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

[Phil]

Ali- Cooper, yeah Cooper didn't win but he came close to a huge upset

[CutMeMick]

Nah Ice you're missing my question entirely. Monzon is one of the greatest middles of all time no way he can be considered unheralded.

To put it clearly the question I'm asking is 'What great fighters, i.e world champs p4p stars have lost TWICE to a fighter who apart from beating the said star had an unspectacular career.

Oh! I get it now...
Then you can scratch off Castro, Monzon, Sanchez.
Put Junior Jones back on it...
Thanks for that Bilbo now it's clear.

[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...

[rjj tszyu]

I guess you guys missed the part where Bilbo said:

"someone who was completely unheralded..."

So far IMO the only ones that I think appliy are Santana-Norris & Peden-Nate & Monzon-Nino and Lopez-Sanchez.
Talk about guys who had not seen world stage yet and they did it.

The rest IMO the fighters had already been on world stage.

No way does SSM-Forrest, Mayorga-Forrest, MAB-Jones, Golota-Bowe etc. etc. apply.

Good points Mick and well noticed.

I think Barrera Jones and Mayorga Forrest fit the criteria though as take away Jones wins over Barrera and Mayorgas wins over Forrest and neither of them would have very much at all. Same would have been true for Rahman had he beaten Lewis a second time.

It's an interesting topic though I think, trying to think of a big name elite fighter who got beat by an unheralded fighter not once, but twice.

I reckon Forrest and Barrera losing to Mayorga and Jones are the best examples but you are far more familiar than me with older fighters so I'm sure there are several more.

Had Randy Turpin won the rematch with Sugar Ray that would have been another decent example, and maybe Ingemarr Johansson came close over Floyd Patterson, certainly he's only famous for beating Patterson.

Wasn't Johansson an olympic medallist though? I am not sure I may be wrong but something sticks in my head about him and the olympics and therefore he would be somewhat heralded just for some olympic glory!

I must say I am stuck for answers to this question I'll think of some though!

[Kev]

Yeah he may well have been a medalist, although as we've seen with Khan and Audley it doesn't mean a whole lot.

Certainly Johannson is only known to the general public in relation to his trilogy with Patterson, but I believe Floyd won overall so doesn't count.

I think it's Mayorga that's the best example so far. Forrest was a top 10 p4p, maybe even top 5 at the time and Mayorga smashed him in a huge upset. But to then get the win a second time, there arn't many underdogs that have done that.

I'm not familiar with Ivan Robinson though so he may well be a good example.

I also liked Maskaev Rahman as well, I mean both those defeats were brutal for Hasim, and both fights he was expected to win.

It's a really interesting question though I think, I mean I can think of loads of upsets like Baldomir Judah, Wlad Sanders, Tyson Douglas etc but none of them followed it up with a win a rematch.

There probably can't be many who have achieved this.........