What's the most unlikely rivalry in the history of boxing?

[Kev]

Valerie Mahfood/Ann Wolfe to go to the females
Ann fought Valerie as a virtual unkown,Valerie was a former champ
On top of it Ann had lost their first meeting,now Ann is a legend in female boxing

again TM I'm not talking about upsets I'm talking about otherwise journeyman fighters who are famous for beating a great fighter two times.

Ann Wolf is now a superstar of womans boxing so she doesnt qualify at all.

I'm on about perennial underachievers, or those who never in their entire career became 'great' but against the odds scored not one but TWO wins over a fighter who was considered great.

Mayorga beating p4p star Forrest twice is a definite one, Jones twice beating p4p all time great Barrera is another.

Take away Jones wins over Barrera and Mayorga's wins over Forrest and they are entirely unremarkable. Those wins were sensational and unlikely and I want to know how many more like that there have been in history.

[Trainer Monkey]

Valerie Mahfood/Ann Wolfe to go to the females
Ann fought Valerie as a virtual unkown,Valerie was a former champ
On top of it Ann had lost their first meeting,now Ann is a legend in female boxing

again TM I'm not talking about upsets I'm talking about otherwise journeyman fighters who are famous for beating a great fighter two times.

Ann Wolf is now a superstar of womans boxing so she doesnt qualify at all.

I'm on about perennial underachievers, or those who never in their entire career became 'great' but against the odds scored not one but TWO wins over a fighter who was considered great.

Mayorga beating p4p star Forrest twice is a definite one, Jones twice beating p4p all time great Barrera is another.

Take away Jones wins over Barrera and Mayorga's wins over Forrest and they are entirely unremarkable. Those wins were sensational and unlikely and I want to know how many more like that there have been in history.

But the time Wolf was a 5-1 nobody,who Mahfood had allready beaten,fighting against an ex-champ

[Kev]

Valerie Mahfood/Ann Wolfe to go to the females
Ann fought Valerie as a virtual unkown,Valerie was a former champ
On top of it Ann had lost their first meeting,now Ann is a legend in female boxing

again TM I'm not talking about upsets I'm talking about otherwise journeyman fighters who are famous for beating a great fighter two times.

Ann Wolf is now a superstar of womans boxing so she doesnt qualify at all.

I'm on about perennial underachievers, or those who never in their entire career became 'great' but against the odds scored not one but TWO wins over a fighter who was considered great.

Mayorga beating p4p star Forrest twice is a definite one, Jones twice beating p4p all time great Barrera is another.

Take away Jones wins over Barrera and Mayorga's wins over Forrest and they are entirely unremarkable. Those wins were sensational and unlikely and I want to know how many more like that there have been in history.

But the time Wolf was a 5-1 nobody,who Mahfood had allready beaten,fighting against an ex-champ

Yes but that is not the question I'm asking. I'm not asking about upsets.

What got me thinking was Lewis's KO defeat to Rahman and Wlads ko loss to Brewster. Both were beaten in huge upsets but both came back to KO their opponents.

I wondered how many times in history had a fighter lost by sensational upset, and then fought a rematch and against the odd lost again?

To my mind Barrera losing twice to Jones and Forrest losing twice to Mayorga are the best examples of this.

Randy Turpin almost pulled off the biggest upset of all because he nearly beat Robinson the second time around as well but Sugar Ray pulled it out the bag so he doesn't count.

Obviously Ann Wolfe went on to do great things so doesn't fit the criteria of the question that I asked.

If Wolfe would have beaten her, and then beaten her again, and then gone on to have an entirely mediocre and uninspired career she would have qualified but she didn't so she doesn't

So far I think it's Jones and Mayorga who best fit the bill. Both won world titles but were unspectacular champions and not expected to beat elite fighters. Although Jones I feel was a little better, he did go on to beat Tom Johnson after all.

Mayorga on the other hand has no other big name win on his record. He won his belt against Andrew six head Lewis, a paper champ if ever there was and has lost to every name fighter he's ever fought, Tito, Oscar, Spinks etc but he got those two wins over an absolute prime Vernon Forrest who at that time was considred to be in the p4p top 10.

Mayorga did go on to beat Vargas, but that really was a badly past his prime Vargas and so doesn't really add a great deal to Mayorga's resume.

So anyway, are there any other big double fight upsets against established champs along the same lines as Mayorga and Jones?

And remember I'm not talking about one off upsets, of which there are hundreds, I'm talking about the underdog winning BOTH the first fight AND the rematch.

[DAWGSWIN]

One could make a case for Rahman-Maskaev.

[Spicoli]

Ivan Robinson Vs. Arturo Gatti x 2........this one always blows me away.I thought Gatti would finish what Cardona started but more suprising was Ivan standing in and going hell bent in an awesome slug fest.

[ICB]

Ivan Robinson Vs. Arturo Gatti x 2........this one always blows me away.I thought Gatti would finish what Cardona started but more suprising was Ivan standing in and going hell bent in an awesome slug fest.

Ivan Robinson would of been stopped in the 1st fight had it been 12 rounds he was out on his feet but i've seen a few of his fights he looked like a good skilled fighter quite suprised he didn't achieve more.

[Spicoli]

Ivan Robinson Vs. Arturo Gatti x 2........this one always blows me away.I thought Gatti would finish what Cardona started but more suprising was Ivan standing in and going hell bent in an awesome slug fest.

Ivan Calderon would of been stopped in the 1st fight had it been 12 rounds he was out on his feet but i've seen a few of his fights he looked like a good skilled fighter quite suprised he didn't achieve more.

Gatti was fighting Jr.Flys ?. Robinson really shocked me that night...He was a solid boxer but that night,they needed a phone booth,great fight.......another fighter in a long line that have held on way to long staying around.

[CutMeMick]

Ivan Robinson Vs. Arturo Gatti x 2........this one always blows me away.I thought Gatti would finish what Cardona started but more suprising was Ivan standing in and going hell bent in an awesome slug fest.

Good one Spicoli...