Underrated wins...

These are wins that seem to be glossed over or outshined by the fighter's other accomplishments, but when you look at them in isolation, they're actually impressive and significant.

Examples (IMO):

Holyfield vs. Foreman

Foreman proved to be formidable in his comeback and dwarfed Holyfield. And yet, Holyfield dominated him like no other. Still, because of Foreman's old age, most would not poimt to it as an important win.

ODH vs. Chavez

Chavez was past his prime. But to that point, nobody had come close to dominating Chavez the way ODH did. And yet, most just shrug it off.

JMM vs. Salido

Easy to overlook this win, but JMM dominated a very tough fighter in Salido.

 

delahoya whupped chavez, but the guy came into the fight bleeding.

i actually bet on salido, he was too damn hesitant first half of the fight vs marquez. not that he'd have won but it was a disappointing strategy from him. he was 18 to 1

 

Buster Douglas winning a lopsided decision over Oliver McCall which got him the Tyson fight

 

Marciano's 1st round annihilation of Walcott.

To me, this should've gone down as a Tyson-Spinks-like defining moment for The Rock, but instead it's treated like a footnote and largely forgotten. I know many people complain that Walcott could've beat the count and also it turned out to be his last fight, but the same criticisms could be made of Spinks against Tyson. But whereas one fighter gets lauded for sending a HoFer into retirement, the other gets berated for beating "a retired old guy."

 

In fairness, Walcott was much, much further past it for both Marciano fights than Spinks was for Tyson. The guy was like 38 with sixty hard fights behind him.

 

An old Walcott was still a good enough fighter to beat Charles twice, though. I'm not trying to argue that Walcott was at his best at that time, but rather, was he necessarily any less of a fighter than he was when he beat Charles?

I think bombing out Walcott at a time when he was only a single fight removed from his HW title reign, regardless of his age, deserves quite a bit of props.

 

Dick Tiger over Nino Benvenuti.

An aging Tiger, coming off a devastating loss to Bob Foster and questions as to how much he had left in the tank, decisively outpoints the reigning MW champ of the world in a non-title fight. Basically the same scenario as Hopkins-Pavlik, and much more impressive IMO given that Nino ultimately had a HoF career.

 

I'd say the decline from Charles III to Charles IV was clear (for both men, actually), and then the Marciano fight can't have done much to improve it.

I think a blow out win over war-torn veteran is sometimes impressive, but when his heart clearly isn't in it - like Walcott's wasn't - and when they're 38 and coming off a brutal KO loss, in a fight which was just as brutal, while already on the decline, it isn't impressive.

I just feel like it's hard to argue that Walcott was any good post-Marciano I. Most top heavyweights could've blown him out that night if he was so willing to go down IMO.

 

Too be honest, not too many people gives credit to tyson for the spinks blowout imo. Seems like everyone is saying that MS was intimidated and only looked for a place to sleep on the canvas

 

Yeah, I don't think people rate that win too highly. It's the inactivity and knee injury which spoil it for me, rather than the effect Tyson's aura had on him.

HW Spinks was solidly on the level of the Page, Tubbs, Berbick, etc; crowd IMO. He was very good there. But he'd declined by the time he fought Tyson, albeit not so much so as Walcott had by the time he fought Marciano II.

 

SRL moving up to beat Ayub Kalule as basically a tuneup for Hearns.

 

This is a good one.

Imagine beating up a guy as good as Kalule as a TUNEUP. But that's what Ray did.

 

I would say Duran vs Guts Ishimatsu.

Guts is one of the more underrated lightweights in history. He was an excellent fighter and right after Duran beat he would go on to take a portion of the lightweight title from Gato Gonzalez, beat Gonzalez in a rematch, and beat Ken Buchanan.

Duran systematically destroyed Ishimatsu then toppled him with body shots.

Maybe Duran's most underrated win.

 

Wasn't Stafford the fucking idiot who always said Spinks took a dive?

Yea, I'm sure it was that dumb horse.

 

Also, Julian Jackson's destruction of In Chul Baek.

Baek was a quality fighter. Like a very poor man's, junior middleweight Sung Kil Moon.

A few years later Baek would go on to stop Obelmejias for the super middleweight title and defended it a few times.

When people talk about Jackson's wins, you usually hear about his wins over Norris, Drayton, and Graham.

He doesn't get enough recognition for destroying Baek.

 

great answer. Got a ko mag article of the time that was criticizing SRL for that matchup. Was seen as a gimme even though we now knows Kalule was a very good fighter

 

Kid Gavilan beating two of the better MWs to never win the title, Rocky Castellani and Eduardo Lausse, just as each was on the cusp of breaking out as a contender.

Emile Griffith beating Florentino Fernandez.

An old Luis Rodriguez going to Australia and bombing out an up-and-coming Tony Mundine in a single round is just mind-boggling.

Terry Norris dominating Jorge Castro.

 

I dont think I was even aware that Rodriguez blasted Mundine. That is impressive.

 

An up-and-coming Ruben Olivares convincing former Fly champ Salvatore Burruni to turn his back and quit (see below vid).

Henry Armstrong handing Petey Sarron the only stoppage loss of his 130-plus fight career.

Sammy Angott stopping Ike Williams.

Gus Lesnevich bombing out Melio Bettina in a round.

 

JMM-Barrera
Tyson-Holmes
Cotto-Mosley

The losers in each case were obviously past their best but weren't "shot" and didn't show up to lay down either. Each tried their best to win and had their own varying levels of success. The winner in each fight also had to be on their game. If they took it as a gimme and didn't train you've likely got three upsets.

 

Gavilan-Graham 3 - despite all the controversy, the Keed won fair and square IMO.

 

I wish film of Olivares' win over Medel existed.

 

Speaking of Guts, Lionel Rose's own win over him so far up from his prime weight is also underrated.

 

Holyfield-Qawi II - Although Qawi had seemingly declined since their epic 1st fight, Holy dominated and bombed him out in a way that nobody before or since ever really did (even against Foreman up at HW, Qawi was stopped on his feet and further into the fight).

 

Dont know about this one. Qawi seemed so deteriorated compared to the first fight

 

Rubin Carter vs Emile Griffith

 

Yeah, that is slept on.

Whether he caught Griffith cold or not, it's still impressive that he blew him away in one.

 

Agreed, and I thought about mentioning that. I wish there was film of that one as well.

BTW - Laguna also beat Guts, he stopped him. I believe that fight used to be on YT, but I don't see it anymore.

 

Donald Curry's destruction of Nino Larocca is underrated. Larocca was a good fighter, better than say an Oba Carr, who gets too much hype.