Heavyweight is the most popular and attractive category in boxing, as any boxing fan or expert bettor knows. Almost every experience associated with these battles is elevated to a major event. In this post, we have compiled a list of Biggest Upsets in Heavyweight Boxing History.
On top heavyweight fights, tens of thousands, if not millions, of money are wagered. In the vast majority of circumstances, these bets pay off. When favorites lose, though, the majority of bettors are severely disappointed. Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, and Muhammad Ali are all true icons of the sport’s most renowned weight division, but each of them appears at least once on this list as a major underdog.
Biggest Upsets in Heavyweight Boxing History-
10. Michael Moorer loses to George Foreman by KO in Round 10, 1994
George Foreman was only a 3/1 underdog entering into this fight for the WBA, IBF, and Lineal heavyweight championship titles, but many punters sneered at such a short price, since the 45-year-old was deemed a complete no-hoper against Michael Moorer’s strength at the time.
Moorer had been undefeated in 35 fights and was 19 years younger at the time of the fight, according to Sports Illustrated. Many believed that this bout would be a mismatch, with Foreman being utilized as a punching bag for Moorer while he prepared for a highly anticipated battle with Mike Tyson.
Moorer was cruising through the fight on the judges’ scorecards, winning seven of the first nine rounds after peppering Foreman with his right jab, creating swelling in the veteran’s left eye.
The battle was advertised as ‘One For The Ages,’ and it lived up to its billing, as Foreman unexpectedly flipped the fight on its head, dropping Moorer with a big right and left his opponent unable to beat the count in his maiden title defense. Moorer’s fantasy bout with Tyson was no longer a possibility, and Foreman reclaimed the title he had lost 20 years before.
9. Wladimir Klitschko loses to Corrie Sanders by TKO in Round 2, 2003
Long before Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua overcame more vulnerable versions of Klitschko, little-known South African Corrie Sanders crushed the Ukrainian in two devastating rounds.
The 37-year-old southpaw, who had only boxed twice in the previous three years, knocked down the highly hyped favorite three times in the first round with scorching hand speed and ‘dynamite’ power.
Klitschko’s fight was the first of a nine-fight agreement with HBO. It was a humiliating defeat. It was a profitable night for those who wagered against the 1/20 favorite with UK bookies.
8. Muhammad Ali loses to Leon Spinks on points after 15 rounds, 1978
Muhammad Ali was a transcendent figure in 1978, a towering presence of personality and charisma, an adored sporting king as well-known in Africa and the Far East as he was in the American spotlight, which he originally entered as a willowy Olympian in 1960. He was also a worn-out and fading combatant.
Despite his waning physicality, diminished speed, and reflexes, the prospect of losing to a novice professional like Leon Spinks, who had won seven of his eight matches at the time the contract was done, remained a fantasy few could imagine.
Despite this, Spinks would out-work and out-punch the exhausted veteran, who would be overwhelmed by the fame and money that victory would bring. Ali’s ability to collect enough energy to win a rematch appeared miraculous to those who had overlooked his deterioration and the harm he had sustained late in his career.
7. Anthony Joshua loses to Andy Ruiz Jr by TKO in Round 7, 2019
Anthony Joshua – the huge puncher from Watford – was anticipated to announce himself to the American market by knocking out late substitute Andy Ruiz in fast time as the unbeaten WBA, WBO, and IBF Heavyweight champion.
He was hoping to build up a blockbuster fight with Deontay Wilder and reaffirm his status as the division’s top heavyweight and largest cash cow in the process, but what happened instead was one of the finest boxing upsets in recent memory.
Despite his ‘Mall Cop’ stature, Ruiz proved to be faster, nimbler, more aggressive, and more durable than anyone expected, and Joshua’s strategy and reputation were shattered. The best betting sites were offering odds as low as 1/24 on Joshua’s victory.
6. Mike Tyson loses to Evander Holyfield by TKO in Round 11, 1996
Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield is widely regarded as one of the greatest sporting rivalries ever. When Holyfield retired from competitive boxing in the early 1990s due to a heart condition after surviving a war with unheralded Bert Cooper and racking up mileage in three Riddick Bowe fights, few believed he could return to beat Tyson.
When faced with Liston and Foreman, many feared for Holyfield’s health, and the more melodramatic spoke of how he may pay the ultimate price for his valor, as Ali had done before him.
Holyfield, one of the hardest and most tenacious athletes of all time, knew better. He believed he could break Tyson’s will since they had been spared as youths, and he saw him as a bully who needed to be hit back.
When the memory of his later defeats is contextualized and the breadth of his entire career is considered, history will be kind to Holyfield, but it should not be overlooked how favored Mike Tyson was when the two faced in 1996. On a Tyson victory, 1/25 was the best return available.
5. George Foreman loses to Muhammad Ali by KO in Round 8, 1974
It seems unbelievable that this fight, one of the most famous in sporting history, is ranked fifth. When Ali signed to fight the formidable George Foreman in Zaire in 1974, there were fears for his life. As champion, Foreman had shown unstoppable speed, quickly dispatching both Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, two men Ali had lost to in previous years.
Ali had slowed, no longer the quicksilver of his peak in his mid-sixties, but now a veteran of a series of crippling conflicts. His attempts to persuade the public that he could conjure another miracle were widely rejected, and Ali’s advantages of weight, youth, and strength were assumed to break him up in the same manner that Frazier and Norton had been previously. The irritated champion had a 1/7 chance of winning.
Ali would absorb all of the champion’s clubbing attempts before knocking the weary Foreman out in the eighth round, marking one of a trio of peaks Ali would reach throughout his legendary career. Ali had stunned the world once more.
