Ring Magazines' Upsets of the Year - By Decade!

Just reading through some boxing stuff on my lunch hour (Yes I have a job lol)

And didnt realise Ring Magazine has a catagory called "Upset of the Year", so I have copied and pasted the winners from the 1970's to present!

Thought it might give us a bit to debate and chat about!

1970 - Billy Backus KO 4 Jose Napoles
1971 - Alfredo Marcano KO 10 Hiroshi Kobayashi
1972 - Esteban De Jesús W 10 Roberto Durán
1973 - Ken Norton W 12 Muhammad Ali
1974 - Muhammad Ali KO 8 George Foreman
1975 - John H. Stracey KO 6 Jose Napoles
1976 - Wilfred Benitez W 15 Antonio Cervantes
1977 - Jorge Lujan KO 10 Alfonso Zamora
1978 - Leon Spinks W 15 Muhammad Ali
1979 - Vito Antuofermo D 15 Marvin Hagler
1980 - Yasutsune Uehara KO 6 Samuel Serrano
1981 - Roger Stafford W 10 Pipino Cuevas
1982 - Kirkland Laing W 10 Roberto Durán
1983 - Gerrie Coetzee KO 10 Michael Dokes
1984 - Gene Hatcher KO 11 Johnny Bumphus
1985 - Michael Spinks W 15 Larry Holmes
1986 - Lloyd Honeyghan KO 6 Donald Curry
1987 - Sugar Ray Leonard W 12 Marvelous Marvin Hagler
1988 - Iran Barkley KO 3 Thomas Hearns
1989 - Rene Jacquot W 12 Donald Curry
1990 - James Douglas KO 10 Mike Tyson
1991 - No award given
1992 - Azumah Nelson KO 8 Jeff Fenech
1993 - Simon Brown KO 4 Terry Norris
1994 - Vuyani Bungu W 12 Kennedy McKinney
1995 - Willy Salazar KO 7 Danny Romero
1996 - Evander Holyfield KO 11 Mike Tyson
1997 - Vince Phillips KO 10 Kostya Tszyu
1998 - Ivan Robinson W 10 Arturo Gatti
1999 - Willy Wise W 10 Julio César Chávez
2000: José Luis Castillo W 12 Stevie Johnston
2001: Hasim Rahman KO 5 Lennox Lewis
2002: Juan Carlos Rubio W 10 Francisco Bojado
2003: Corrie Sanders ТKO 2 Wladimir Klitschko
2004: Glen Johnson KO 9 Roy Jones, Jr.
2005: Zahir Raheem W 12 Erik Morales
2006: Carlos Manuel Baldomir W 12 Zab Judah
2007: Nonito Donaire KO 5 Vic Darchinyan
2008: Bernard Hopkins W 12 Kelly Pavlik
2009: Juan Carlos Salgado KO 1 Jorge Linares
2010: Jason Litzau W 10 Celestino Caballero
2011: Nobuhiro Ishida KO 1 James Kirkland
2012: Sonny Boy Jaro TKO 6 Pongsaklek Wonjongkam
2013: Marcos Maidana W 12 Adrien Broner
2014: Chris Algieri W 12 Ruslan Provodnikov

I note that there was no award given for 1991!

Would it be possible for us guys at 606v2 to establish what we would place in for the year 1991?

84 must have been a great year for favorites.

1991: Terry Norris W 12 Sugar Ray Leonard

Anyone better that one?

After the draw with Hearns it was hardly an upset at all...was it ??

Robinson v Gatti must have been a slow year

1986: Maybe someone a bit older can tell me, was Honeyghan beating Curry a bigger upset than McGuigan losing to Steve Cruz that year???

Maussa KO vs Harris, remember that being a horrid upset

Surprised 1991 had no award. Agree with Truss that Norris-Leonard, given Leonard's inactivity, age and recent form, was a relatively big upset but not a massive one, albeit at that point not many realised what a great talent Norris was.

I think Toney-Nunn would have been a decent shout for that year. Nunn was being talked up as potentially the greatest Middleweight in history elect, while Toney was a 22 year old novice with very little amateur career and only one notable name on his record as a professional in Sosa - and even that win was a mild upset at the time.

Not sure of the exact numbers, but seen it bandied around a couple of times that Toney was going as long as 20-1 for some bookies. That could well be a slight exaggeration, I'm not sure - but he was a big underdog.

88Chris05 wrote:Surprised 1991 had no award. Agree with Truss that Norris-Leonard, given Leonard's inactivity, age and recent form, was a relatively big upset but not a massive one, albeit at that point not many realised what a great talent Norris was.

I think Toney-Nunn would have been a decent shout for that year. Nunn was being talked up as potentially the greatest Middleweight in history elect, while Toney was a 22 year old novice with very little amateur career and only one notable name on his record as a professional in Sosa - and even that win was a mild upset at the time.

Not sure of the exact numbers, but seen it bandied around a couple of times that Toney was going as long as 20-1 for some bookies. That could well be a slight exaggeration, I'm not sure - but he was a big underdog.

Think we have a winner!

I'm gonna write to Ring Magazine and ask that they induct ths as 1991 "Upset of the Year" on behalf of 606v2.

What you reckon?

Norris v Leonard isn't a bad shout for 1991. Leonard was a 12-5 favourite.

What about Hearns v Hill for 1991? Hill was the favourite and was making his 11th defence.

Whats a 12-5 favourte?

£12 back for every £5 you put on.....

Thats not really a favourite? Then what price was Norris?

Amusing how champion Vito gets a draw and he wins the Upset of the year....Shows you how good he was..

Curry is on twice.....

