Fights where a guy won so convincingly

Just posting this as a question. Someone said to me at work today, who is a bit of a boxing fan, that Crawford's win over Spence means nothing as Spence was "obviously finished". Heavily disagree with this of course, but I was thinking of other situations where a boxer is an underdog or a 50-50 guy in a bout and wins so comfortably that he actually doesn't get the credit, and it becomes more about how the guy he beat is finished. DLH-Pacquiao and Jones-Johnson come to mind.

 

Also, I guess another question is - is this right? If you are an underdog or a fighter in the fight of your life, is it right for your best win to be discredited when it was seen as an insurmountable challenge or the fight of your life beforehand, purely because the guy in the other corner got seven shades of shit beaten out of him when it wasn't expected?

 

Crawford was the betting favorite over Spence, so it doesn't quite apply. Spence certainly wasn't finished though. He is NOW, but no one was saying he was finished when he beat the Hell outta Ugas.

Pac-Oscar is a good example. Following the massacre, Pac got no credit, but people forget that going in, Oscar was an OVERWHELMING favorite.

 

Jones-Johnson kinda fits for me as despite the Tarver KO, no one really gave Johnson a chance as Jones had been as dominant as it gets right up until Tarver II. Obviously Jones WAS finished as he never won a significant fight again, but I always felt a bit sorry for Johnson afterwards. He was a journeyman most of his career and he clearly put everything into that fight, fought the fight of his life, executed his gameplan perfectly and finished it in style. Yet afterwards it was all about how far Jones had fallen. I'm glad he got the win over Tarver afterwards to make up for it.

 

Jones jr vs just about everyone he beat

He wasn't underdog or 50/50 except until the toney weigh in but he got zero credit for beating several very good foes

 

Calzaghe v Lacy is a good UK based one. Lacy was betting favourite going in and most picked him to stop Joe easily. The coke fiend put on an absolute clinic and everyone simply said Lacy was shit all along.

MTF

 

Another good example I can think of is Nunn-Tate.

Going into that fight, Tate was the unbeaten Olympic gold medalist, and the betting favorite over Nunn.

Nunn completely wipes him out, and nowadays that performance doesn't get the credit it deserves.

One of the most dominant performances in middleweight championship history.

 

Vitali Vs Peter.

Peter was picked by every boxing scribe to beat Wlad. Afterwards, they said he was shit. Until he beat up James Toney. Then Vitali beat him and he was back to being shit.

I read an article the other day by Audley Harrison wherein he said he boxed Sam Peter as an amateur and recalled Peter as the hardest hitter he'd faced of Haye,Price, etc.

Lewis Vs Holyfield.

Suddenly he was "Oldyfield" etc.....Lewis had outboxed Holyfield handily in the first fight and people went on about how Holyfield had gotten old overnight etc. Then Holyfield turned in a much better performance in the 2nd fight so they said this proved how bad Holyfield was the first time. FFS....

Barrera Vs Hamed.

Not so so so handy but pretty handy. Suddenly Naz was a totally useless guy who'd been found out, never that good, etc ... Truth was Barrera took the assignment very seriously and Hamed didn't. Hamed was plenty dangerous.Barrera boxed to order, something that had been beyond him as a younger fighter when he got iced by Jones.

We never saw Barrera box that disciplined before or maybe even after.


Calzaghe Vs Lacy.

Utter utter whitewash where Calzaghe showed what he could do when fully fit and motivated. Was Lacy an ATG? NO. But he was better than what Calzaghe made him look. He was a World Champ who had a bluechip amateur career and was being fast-tracked to the big time.


Years later Jones beat up a one-armed Lacy and people said this had proved the guy a fraud. Sure. Denny Moyer and Ralph Dupas beat Ray Robinson once, if you want.

 

So fucking aggravating. It wasn't because Calzaghe was a big southpaw with a rock solid chin and great feet. It's cos Lacy was shit. Boxing logic. Smfh.

 

People picked lacy because Calzaghe had gone years without fighting anyone decent and had injuries. Not cuz anyone thought lacy was elite. Certainly not anyone who saw him vs Richard Grant

 

Exactly. I picked Lacy because I thought Joe was washed up.

I never thought of Lacy as prime Tyson or anything.

 

Lacy used to go in the boxing chat room on yahoo messenger. We asked him who was a tougher opponent out of the current champions when he was still unbeaten. He said Byron Mitchell was more dangerous than Calzaghe cuz he was a bigger puncher

 

Plenty of these cunts thought he was elite:

BoxingScene Staff Predictions - Jeff Lacy vs. Joe Calzaghe

MTF

 

The receipts.....

 

out of that whole lot Ive only heard of 5 of them. Tom Stewart and Johnny Ortiz picked calzaghe. Ron BoreUs and Tim Smith are both fucking retards and not surprisingly picked lacy. rick reeno owns that site, he's not reallly a boxing journalist.

 

I'll admit my error: My prediction was more based on underrating Calz than overrating Lacy.

As I said, I never thought of Lacy as some Tyson-level fighter; however, at the time I didn't think Joe was a great fighter. Add that to the fact I thought he was on the slide and too inactive.

 

Lacy might have become, dare I say, a bit underrated in 2024.

He took a beating from a great fighter, and was effectively finished after that. No super middle of today is as good as Calzaghe.

I wonder how prime Lacy would have matched up against Benavidez.

David probably batters him, but it's worth noting that Benavidez is a more available target than Calzaghe was.

 

Whether they are 'known' or even especially credible isn't really to the point, which was that Lacy was heavily fancied by people to win the fight, many of whom thought he was the elite guy at 168 at that time.

MTF

 

Miguel Cotto’s win over Sergio Martinez. This was Cotto’s first fight at 160 and was the underdog but ends up destroying Martinez. People have discredited that win because of Martinez’s knee. I personally think that Cotto deserves credit for beating Martinez.

 

Even Calzaghe Himself Referred to Lacy as “Shit” btwn One of the Earlier Rounds, to His Corner….

“He’s Shit”…




REED

 

Go watch lacy Vs "the alien " grant at the playboy mansion and tell me how anyone can see that fight and claim lacy is elite

 

Go watch Calzaghe against David Starie and tell me he was elite.

That's an easy game to play, really.

MTF

 

Lacy wasn't even impressive in the Olympics

 

Well that's that then.

 

Cope and Seethe.

 

Starie said he was shit. Reid said he was shit. His own dad had doubts!!!

What can't be denied is the same people who are now reaching into the mists of time claiming they came away from the Sydney Olympics with a low opinion of Lacy are the same ones who fancied him to finish the job Mitchell had started.

 

This fucking place.....people here witnessed a merry go around of belt swapping at 147 for 5 years and claimed it was because there so many really really good Welterweights.

At least TWO of them were light-Welters. Another one was Ricardo Mayorga. Another guy in there was Cory Stinks.

Yet it was all good.

Suddenly they're hyper critical of Lacy.

Ever notice how Taylor maintained his value after the Pavlik but not after the Abraham loss?

 

The starrie fight was indeed an excruciating fight. And it was on a tyson undercard making it a pretty big lost opportunity for calzaghe.

 

In fairness to Lacy, that Grant fight was before he won the title. He had mproved as a fighter by time he destroyed Robin Reid.

No one is calling Lacy the level of Dwight Qawi, but Neil is describing Lacy like he was Gary Lockett.

Lacy was better than Callum Smith, if compared to today's crop.

 

taylor was clearly the much more talented olympian. and he went on to to defeat bernard hopkins. who the fuck did lacy every beat?