Boxing Perspective: Top Ten Boxing Upsets

On the undercard of the Sam Peter vs. James Toney bout, Eric Aiken, 16-4 (12), is set to make the first defense of his newly acquired IBF Featherweight title against Roberto Guerrero, 18-1-1 (11). Back in May, Aiken pulled off a highly unlikely upset victory over Valdemir Pereira to win the strap. While this accomplishment might pale in comparison to Buster Douglas beating Tyson or George Forman capping off a 10 year hiatus by winning the heavyweight title, most people like when the underdog pulls it out. So in the spirit of JJ Braddock and Iran Barkley, I give to you my 10 biggest and most unlikely upsets over the past 15 years of boxing.

10.) Eddie Sanchez over J.C. Candelo: It was hot August night back in 2004 and it looked like the fight fans were in for a treat as the undefeated prospected Joachim Alcine was set to take on J.C. Candelo, at that time the #5 ranked middleweight by the IBF. Candelo was fresh off of losses to Winky Wright and Kassim Ouma and needed a big performance to stay in the mix. Everything chanced quickly as Alcine failed his medical exam and was not allowed to fight. It looked like the fans were robbed of a good night of boxing.

Seven hours before show time, ESPN finally dug up Eddie Sanchez to replace Alcine. On top of having no time to prepare, Sanchez had to drop eight pounds to make weight. Most viewers probably changed the channel when this was announced, expecting a blowout. Those who stayed tuned were treated to Eddie Sanchez giving the fight of his life, taking the middleweight contender to the limit over 12 rounds. Although Candelo did score a knockdown, he wasn’t able to muster up much offense while Sanchez just fired away and kept on top of his opponent, even though he was visibly running on fumes from the sixth round on.

The fight went to the cards and all three judges scored in favor of Eduardo “Eddie” Sanchez. While this fight wasn’t for any major titles and didn’t involve “big name” fighters, it made for great TV and showed why Friday Night Fights is worth watching. We haven’t heard any noise from Eddie Sanchez since, but for one night he was awesome.

9.) Sergei Liakovich over Lamon Brewster: Coming into this fight, Lamon Brewster was on a tear. He was the reigning WBO Heavyweight Champion and earning a rep amongst fight fans as one of the more entertaining brawlers in the division. In his last three bouts, he left contenders Wladimir Klitschko, Luan Krasniqi and Andrew Golota lying on their backs.

Along comes Sergei Liakovich, a little known white European cut from the mold that Brewster has been feasting on. A contest that Brewster was supposed to win by early knockout turned into a 2006 fight of the year candidate as they went the distance in an absolute slugfest. From the opening bell both men went at it.

Liakovich showed a big heart and a very solid chin. It is said that Brewster suffered a detached retina early in the fight and continued with basically one eye. He almost put the “White Wolf” away in the seventh, which is a candidate for round of the year. Liakovich sucked it up and dished his own punishment out down the stretch which was enough to earn him a unanimous decision and the WBO heavyweight title. Brewster has been on the bench recovering since while Sergei is on the verge of a fight with Shannon Briggs.

8.) Ivan Robinson over Arturo Gatti: 1998 was a pretty exciting time for the sport of boxing. We got our first taste of Fernando Vargas and Floyd Mayweather; Erik Morales was starting to make a splash, and to top it off, there were two epic battles between Ivan “Mighty” Robinson and Arturo Gatti. Arturo Gatti was already known for his barnburners but this was supposed to be a bounce back fight after suffering a surprising loss to Angel Manfredy.

Ivan Robinson took the saying “Philly Tough” to a new level as these two men fought at a frantic pace throughout. There were many moments where it looked like each fighter was ready to go. Robinson did hit the deck in the fourth, but the Philly fighter got back on his feet and did enough to earn a split decision victory in Gatti’s adopted hometown of Atlantic City.

This fight cleaned up the Ring Magazine awards as it won Upset of the Year, Fight of the Year while the third frame of the rematch took Round of the Year. This marked the first of many times that Arturo Gatti was written off, although he bounced back to participate in many more crowd pleasers, but Robinson was never the same after his wars with Gatti.

7.) Bernard Hopkins over Felix Trinidad: The final portion of Don King’s Middleweight World Championship Series pitted Felix Trinidad against Bernard Hopkins. Felix Trinidad was 28 years old, 40-0 with 33 KO’s, held a win over Oscar De La Hoya and was one of the hottest names in the game. B-Hop was at the time 36 years old and had never faced anyone of Trinidad’s caliber, making him a 3-1 underdog. On top of that, Hopkins did a lot to piss Trinidad off before the fight, giving Tito that extra motivation to do a job on the Philly native.

Emotions were running high and there were a lot of sub plots; this was a few weeks after 9/11, Hopkins was just freed from a Don King promotional contract and the flag throwing in Puerto Rico incident. A lot of people were saying that Trinidad was going to smoke B-Hop, but Felix really had no chance in this fight and might have won two rounds before his corner threw in the towel.

The Executioner turned in a masterpiece and made it look easy. He wore down the undefeated Trinidad in the early rounds, jabbing and countering, and turned up the heat late. He finished strong, scoring a TKO in round twelve and became the undisputed Middleweight Champion of the World. This fight launched Hopkins into the national spotlight and sent Tito into his first retirement.

6.) Ricky Hatton over Kostya Tszyu: just think, a little over a year most boxing fans people on my side of the pond couldn’t tell you jack about Ricky Hatton. So when Showtime wheeled him out as an opponent for the legendary Kostya Tszyu back in June of 2005, 99.9% of the folks in the States thought he was going to get killed.

