There are so many potential matchups that never occured throughout history. They're relegated to the mythical "what if" scenarios and can only be argued about. To me a lot of potential matchups have been intriguing simply for the fact that i had a hard time even picturing the two guys against each other. Both fighters in the ring exchanging shots and matching skills. It seemed either too good to be true or i was resigned to only imagining them. As fans we know "boxing politics" is behind the majority of fights that haven't occured unfortunately. What fights did you think would never take place, and how did you think they would play out before they actually took place?
calzaghe vs. Hopkins I wanted to see this fight years ago and didn't think it would happen. It was a few years late but it still happened.
Sept 2001it pat, side step, pit pat side step, clown. pit pat side step RJJ UD. January 2008: Pit pat, side step, pit pat side step 12 rounds. RJJ UD.
Calzaghe - Kessler,.. I thought Joe would bitch away to another division without fighting his ultimate supermiddleweight rival, I definitely thought Kessler would be considered way too high a risk at that stage of Calzaghe's career, but to my astonishment, Joe grabbed his balls, signed the contract and conquered the division with an excellent performance, and I thought Calzaghe had no hope of outboxing Kessler from the outside...:shit:
Jones - Tarver 3 I thought Jones would get KTFO'd but when the fight actually happened astonishingly his Shotness made it the full 12.
hatton-zoo hatton-floyd most the other fights mentioned here - rjj tito, slappy hopkins, lewis tyson - happened after one or both fighters had taken a severe dip in form. hatton-zoo and hatton-floyd happened close to the fighters' peaks.
:: You can always count on D MAN to come up with the worst example by far. They had already fought twice, so obviously you would imagine how they match up. Oscar vs. Hopkins comes to mind here. I was shocked when Oscar started talking about doing it... and when he followed up and actually made it happen, I was impressed. In retrospect, I'm sure he wasn't taking much of a risk.
Recently, I would add to this thread any fight where a Werren fighter has stepped up to the mark and fought a live fighter, including (but probably not limited to): Hatton-Tyszu Calzaghe Lacy Calzaghe-Kessler Calzaghe-Hopkins Maccaranelli-Haye Rees-Kotelnik Also, I'm still waiting for Alex Arthur to find a way out of being beaten by Juan Guzman next month... I also didn't ever think Tyson v Lewis would ever happen. It just seemed destined not to and by the time it did, it was too late to be conclusive for anyone's tastes. If it had happened about five years earlier, like it was meant to, then it may have meant more IMO. A lot more.
That's what would have happenned 5 years earlier. I think when Lewis beat Tyson's father twice it was conclusive enough.
Jones-Trinidad Holyfield-Tyson Mayweather-De La Hoya (in 2003 when Floyd started calling him out, I didn't expect it. By the Judah fight, I expected it). Lewis-Tyson Calzaghe-Kessler Hopkins-De La Hoya
Same. I thought they would never mix it up but as soon as they signed it I was so happy. For one I would get to see tyson's face smashed in plus I knew he had enough delusional fans around that could get taken for $$. That may be one of the most certain I've ever been going into a huge fight where so many people gave the underdog a live chance. I gave Tyson 0% chance in that.
I never thought FLoyd-DLH would happen.. IMO it is underrated on how Risky a fight this was for Floyd.. Floyd is a little guy.. people had talked about GATTI being too big and strong for Floyd and DLH was bigger, stronger AND a good fighter..
