Worst Performances?

Riddick Bowe in his first fight with Golota. He was arguably a shot fighter at the time though and seriously overweight. Would have surely lost a decision had his opponent been anybody other than Golota.

 

toney (vs jones)
bowe (vs golota I)
douglas (vs holyfield)
lewis (vs rahman I)

 

..........Bobby Chacon against Olivares the first two times he fought him. The first fight was an example of a true pro educating a young, relatively inexperienced hotshot kid. The second fight was just a massacre. Olivaes starched him in two. Bobby had been weight-drained, but that's only an excuse. He'd been fine the first time. Olivares just owned him. The third fight was in '77, when Ruben was fighting strictly from memory. Chacon just squeaked out a decision that time.

 

Tyson vs Lewis

 

Most of Johnny Nelson's early fights ,some of Akinwande',Seldon against Tyson ,all were stinkers

 

KOnadu was just past it.Hit the wall that night and couldn't pull the trigger anymore.A shame, as if he had kept the form he had against Sahaprom and Chuvatana it would have been a good fight.

 

Marco Barrera was utterly garbage in his first fight against Rocky Juarez. He was clearly losing a few steps at this point, but he showed in the rematch that if anything, that first fight was indicative of how ill-prepared Barrera was then how much ability Rocky possessed - a fighter who has done nothing but lose since.

 

de la hoya vs manny pacquiao

 

Nigel Benn in the second Collins fight.
Hamed in his last fight v Calvo
Tyson in most of his last fights
Malignaggi v Hatton was pretty poor
Ruddock v Lewis

Loads

 

Have to disagree with Toney and Lewis here. Toney was below his best, but still would have beaten most fighters at 168 not named Roy Jones that night. He simply met a superior athlete who was unbeatable in his prime. Lewis was below his best but still leading on the scorecards and got KO'ed from a perfect monster punch, no shame in that. Bowe and Douglas on the other hand were not simply below their best in the fights you mentioned, they could not be recogniezd as elite fighters at all.

Pavlik against Hopkins looked terrible, Peter against Vitali as well.

 

Marco Antonio Barrera made Prince Hamed look like a total amateur. One of the most classic, aesthetically pleasing examples of exposing someone that I think I've ever seen. Made me into a big MAB fan. He made that ******* "Prince" look like a joke.

 

I'd like to give a shout out to Lloyd Honeyghan's performance against Marlon Starling. Absolutely one of the sorriest shows from a champ I can remember. Not because Lloyd didn't try - he took his beating like a man - but because his tactics were that of a caveman. When you're fighting a defensive doctor like Starling you don't simply wade in and loop right hands and side left hooks. That's all Honeyghan did in the first few rounds until he finally realized it was a dumb move. His next trick was to run for his life. Completely abysmal performance and almost like didn't plan for his opponent at all. Honeyghan was so much better than he showed that night.

 

coudn't agree more.