Which was the bigger disgrace?

precisely... and even worse when you take into consideration that a decent portion of the media still regarded Spinks as THE heavyweight champ, that Tyson had to beat him in order to gain full-fledged status. Simply put:

Tyson fought for heavyweight supremacy.

Spinks fought to furnish his newly purchased mansion.

 

Biggest disgrace ever in boxing is of course Tyson-Holyfield II and nothing comes even close.

One worth mentioning is Rahman-Cawley, which is probably the most pathetic performance I have ever seen. Just look it up from youtube if you haven't. Granted, it was a shit fight anyway

 

Yes...of course, but in a different kinda way to the spirit of this thread, IMO.

 

dsimon writes:

I don't agree with you and Sly on this one. You can offer somoene all the money in the world but there are parts of us that are still biologically based and one of those parts is our fight or flight instinct. When we are overwhelmed we want to flee and Spinks was overwhelmed. All the money in the world could not change his desire, or lack there-of which was mitigated by his overwhelming fear of Tyson.

People think this fight was a discrace when in fact this fight was a testiment to Sun Tzu's "the art of war." Specifically the part where Sun Tzu says the highest form of combat is where the fight is won before the conflict. Tyson had Spinks so scared that Spinks never had a chance. Tyson did that to a lot of guys back then. Spinks was smart enough to realize he was overmatched and he could have trained twice as hard and still would have been psychologically beaten by Tyson before the first punch.

 

dsimon writes:

I would say off the top the Brigg's fight is the biggest disgrace. You see the guy, you know the guy has a problem with his aerobic capacity, you know the guy is getting paid big money cause he is a puncher.... and the guy can't even find it in his heart, for the sake of his fans, to train so he can throw a few punches!

If a man can build 30 pounds of muscle he can lose 30 pounds so he can lift his arms during a fight. If nothing else one can ride a lifecycle, or swim. The message is fuck my fans my image is more important than my ability to take care of business in the ring. So Briggs gets to keep his build and to make an idiot out of people like me who remember that this guy could be a pure puncher that could threaten anyone if he took his fights seriously.

 

Spinks was considered THE heavyweight champion of the world, which at the time was supposed to mean something. He elected to cash out well before the ink dried signing the contract.

You and everyone else can dress it up anyway you want. He deliberately cheated the public for the sake of lining his pockets. Make of it what you wish.

 

dsimon writes:

I suppose he could have ducked Tyson instead.::

 

Honestly, considering how the fight turned out, would it have been any worse? He could've retired undefeated. with the neverending question of why he never faced Tyson, rather than going out shamefully, giving a definitive answer that no, he never beats him.

Besides, it's not like he fought anyone else during his heavyweight title "reign."

 

You'll have to forgive me but I must have been deploying to Iraq at the time, but I had no idea that Freitas not only quit against Diaz but that they even had their fight. What happened in there? Did Juan beat him up bad or is Freitas just shot? By the way, why would Freitas celebrate from quitting?

 

I picked Freitas quitting against Diaz.

Tyson-Spinks is worthy of consideration...

"However"

When you consider that Tyson was knocking out pretty much everyone, had legendary power and was an intimidating presence, it's understandable that Spinks would have reservations about fighting him.

In facing Diaz, Freitas wasn't facing a guy with perceived power, In fact, Freitas wasn't badly hurt in the fight, he mentally bitched up.

Spinks might have been afraid going into the ring, but Tyson flat out KO'd him regardless.

Diaz didn't hurt nor intimidate Freitas...that's why his quitting was a bigger bitch job.

 

Spinks quit before the fight which is a DISGRACE considering he was UNDEFEATED, the LINEAR CHAMPION and this being the biggest and richest Heavyweight matchup since Ali-Frazier 1.

Freitas was at least getting outworked and losing stamina when he quit...Spinks quit LONG before entering the ring.

 

Brah did you watch the fight? Diaz had Fruity on queer street twice in the fight. Had Fruitass had balls, and fought on, I have no doubt that Juan would have stopped him. He was really starting to pour it on him, and even though he aint a bigger puncher, his punches were definitely having effect on Fruity. Not defending Fruity's quit job, just saying, he WAS hurt.

 

the abridged version:
Freitas had his moments early, Diaz got stronger as the fight went on. Nearly had him out in the 5th, the first time Freitas looked like he wanted to quit. Diaz batters him in the 8th. Round ends, Suarez tells Freitas "still a lot of fight left", begging him to continue. Freitas nods, but the look on his face tells it all. He quits, and Suarez dives on top of him in the corner, as if to suggest that HE won't let Freitas come out for the 9th.

Afterward, Freitas races out of his corner, and onto the shoulders of his cornermen, pounding his chest while they parade him around the ring.

 

yeah, no doubt. He was hurt in the 5th, and again in the 8th. He was mentally spent after the 5th, and Diaz wasn't slowing down at all. Like you, it's not said to defend the quit job, just to point out that Freitas most likely was getting stopped regardless.

 

Freitas was more tired than anything. He shot his load early. He fought like Diaz would crumble as soon as he landed a hard shot in the first few rounds. He put a TON of effort in some of those early uppercuts and bodyshots.

He didn't fight any differently than he did against Corrales except his being a few years older and having a year layoff hurt his already poor stamina.

Regardless, it's not like Freitas was hurt from Diaz's shots like Spinks was from the first bodyshot Tyson put him down with.

 

I wasnt comparing the two performances. I mean, obviously theres no comparing Diaz to a prime Tyson. I was simply saying how you said Fruity was never hurt, when clearly he was in the 5th and 8th. Of course some of it had to due to fatigue, but Diaz had him wobbling around the ring for a punch(think it was a hook, gotta re-watch the fight) meaning that Fruity was hurt. Quit or no quit, had he continued, Diaz probably would have knocked him out in the next round.

 

have any of you guys seen Orlin Norris' quitjob vs. Klitschko?

 

Marquez and Gainer clashed heads and it ended in a technical decision for Marquez.

Larry Merchant was relieved that the "abortion of a fight" ended.

 

Spinks did what most thought he would against a guy who steamrolled everyone.

There's not much intimidating about Juan Diaz.

 

No, what happened?

 

I was at that fight, it was on the undercard of PBF-N'Dou.

I've never watched the TV version as I've tried to erase it from my memory.

 

Again...

I thought it was due to fatigue and his legs were gone.

 

I've seen it and when Orlin went down, I could not see the punch landing.

 

Hell...

Tyson-Seldon should be on the list.

 

I voted for Gainer's "performance" against Marquez.

However when reading the poll options it only listed Freitas quit job against Diaz. If you add the celebrations after it, that would certainly be my vote.

 

Well, I think this incident would come in a distant second to James Butler's act of courage against Richard Grant.

 

Yeah, that has to be the worst.

 

how about Luis Resto and Panama Lewis? what's worse? butler sucker punching grant or resto and lewis ruining a guy's career the way they did.

 

dsimon writes:

I guess under the circumstances that was a legitimate option. But we would still have threads here asking if Spinks could have beaten Tyson? I guess I like the certainty that beatdown brought to the table.

 

Yeah, I'd go with Luis Resto and Panama Lewis as the most disgraceful act.