted by Mike Jacobs.
• The bout was delayed a day because of rain.
• The odds were 10-to-1 that Louis would win, 4-to-1 that Louis would score a kayo, and 2-to-1 that Schmeling wouldn't make it to the seventh round.
• There was an estimated crowd of 60,000. Paid attendance was only 39,875. The discrepancy in the figures was caused by the fact that thousands were admitted at the last minute—merely by planking down two or three dollars at the gate and seeking the best seats they could find.
• The gross gate was $547,531, and the net was $464,945.
• Louis's share of the gate was $139,483.50, and Schmeling was guaranteed $150,000, tax-free.
• Veteran manager and promoterTom O'Rourke died of a heart attack in Schmeling's dressing room shortly before the start of the bout.
• Louis was knocked down in rounds four and twelve.

 

Under the radar a little but my favorite is Simon Brown knocking out Terry Norris in Mexico and taking his 154lb title. The circumstances around that fight make it my favorite. #1 Simon Brown was above his best weight class `47. He had been beaten soundly by Buddy McGirt. #2. Terry Norris was a hot fighter. He looked like he was gonna become a crossover star. #3 They had been scheduled to fight at an earlier date but Simon Brown pulled out of the fight because in the dressing room he was having chest pains and thought he need to go to the hospital. This was the day of the fight. Terry Norris and his manager went on a rant about Simon having a anxiety attack and implied that he was fearful of Norris. Brown had been a fine champion and he was having his courage questioned.

The fight itself was short and explosive. Norris came right to Brown looking to put him away. Simon put on a clinic of counterpunching and defensive skills in the pocket. He knocked Norris out cold.

 

What makes it among your favorites? Is it a great fight?

 

Simon had a real combination of accumulated skill and physical tools there for a period of time in his career, and when he put it all together he could be a H2H head ache for all sorts of fighters. A fighter you don't hear enough about nowadays.

 

Jimmy Young vs. George Foreman comes to mind. At that time (George going through 'meltdown') I saw three HW's that could possibly have the tools to best George:
Young*: If I recall Jimmy was a 4-1 'dog'.
I bet $20 with three guys at work, and they gave me that 4-1 line. Picked up a cool $240 on that one which paid three bills that month.
Bugner?: I thought he had the size, whiskers, and jab to pull off the upset...Not! Didn't I learn from Joe's pathetic performance against Ali in Kuala Lampur??
Holmes: They didn't fight but, IMO, Larry would have hung and bested him.
* that George LHook had us scared to death but, by the end of the round Jimmy was lucid and countering!! We were going nuts! I said when the bell sounded: "Jimmy's got him now, he not going to make that mistake again."
I would mention Ali but, in his scripted comeback, he'd got his victory over Foreman and wanted no more part of him IMO.
My $0.02

 

Ali-Foreman for me. I was such an Ali fan and Foreman was the absolute monster on the scene. I was just a kid, but went over the scenario so many times in my head that I had predicted the win for Ali and by the third round saw what he was doing to Foreman. Great memories of my Dad and I watching the live telecast at an arena and nearly jumping out of my skin at the KO.

More recently, Marcos Maidana shutting the mouth of Adrien Broner. I felt it to be one of the most satisfying results I had ever seen.

 

Hatton vs Tszyu
Honeyghan vs Curry
Toney vs Nunn
Randall vs Chavez
Duran vs Leonard
Holyfield vs Tyson
Douglas vs Tyson

 

Calzage V Lacy
Benn V Mclennen