Algeria vs Stiff really is a barrel scrape

Iron Mike on their twice too Trussy, just shows what an unstoppable beast they must have thought he was!

KO Mag (Ring's sister mag) gave it to Norris over Leonard.

2015 upset of year- Fury vs Wlad. Ha

I didn't know algieri had beaten Provodnikov!

Whos everyones favourite out of them

Sheng that win got him the mamny fight

Thanks for the info and **** you for calling me sheng

Reborn-DeeMcK-Reborn wrote:Whos everyones favourite out of them

Tyson Douglas for me. Nothing against Mike but genuinely jaw dropping, where when you when it happened stuff. One of the great things about sport, be it an FA cup giant killing or unranked player dumping Federer out of Wimbledon in the first round is David's ability to beat Goliath. No fight ever encapsulated that more than Tyson Douglas.

Possibly because I was actually at the fight, Nelson-Fenech still resonates with me more than most. Can't be anything better than a crowd of silent Australians.

Cruz-McGuigan would have been upset of the year on a lot of other occasions; bearing in mind the fact that Curry was seen in certain quarters as the joint number one fighter at any weight when he lost to Honeyghan, the right call was made there. Ali-Foreman was an epoch-shaker, of course, as was Douglas-Tyson, but for sheer wonder, a "did that really happen?" feeling, I'd probably single out Backus-Napoles and Phillips-Tszyu. Of those two, probably Backus's win is the more astounding. A journeyman, and that's all he was, upsetting one of the half-dozen greatest welters who ever lived - can still barely believe it now. The fact that Napoles chewed Backus up and spat him out in the return makes the result of the first fight even more unlikely, I'd say.

I'm not sure why Maidana vs Broner is on the list, must have only been a marginal underdog, a lot of people saw that result coming.

I've been beaten to it by both Jeff and captain; Douglas-Tyson and Nelson-Fenech are two ones which really stand out for me.

It's not just the fact that Douglas toppled Tyson, which in itself was nigh-on miraculous, but it's the other things in addition which have ensured it's remained one of the most talked-about fights in history; Douglas taking the tragedies which were plaguing him at that point in his life and using the fight as a bolthole to temporarily forget about them, the 'controversy' (liberal use of the word there) about the count in the eighth and the fact that he didn't just beat Tyson, but also took a part of him which was never returned. Quite simply one of the most influential and important fights in history. Needless to say, magnificent overall performance from Buster as well, who looked like something close to the perfect Heavyweight for one night only if you can ignore that aforementioned lapse in round eight.

Nelson's demolition of Fenech is eerily similar to Sanchez's classic annihilation of Gomez, and every bit as good in my opinion. I've argued before that Fenech isn't rated as highly as he perhaps should be, and he gave Nelson a bit of a hiding in relative terms first time out irrespective of what the judges said. For Nelson to go down under and take an undefeated Fenech totally apart like that was remarkable.

I also really like the Simon Brown upset win over Norris. Terrible Terry is a favourite of mine and even though he ended up getting flattened there, it's one of the fights which highlights why he's a fighter I always enjoy watching back; tremendously gifted and possessed of all the skills, but completely off his rocker and fragile, too. Usually makes for a good watch. When he was good, there weren't many better, and when he was bad there were few worse. The contrast in those two fights against Brown basically sum up how prone he was to switching between the sublime and the abysmal.

Speaking of Brown, mind you - I'm really at a loss as to why the Ring couldn't find a winner for 1991, because as we've already said that year saw some notable upsets such as Norris-Leonard, Nunn-Toney and Hearns-Hill. And another one has just come to mind for that year, so it's not as if the Ring were short on options - Buddy McGirt beating Brown for the Welterweight title.

Brown, the massive Welter who'd unified and pretty much cemented his claim as the best 147 pounder at that time by stopping Blocker and who'd racked up a load of defences at the weight, was supposed to walk through the smaller McGirt, who was coming up from 140 and who'd been stopped by Meldrick Taylor two or three years before. Instead, McGirt completely dissected him. Absolute masterclass which I doubt too many saw coming.

Mannnnnn.....2012 I would have changed for JMM vs Pacman.

Nobody saw that coming at all. Was a shocking and pulsating end.

I was stunned

mobilemaster8 wrote:Mannnnnn.....2012 I would have changed for JMM vs Pacman.

Nobody saw that coming at all. Was a shocking and pulsating end.

I was stunned

The fact that JMM beating him was hardly suprising. The manner of victory certainly was.

I thought he would beat him on points again.

shenglong2015 wrote:Thats not really a favourite? Then what price was Norris?

If the other guy was 100/1 then it would be.....

Just means he wasn't a wide favourite (like Floyd or Wlad generally are these days, when people see the results as an almost foregone conclusion).

bellchees wrote:I'm not sure why Maidana vs Broner is on the list, must have only been a marginal underdog, a lot of people saw that result coming.

Totally agree. Bookies must not have seen the Paulie fight....

According to Truss:

Floyd v Alvarez
Floyd v Maidana x2
Floyd v Manny
Floyd v Berto???

Nobody going to point out that Sheng doesn't know what a decade is?

Not to start the 606 debate again...

superflyweight wrote:According to Truss:

Floyd v Alvarez
Floyd v Maidana x2
Floyd v  Manny
Floyd v Berto???

How could you leave Guerrero out ??

Truss - PM for you.

I never get bored reading those...

And yet you still havent read it! Its in response to yours!

Righto......Forgotten about that...

TRUSS yer grass.

Soldier_Of_Fortune wrote:TRUSS yer grass.

Super grass..........I don't do things by halves..

It was about you.......