Which was more brilliant - Ali's upset of Foreman, Leonard's upset of Hagler or Holyfield's upset of Tyson

Question

Feedback guys. I can't decide.

Answer 1

It's close between Ali/Foreman and Leonard/Hagler. Brad I really felt that Holyfield had a chance to beat Tyson. Because of Holyfield's ability to counter punch I really thought he'd catch Mike coming in and that's what happened. I can remember people calling me an idiot before the fight. I couldn't have been that stupid. I can remember the odds being 25 to 1 against Holyfield when the sports books started taking bets. By fight time it was down to 6 to 1.
Brad good question and a tough one. I guess I'm going to punk out on this one and call it a tie. My reason is that both Ali and Leonard were given NO chance to win prior to each fight. Having said that Brad all 3 were equally brilliant in their own unique way.

Answer 2

First off I wouldn't say Leonard over Hagler. Though Leonard had a remarkable come back and fought brilliantly in the later rounds, I think it was to little to late. I've seen that fight a dozen times, and for the life of me I can't figure out how Hagler didn't get the decition.
Holyfield over Tyson, both fights, were two of my favorites. But I don't think that Holyfield should have been such an underdog in the first place. I honestly wouldn't consider that fight an upset. I expected Holyfield to K.O. Tyson. Tyson had one of the heaviest punches in heavyweight history, but Holyfield was the biggest warrior and had the biggest heart. Plus Holyfield was never intiminated by Tyson, or anyone else at that matter. Douglas over Tyson was probably a bigger upset than all these fights.
I would have to say though that Ali over Forman was the biggest upset of the three. Not that it's a good idea to dought Ali. But at that time George Forman was an unstopable machine. He was a force that people hadn't seen in along time, if ever. He made quick work out of Fraizer, the man who had previously beaten Ali to a pulp, and everyone else he fought before the Ali fight. Ali on the other hand was coming off a three year layoff with only a couple warm-up fights. Ali layed it all on the line that night. He fought smarter than anyone George has ever faced, and he took some tremendous punishment throughout the fight. But in the end Ali's will to win was as big as I may have ever seen.

Answer 3

I'd say Ali's upset of Foreman as well. Foreman looked absolutely indestructible before that, and a lot of folks thought Ali was past his prime. Holyfield's upset was a great one too, although Tyson had already been proved to be beatable.

As far as Leonard-Hagler, I've never believed Leonard won that fight. Hagler pressed the action the entire time while Ray ran away. They landed very close to the same number of punches, and Hagler's were much harder ones. Plus Hagler is older than Leonard.

Answer 4

I was standing right there when Holyfield took out Tyson the first time (9 June, 1996) it was the biggest fight the blogbaba attended in his long and storied boxing preoccupation. Mitch Halpern stopped the fight to save Mike and the rest is history.

Leonard's decision over Hagler was marred by questionable scoring that is argued to this day, and the least of the three in terms of legitimacy.

Ali's upset of Forman was bigger in terms of the heavyweight division than even Buster Douglas in Tokyo. Nobody really thought Ali had enough left to survive against George, let alone KO the big fella. Few if any were bigger than Big George in his prime.

Ali eclipsed all five of the other fighters, and "the Rumble in the Jungle" was far and away the best of the three fights. Holyfield/Tyson a distant second, and Ray's track meet against Hagler flurries in with the bronze.

All three fights were classics, but only one of the six fighters was "the Greatest".

Answer 5

This one is too easy. Ali over Foreman. No one really gave Ali a chance against Foreman. Foreman was undefeated, viciously knocking opponents out, and everytime I see footage of how senseless he knocked out Joe Frazier still makes me cringe to this day!! Even though Leonard was one of my favorite fighters, he was awarded the victory over Hagler. As Larry Merchant put it, "Hagler won the fight, but Leonard won the event!" It was actually similar to Jermain Taylor being awarded the win in his first fight with Bernard Hopkins!! And just about anyone knows about the story of Holyfield and Tyson sparring against each other and coming to blows in the amateurs, so that fight really doesn't qualify as an upset.

