Sure in boxing everyone loves Ali-Frazier, LaMatta-Robinson, Basilio-Fullmer, Marciano-Walcott, Luois, Schmelling, Dempsey-Tunney, Leonard-Hearns, Leonard-Duran, Ali-Foreman, Ali-Norton, Cotto-Margarito, Gatti-Ward…there have been some magnificent matchups and great rivalries in boxing’s history but there have absolutely been some crap rivalries too.
What rivalries were pushed on us by promoters? What rivalries did the fighters think meant something to the average boxing fan and really nobody gave a flying fuck about.
Yes the AMAZING matchup between Danny Green and Anthony Mundine :rolleyes: but another “rivalry” has been stirred up recently which is just as bad David Haye vs Tony Bellew. To both of these I say…
I think to have a good rivalry in the true sense of the word, at least in boxing, you need several things:
Quality
Relevance
Public interest
… and a little bad blood doesn’t hurt, either
All those rivalries mentioned in your first sentence featured most if not all of the above.
When you mention Haye-Bellew, it fails miserably on just about all the ingredients.
But to answer your question, I can’t think of any “bad” rivalries right off hand.
I think the worst rivalry in boxing history is HANDS DOWN, Mayweather vs Pac.
They ducked and dodged each other for 7-8 years. Mayweather was scared of Pac and Pac was scared of a drug test. So the fight doesn’t get made when they’re at their best.
Then many years pass, Pac slows down and isn’t killing guys like he used to, has been knocked cold by JMM, so Floyd finally summons up the balls to fight Pac now that he’s weakened.
All the shit talk, all the hoopla, all the anticipation, and it’s one of the worst abortions of a fight ever!
Fuck that rivalry! I hope the next shit Floyd takes comes out square.
Promoters get in where they fit in and push rivalries from neighborhood, Country or just convenient familiarity. Honestly Manny v Marquez 1-101 seemed a bit unnecessary but we did get a great finale planking out of it. Bronco McKart v Winky Wright x 3..??? Cooney v Holmes had to pushed with all the wrong reasons?
Great calls on both (Duran/Camacho/Paz and Pac/Bradley)!!! I’m a huge Evander Holyfield fan, but his “rivalry” with John Ruiz was horrible. It is by far the worst to me, since as a Holyfield fan I was forced to watch probably the ugliest series in history. Just proves that Norman Stone and Ruiz could make anyone look bad in there.
When people say “Oh he’s just trying to sell the fight” in the build up to any fight I hate it. Haye is one of the worst about it because he’ll do all of these outrageous things and then bail on a fight…either you hate the guy enough that you’re serious in which case money is less of an issue OR you’re a con artist with no backbone…Haye is most certainly a con artist
Great calls on both (Duran/Camacho/Paz and Pac/Bradley)!!! I’m a huge Evander Holyfield fan, but his “rivalry” with John Ruiz was horrible. It is by far the worst to me, since as a Holyfield fan I was forced to watch probably the ugliest series in history. Just proves that Norman Stone and Ruiz could make anyone look bad in there.[/QUOTE]
I am sorry you had to sit and watch those fights but Valuev v Ruiz was even worse.
When people say “Oh he’s just trying to sell the fight” in the build up to any fight I hate it. Haye is one of the worst about it because he’ll do all of these outrageous things and then bail on a fight…either you hate the guy enough that you’re serious in which case money is less of an issue OR you’re a con artist with no backbone…Haye is most certainly a con artist[/QUOTE]
I agree. And yet some of these guys have an amazingly resilient fan base, to where it seems there’s nothing this fighter could do to shake his fan base. Haye has a pretty long “rap sheet”, when you think about it. Barging into the HW division and demanding to be put at the front of the line for a challenge to Wladimir… taking trash-talking to new levels prior to the Wlad fight, promising fireworks only to deliver a wet, spent firecracker… blaming his piss-poor performance on a hurt toe… coming up with mysterious eyebrow gashes to get out of fights… and all the while never shutting his fucking mouth and having an outsized and unrequested opinion about everything. Con artist is I believe a kind description.
Great calls on both (Duran/Camacho/Paz and Pac/Bradley)!!! I’m a huge Evander Holyfield fan, but his “rivalry” with John Ruiz was horrible. It is by far the worst to me, since as a Holyfield fan I was forced to watch probably the ugliest series in history. Just proves that Norman Stone and Ruiz could make anyone look bad in there.[/QUOTE]Product of Don King in house useless round robin at it’s finest. The beginning of the ugliest run in Holyfields career, battered by Toney next and just badly thought out moves to “fight” styles like Byrd and Donald. Larry F’n Donald??? Just be glad they didn’t go for a 4th after “draw” aka Holyfield win in last fight.
Great calls on both (Duran/Camacho/Paz and Pac/Bradley)!!! I’m a huge Evander Holyfield fan, but his “rivalry” with John Ruiz was horrible. It is by far the worst to me, since as a Holyfield fan I was forced to watch probably the ugliest series in history. Just proves that Norman Stone and Ruiz could make anyone look bad in there.[/QUOTE]Product of Don King in house useless round robin at it’s finest. The beginning of the ugliest run in Holyfields career, battered by Toney next and just badly thought out moves to “fight” styles like Byrd and Donald. Larry F’n Donald??? Just be glad they didn’t go for a 4th after “draw” aka Holyfield win in last fight.[/QUOTE]
I think Holyfield won all of them and hate Ruiz for faking a low blow when Evander landed a body shot.
Great calls on both (Duran/Camacho/Paz and Pac/Bradley)!!! I’m a huge Evander Holyfield fan, but his “rivalry” with John Ruiz was horrible. It is by far the worst to me, since as a Holyfield fan I was forced to watch probably the ugliest series in history. Just proves that Norman Stone and Ruiz could make anyone look bad in there.[/QUOTE]Product of Don King in house useless round robin at it’s finest. The beginning of the ugliest run in Holyfields career, battered by Toney next and just badly thought out moves to “fight” styles like Byrd and Donald. Larry F’n Donald??? Just be glad they didn’t go for a 4th after “draw” aka Holyfield win in last fight.[/QUOTE]
I think Holyfield won all of them and hate Ruiz for faking a low blow when Evander landed a body shot.[/QUOTE]
Ruiz held Kirk Johnson’s head down so that all body shots strayed low and then Kirk was just like “fuck it” and landed one last punch to the testes
Great calls on both (Duran/Camacho/Paz and Pac/Bradley)!!! I’m a huge Evander Holyfield fan, but his “rivalry” with John Ruiz was horrible. It is by far the worst to me, since as a Holyfield fan I was forced to watch probably the ugliest series in history. Just proves that Norman Stone and Ruiz could make anyone look bad in there.[/QUOTE]Beat me to it. YES. This rivalry sucked.
How often do you see 2 young undefeated fighters fight one another at such an early stage and not talk crap about building up the fight and interest but just getting the fight on? Not often BJS v Junior is the other example but they are few.
In that case add Jones Jnr v Hopkins 2.[/QUOTE]I’ve managed to delete the steam off that fight from my mind up until now ;D. Lost track but how long were they planning that, Jones being pole axed by Green just prior. It almost felt like Hopkins doing a favor for Jones but the fight sank to the bottom like a rusty anchor.