I'm curious to know any examples of a fighter who gives one of their best performances but ends up losing or getting a draw by way of robbery. I'm not talking about close fights that could have gone either way, but a dominating showing where it was plain obvious that fighter should have won.
Whitaker-Chavez is the first one to come to mind although i'm not sure it was one of his best performances. Best opponent though.
Chisirah-Helenius ain't a good example imo. Helenius is a scrub and Chisora has wins/close ights over far better opponents than him. Keeping with the hw: Donald - Valuev (never saw this one but going on what was reported a the time). Golota- Byrd Oquendo - Byrd
Oquendo is a great catch, but I think everybody would agree that Golota's best performances came against Bowe E: sorry, it said one of the best. Thus, Golota - Byrd is a good pick too
No on second thought, agree with (the earlier) you , Golita-Byrd ain't really a good pick, just a debatable one.
IDK about anyone else here, but I thought Marquez beat Pacquiao by an 8-3-1/9-3-type margin in their 3rd fight. In my eyes, that was arguably his best pure boxing performance. I thought Holly Mims turned in a career performance and was flagrantly robbed against top contender Joey Archer toward the end of his career. Troy Dorsey was a clear winner over Jorge Paez in their 1st fight IMO. Some fighters who are known almost exclusively (if at all) for being "robbed" in a title shot: -Hugo Dianzo against Paulie Ayala. -Naoufel Ben Rabeh against Juan Urango. -Gabriel Campillo against Tavoris Cloud. -Ali Funeka against Joan Guzman (1st fight). Many people would argue Dave Tiberi against James Toney, although my opinion on that decision has always differed from most other people's.
I haven't watched that fight in ages, but I remember thinking Everett won something like 9-6. I've actually seen decisions that were worse IMO, but I don't think you could objectively argue that Escalera did enough to win. What makes the decision especially heartbreaking is that Everett was murdered soon afterward and never got another shot to capitalize on his talent.
I think this happens a lot. Robberies often happen to fighters who, based on past performances, were given no chance to win. Thus, the fact they performed well enough to win in most people's eyes means that by definition, it was among their best performances.
True, that's why I'm trying to find cases where the fighter robbed wasn't a nobody (or else we could basically list every challengers of Sturm or Ottke championship runs ). Odlh-Trinidad might be one (though some people might argue it can't be considered one of Oscar best performance considering the end).
I think I gave Everett 10 of the 15 rounds. It wasn’t that he was beating Escalera up really bad, but he was mostly just too slick for him.