Answer 6

I was one of the few that actually believed that Holyfield would beat Tyson back when they fought as I was in the hospital at that time. I knew that Holyfield was a warrior and could punch so I gave him a good chance. As far as Leonard's upset of Hagler, at best that fight was a draw and Hagler should have retained his title as he landed the crisper and harder punches to Leonard's who also done a lot of showboating which is something I never did admire about him. When Muhammad Ali upset George Foreman in Zaire, Africa, I knew that he had a chance because he was the best at playing mind games with his opponent and always had a fight plan before every fight which he executed so well against big George. He knew that he would have to absorb heavy punishment particularly to the body early in the fight to carry out his plan to protect his face along the ropes as George hammered away growing arm weary as the fight went on. Ali knew that if he was able to endure the punishment for 5-6 rounds, that George would be a very tired fighter and he was right. One reason Ali was so great was he ability to adapt to another fighter's ability. Ali had the most brilliant plan although to me it wasn't as big an upset as it was perceived.

Answer 7

I would be tempted to say Ali over Foreman but Ali was already regarded as one of the best heavyweights ever even though most people thought Foreman would beat him. I think Holyfield gained more notability as a great boxer for his being able to take care of Tyson.

Answer 8

Easy. Leonard's upset of Hagler. And for those Hagler fans, give me a break. Boxing isn't just about who lands the harder punches. If it was, Winky Wright or Pernell Whitaker would never have won fights. It's about outboxing the guy in front of you. If it means stealing rounds with flurries then thats what you do. Leonard had been out of boxing for three years! And he comes up in weight to fight the undisputed middleweight champion who had ko'ed John the Beast Mugabi only a year earlier. Marvin can cry til the day he dies. He lost the fight. It wasn't a streetfight to see who was tougher. It was a professional boxing match with three judges. I have been following boxing for 25 years or more and know how fights can and are scored. And for the record, De La Hoya wasn't robbed against Trinidad any more than Whitaker or Sturm was robbed against him. Sometimes fights are just that close because judges are human beings and see things differently. If we ever want it to change, maybe someone can come up with a computer program to score fights. How exciting would that be? And last but not least, Ali simply outlasted Foreman, and Tyson outboxed Mike who was never the same after Buster Douglas.

Answer 9

That's a very difficult question to answer and a great one too! All 3 were brilliant in their own right because people expected the underdog in each of those fights to get destroyed. If i had to pick just one i'd have to go with Ali-Foreman because Foreman had destroyed 2 of the men that had beaten Ali in Frazier and Norton so everyone thought that Ali was going to get killed. But Ali fought a smart fight and just let George tire himself out trying to knock him out and Ali then took him out. And remember that Big George was in his prime and an undefeated wrecking ball when Ali beat him.

Leonard's accomplishment was brilliant also because he came out of a 3 year retirement and took on the Middleweight Champ and the best fighter in the sport at that time in Hagler. But in the previous fight against John Mugabi, Hagler was starting to show signs of slipping just a bit and i think that's the main reason that Ray decided to fight him, he saw something in that fight that told him that Marvin wasn't quite the same fighter as he had been previously been and he took the fight. Still, he was a huge underdog and many people (including myself) thought Hagler was going to murder him, but he fought a brilliant fight that night and proved us all wrong.

Holyfield's victory over Tyson was definitely brilliant and also unexpected because he had looked all but shot in his 2 previous fights, but Mike had fought easy opposition prior to fighting Evander and he wasn't the Tyson of old. Mike had gotten away from the head movement and the combinations and was really throwing one punch at a time. So he had slipped a little too in my opinion. Even so, Mike was a huge favorite to knock Evander out but Evander rose to the challenge like a true champion and fought one of the best fights of his career. He fought a good technical fight as well as he neutralized Tyson's left hook by blocking it and firing back with counter right hands and he pushed Mike back a lot in that fight, but the main factor to me was that Holyfield wasn't intimidated by Tyson at all. And once Mike knew that, he had no plan B. He thought he would just go in and bomb Evander out in a round or 2 but it didn't work that way and Evander knocked him out.

So, all that being said, Ali-Foreman gets my vote. Outstanding Question!

Answer 10

I would have to say Ali over Foreman. I think Foreman was a better fighter over Ali. If they fought 100 times I think Foreman wins 90 of those fights. Ali got lucky in my opinion, Foreman just didnt fight a smart fight.