Tszyu, recognized as the 140 lb kingpin, has beaten a long laundry list of top notch fighters while The Hitman’s best work at the time came against mid carders Ben Tackie and Mike “No Joke” Stewart. All of that went out the window from the sound of the opening bell as Manchester’s favorite son put an all out assault on “The Thunder from Down Under.” The body pounding that Hatton administered left Tszyu unable to continue after the 11th round and with a set of ribs that probably still hurt to this day.

Overnight, Ricky went from unknown to star and now he is the reigning Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year for 2005. This sort of thing happens when you make a legend quit on his stool. This was a coming out party for t\”The Hitman” as he has gone on to win the WBA Light Welter title and WBA Welterweight title, while Tszyu hung up the gloves and went dancing with the stars.

5.) Bernard Hopkins over Antonio Tarver: You are probably looking at this one and thinking what is it doing here on this list? But leading up to this fight, no one was giving B-Hop a snowball’s chance in hell to beat Tarver. They said he was washed up, had nothing left after the Jermain Taylor fights. No way he was moving up two weight classes and taking the belt.

You couldn’t get away from Tarver and his big mouth either; talk shows, magazines, he was everywhere talking about how he is going to put away the old man for good…etc. Well, when it came time to fight, B-Hop made Tarver pay. For 12 rounds the cagey ring veteran picked his shots and made Tarver look like a novice. Not only was this one of the biggest upsets in recent memory, it was one of the greatest finishes to a career. We haven’t seen or heard from Tarver since.

4.) Corrie Sanders over Wladimir Klitschko: Now, this fight was a text book tune-up bout. In March of 2003, Klitschko was ripping through the heavyweight division and was set to fight in his adopted homeland of Germany against the 37 year old Sanders. The South African challenger was coming into the contest openly discussing retirement, putting in only three rounds of work in three years prior to the contest and was unranked (until HBO announced the fight).

It was a tailor made easy night for Dr. Wlad but Sanders absolutely starched Klitschko in this one. The “Steel Hammer” turned into a rag doll in a matter of seconds and ate the canvas four times before the fight was officially stopped near the end of the second round. The chink in Wladimir’s armor was exposed to the world and still to this day, his chin is questioned.

I will never forget the big stupid dazed look on the good Dr’s face when Corrie Sanders rocked him with that first big, swooping left nor will I forget Sanders’ post fight celebration and sense of victory. It didn’t last long however, as big brother Vitali went seeking revenge and beat the snot out of Sanders a year later.

It’s ok though, Sanders took the big paydays and jump started his golf career. But this was the start of a nasty slump for Wlad Klitschko, although he has bounced back strong in recent years.

3.) Evander Holyfield over Mike Tyson: The fight that was supposed to happen five years prior was finally going to happen. While it wasn’t as appealing as it would have been back in say, 1991, this was still a pretty interesting contest. The jury was out on Holyfield, who was coming off some tough fights against Riddick Bowe, Michael Moorer and Ray Mercer, two of which he lost. Combine that with a brief suspension for an irregular heartbeat and many were saying Evander was washed up.

On the other hand, “Iron Mike” was fresh out of the slammer and had put serious beatings on Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon, reaffirming his claim as the baddest man on the planet. No one gave Holyfield a chance at all, saying that he was going out early. Come fight time, the MGM Grand was rockin’ and Tyson put an early barrage on Evander, but “The Real Deal” was able to hang on. Before long Holyfield was in control, refusing to be bullied and by the 11th , Mitch Halpern was calling a halt to the contest.

Evander pulled off the impossible, becoming the WBA Heavyweight Champ, although most thought it was a fluke job. The rematch led to the biggest pay per view sale ever and provided one of the strangest events in boxing history, the infamous ear biting. This was truly the beginning of the end for Tyson while Holyfield went on to win the IBF title from Michael Moorer.

2.) Carlos Baldomir over Zab Judah: Seriously, where the heck did this come from? I was at the Garden for this fight and if anyone tells you that they picked Carlos Baldomir to win this fight, you have my permission to call them a liar right to their face.

My first impression of Baldomir was that he was a member of the ring crew. The Argentine has the appearance of a guy who turned pro around the age of eight; He isn’t built very well, his face is battered and his stance is weird. When you combine that with the facts that the fight took place on a Don King card in Judah’s backyard, hand picked opponent was written all over this one.

The first few rounds were terribly boring; Judah was clowning around and not caring much. It was even until the 7th frame, where “Tata” laid a serious beating on Judah, almost putting him out. Baldomir brought out the dog in Judah, who was running for his life. You would have thought the 12 KO’s on Baldomir’s ledger was a typo.

The fight went to the scorecards and I seriously thought he was going to get jobbed of the win, but all three judges saw the fight in favor of the career journeyman. Judah’s career is now in shambles while Baldomir, the true welterweight champion, is making a serious run at 2006 fighter of the year after his destruction of Arturo Gatti. “Tata” is scheduled to fight Floyd Mayweather in November.

1.) Hasim Rahman over Lennox Lewis: And coming in at number one is not only the biggest upset of all time, but the biggest fluke in the history of the sport. Never has one lucky punch carried a fighter’s career so far. Rahman’s big win in 2001 still has him fighting for titles in 2006, although he has beaten virtually no one in that time span.

Lewis came into the fight way overconfident and was busy filming a movie when he should have been in camp. Shame on him and boy, did he pay the price. Rahman came to fight and in the 5th round, crushed Lewis’ jaw with a right. Lewis avenged this loss soon after and went on to beat Mike Tyson and Vitali Klitschko before abruptly retiring. Rahman has since fought in a long line of stinkers and hasn’t won anytime the competition has been stepped up.

Any questions or comments send to keithfmt3@hotmail.com