4. Max Baer loses to James J. Braddock on points after 15 rounds, 1935
All of the entrants on this list can benefit from hindsight. Following his shock victory against Tyson, Holyfield’s sustained success at heavyweight lowers the magnitude of the upset, as does Ali’s future fame in the aftermath of Liston’s loss to a then-21-year-old in 1964.
The possibility of mafia interference in James J. Braddock’s victory against Max Baer tarnishes our perception of the Cinderella Man’s almost unthinkable victory in 1935, yet it is a clear contender for the greatest upset in heavyweight history by definition.
Baer was a formidable fighter, prone to distraction but a hard hitter and sound technician with size, power, and pedigree to his favour. Braddock, on the other hand, had 27 loses over the course of his lengthy and winding career. One from which he’d taken a break during the Great Depression.
With Baer considering rich offers to move his heavyweight title belt away from Madison Square Garden, powerful players rose to the occasion, keen to keep the arena as the home of boxing and, in particular, the lucrative championship contests. Baer was defeated.
When the bell sounded, Braddock was a 10/1 shot. He only held the championship for two years, owing to the fact that he never defended it. To Joe Louis, a more natural order was restored when he did.
3. Lennox Lewis loses to Hasim Rahman by KO in Round 5, 2001
When Lennox Lewis met with Nelson Mandela in the days after his fight with 20/1 longshot Hasim Rahman, it was assumed that the heavyweight statesman and the statesmanlike heavyweight would shake hands.
While in South Africa, the unified champion made a pilgrimage of sorts. Unfortunately for Lewis, who was the acknowledged ‘king’ of his period after defeating Evander Holyfield two years prior, his participation in the star-studded heist thriller Ocean’s Eleven proved to be a distraction to his boxing career.
The film revolves on mess’s Clooney, Pitt, and Damon putting the stadium into darkness to make off with Andy Garcia’s millions, with Clooney appearing as himself in a mock-fight in a Vegas casino with Wladimir Klitschko, who also appears on this list.
Lewis had his own lights turned off in the fifth round and almost saw Rahman and the omnipresent Don King get off with the millions. Lewis was set to win facing Mike Tyson by staying in the US and failing to acclimate to the South African location or thinking Rahman a clear and present danger. Lewis did indeed meet Mandela, but this time as a past champion.
Later in 2001, he met Rahman again and swiftly regained all of the money he had lost in South Africa.
2. Sonny Liston loses to Cassius Clay by TKO in Round 8, 1964
In the heavyweight class, Sonny Liston was a dominant force. He was physically intimidating, and he possessed a jab that shattered people’s wills and bones. His gloomy demeanor added to his mystique and the fear he instilled in his era.
When he met Cassius Clay, who would go on to become Muhammad Ali, he was a clear favourite, and those who chose Clay were both unusual and ridiculed for their choice.
Floyd Patterson had been smashed twice by Liston, the first to earn the heavyweight title and the second to defend it. Patterson had to disgrace John F. Kennedy in his fights. Before being belatedly given the fight with Patterson in 1961, Liston had destroyed all of the major contenders.
The ‘grizzly bear’ retreated when faced with Clay’s astonishing hand speed, elusive style, and great self-confidence. Clay jubilantly announced that he had “shocked the world” as he retired to his stool, a broken spirit. He’d done it before, and he was 7/1 to do it again.
1. Mike Tyson loses to Buster Douglas by TKO in Round 10, 1990
Tyson’s domination, and the way in which he earned and defended the heavyweight title, gave him an air of invincibility that was beyond that of Foreman or Liston in the decades before.
Challengers were often defeated before they ever mounted the stairs to the ring, thanks to his striking power, hand and foot quickness, and a checkered past as an errant hoodlum, as well as the dread those components instilled. For these reasons, his defeat to Buster Douglas is usually recognised as the greatest heavyweight upset ever.
He appeared to be unbeatable for a decade, if not more, after winning the title so young, at the age of 21. Only the specter of Evander Holyfield, who had moved up from Cruiserweight, remained as a serious threat to his crown. A fight Tyson had previously agreed to and for which he had been promised a $22 million prize. At the time, it was a record.
The Tyson brand was a phenomenon, and his appearance in Tokyo was just one more step in the process of broadening that reach and maximizing his earning potential, not only for himself but also for others involved in the Mike Tyson enterprise.
A merry-go-round of chancers and hangers-on is forming. Don King was the most prominent of them. Following the death of Cus D’Amato the year before Iron Mike won the title, King, himself a notorious figure, had assumed control of Tyson’s career, one bag full of cash at a time.
Buster Douglas was a brilliant heavyweight who had only had middling success up to this point, unable to put together a complete performance at the highest level and completely discounted as Tyson’s ‘opponent’ for his trip to Japan. Despite Douglas’ respectable form, Iron Mike was a 1/42 favorite at the time, with a 37-0 (33ko) record.
Tyson had been increasingly distracted and ill-prepared for championship action without the guiding hand of his beloved Cus, who was only known to a sycophantic inner group.
Douglas, who had lost his mother less than a month before the February fight, had become focused on a level he’d never had before, and the veil of intimidation that Tyson habitually surrounded his rivals in had no impact on a suddenly determined Douglas.
As the shock spread across the time zones to the waking West, images of the seemingly invincible bully rushing for his gum shield appeared on the back and front pages of the world’s newspapers. The sense of disbelief was strong. Iron Mike was never the same warrior after that. Neither would his conqueror, alas.
Douglas lost the championship against Evander Holyfield in his second fight. The ideal storm of motivation, physical prowess, and an underprepared Tyson proved to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The term ‘Tyson-Douglas’ has now become shorthand for an upset in sports.