Best examples of a cherry pick gone wrong…

Tommy Morrison vs Michael Bentt is also another example of a cherry pick gone wrong. It was supposed to be a tune up fight for Lennox Lewis and Morrison gets stopped in one round.

 

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I wouldnt call that a cherry pick, in the sense that Bentt was viewed as a nobody. It was more of a stay busy fight that turned horribly wrong

 

Sean O'Grady vs. the man that KO'd the CHICKEN MAMA Andy Ganigan

 

How about Camacho Jr. vs JJL? Camacho was the up and comer and figured Leija is a nice name on the resume and just old enough to not present too many issues. Leija made him his b!tch and he basically quit, looking like a total coward. A branding that he never really shook.

 

Mosley vs Dlh was far from a cherrypick, it was a legit superfight between 2 fighters in their orime with Oscar a slight favorite. Nonsensical call to be honest. If we want to take on Oscar, the Pac fight was textbook example of a cherrypick gone wrong.

 

Yeah, most of the cases listed in the thread are as such. Might as just list big upsets then...

 

Hilton-Ouellet I.

Hilton was a huge star in Montreal a decade ago but booze, long layoffs and bad life choices basically made it that his career never really took off to the next level. Now, in his mid 30 s with a well chronicled alcool abuse history, he was seen as an easy payday for the new up and coming star who already had a title shot lined up.


Lemieux-Alcine

With knockout power in both hands and a take no prisonner style, Lemieux was seen as a future star but had just suffered a setback in his first step up. Nonetheless, plans to fast track him to stardom were still in place so they needed to get him a big win to erase the Rubio disaster from collective memory. Enter Alcine, a local former world champ, who was seen as way over the hill and not much of a danger due to his shaky chin. Yet, he basically dominated Lemieux and pulled what was arguably his best win. Even more shocking, the assesments about Alcine were basically right as he was koed in nearly all of his fights afterward. To Lemieux's credit though, after changing his team he did manage to become world champion afterward.

 

I think it fits somewhat. It's not uncommon for fighters coming up to face "name" guys who are past their prime. I don't think that's cherry-picking in and of itself though. It's fairly standard practice for reasons other than only marketing.. They saw what the superstar of the time (De La Hoya) did and figured/hoped Camacho could produce a similar result. If he passed the test in the same way maybe he was ready for the next level. Perhaps they overlooked JJL, but i think it was more a case over overestimating the quality of Camacho Jr.

 

Yeah, I agree, not really a cherrypick but more like typical matchmaking when building up a prospect. It also makes me question my own pick of Lemieux-Alcine too...

 

If GGG manages to pull the upset in the Canelo trilogy, it would fit this topic to a tee.

 

DLH - Sturm was a bit of a fuck up too

 

I think DLH-STURM, along with Judah-Baldomir, are the funniest examples

 

Baldomir was a nobody who was Judah's mandatory. Nothing to do with a cherrypick

 

Baldomir vs Gatti though was a cherrypick. Gatti thought he could take the easy route to become ww champion. He inly needed to beat a plodding journeyman who lucked out vs an unfocused Judah. Bad mistake....

 

Terry Norris vs Keith Mullings. Mullings was supposed to be a known name opponent that Norris would bash thus setting up the lucrative Oscar fight, worth a purported £4.5m... But an even bigger disaster was his comeback vs Dana Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt was deemed to be easy pickings with aname because of tge Vinny Paz fights..... but was just too big and lefthanded for that version of Norris.

Eventually he wound up fighting Boudiuani for $100k in France for the WBA title and got wiped out in 9 rounds in what was for Boudouani a case of cherry picking gone right.

He went, in 3 fights, from a payday vs Oscar to opponent status vs a bum fighter in France.

 

Great example

 

Keith Mullings a known name opponent ???

 

My point was that Mullings was deliberately selected for a specific purpose. Was the dude Worldstar? No. But he was well known in boxing, would satisfy the TV guys and would allow Norris to look great at the same time.

 

Edit: just looking back at Mullings record I remember something Norris said either before or after he and Mullings fought.

Mullings had just come off a loss in his previous fight to Raul Marquez which had been a title fight. Mullings literally had back to back title shots.

It was an incredible thing made only more incredible depending on when he said it....Norris said the Mullings fight was going to/had taken place because he'd seen the Raul Marquez Vs Mullings fight and had "felt sorry" for Mullings, who had kept up his career trend of losing big fights narrowly.

Marquez was IBF 154 champ and a player back then. Every discussion about boxing back then was either :-

*The state of the HW division
*The Oscar sweepstakes

Norris specifically picked out Mullings so he could "improve" on the effort that Marquez had turned in and position himself at the head of the 154lb branch of the Oscar Waiting Line

Historically, Marquez got busted up by YB Campas who in turn did a quit job Vs Vargas. The very first thing Vargas said when he won the title was "Now Oscar can't ignore me".

And have a guess who Oscar eventually fought for Norris old WBC 154lb title? Javier Castillejo, who had beaten ....Mullings.

Norris fucked up, simple as. His people had a very specific plan but it went badly wrong simply because Terry had too much mileage and a stayer like Mullings was too much for him.

 

I dont think Mulling was known enough to be considered a cherry pick. It was more of an easy stay busy fight that went very wrong

 

And willy wise

 

Margarito vs Mosley??

 

He'd just come off a title shot. I can't think of another guy getting back to back title shots. Norris "knew" what he was doing.

 

This is a good one.

Shane was expected to be nothing more than a punching bag for Marg.

Definitely backfired.

 

Antonio forgot his gloves

 

Oliver McCall going over to Wembley to fight Frank Bruno was a cherry pick and somehow he winds up getting out-boxed by the gas-man

 

James Braddock vs Max Baer- hand picked by Baer's people and considered nothing more than a journeyman he was a 10 to 1 underdog. James aka Cindirella Man