
Originally Posted by
JazMerkin
USA (probably at #1)
Mexico
Puerto Rico
UK
Jamaica (if you count boxers such as Lloyd Honeyghan as well)
Wow, I forgot about Jamaica. On a per capita basis, it ranks very high, indeed.
A series of five monster upsets all by tough Jamaican fighters astounded me.
Trevor Berbick’s 1980 ambush KO of Big John Tate in Montreal set the stage for four more shockers. The welterweight champion Lloyd Honeyghan, nicknamed “Ragamuffin” due to his Jamaican roots, defeated heavily favored Donald Curry in 1986. In an equally stunning upset, welterweight Kirkland Laing (43-12-1) beat Roberto Duran in 1982.
And there was the notable amateur fighter, Michael Bentt, former WBO
Heavyweight Champ, who knocked out heavily favored Tommy Morrison in
1993 in an incredible first-round upset. The thing about Bentt was that he was very good amateur fighter, and Morrison’s camp had done a terrible
job researching his amateur record. Had he not suffered a career-ending and life-threatening injury in his fight with Herbie Hide, there is no telling how far he could have gone.
And who could forget the great Simon “Mantequilla” Brown, WBC and IBF
Welterweight Titleholder who KO’d Terry Norris in 1993 for the WBC Light
Middleweight Title in Ring magazine’s Upset of the Year? What made these fights memorable? They were all major upsets, and they were all pulled off by Jamaican fighters.
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