Unification Bouts That Should Have Happened

[Seamus]

I'll start with some from the last 40 years before I go into the older ones.

Yoko Gushiken vs Hilario Zapata
Jung Koo Chang vs Myung Woo Yuh
Myung Woo Yuh vs Humberto Gonzalez
Myung Woo Yuh vs Michael Carbajal
Horacio Accavallo vs Chartchai Chionoi
Yuri Arbachakov vs Mark Johnson
Khaosai Galaxy vs Jiro Watanabe
Khaosai Galaxy vs Santos Laciar
Khaosai Galaxy vs Sung Kil Moon
Wilfredo Gomez vs Sergio Palma
Ernesto Marcel vs Eder Jofre
Danny Lopez vs Eusebio Pedroza
Salvador Sanchez vs Eusebio Pedroza
Azumah Nelson vs Brian Mitchell
Antonio Cervantes vs Bruno Arcari
Carlos Palomino vs Pipino Cuevas
Tommy Hearns vs Mike McCallum
Michael Nunn vs Mike McCallum
Michael Nunn vs Julian Jackson
Julian Jackson vs Mike McCallum (MW)
Julian Jackson vs James Toney
Roy Jones Jr vs Gerald McClellan
Nigel Benn vs James Toney
James Toney vs Michael Nunn (SMW)
Michael Nunn vs Nigel Benn
Roy Jones Jr vs Nigel Benn
Victor Galindez vs John Conteh
Roy Jones Jr vs Dariusz Michalczewski
Fabrice Tiozzo vs Juan Carlos Gomez
Juan Carlos Gomez vs Vassiliy Jirov

[Ezzard]

Would like to add

Holmes-Thomas
Holmes-Witherspoon II
Nelson-McGuigan
Hatton-Witter

[bennie]

Saad Muhammad-Gregory II
Lewis-Bowe
Galaxy-Roman

[Ambling Alp]

Quartey-Trinidad would have been interesting.
That is a lot of good fights that didn't happen because of the alphabet soups.
Sometimes one of the two guy loses his title to someone else before a unification fight happens.
It's really disappointing when two guys are titleholders for a long period of time and never fight each other.

[Ezzard]

If Seamus' list here are the ones that I'd really loved to have seen...

Yoko Gushiken vs Hilario Zapata

Khaosai Galaxy vs Jiro Watanabe
Khaosai Galaxy vs Santos Laciar
Khaosai Galaxy vs Sung Kil Moon

Wilfredo Gomez vs Sergio Palma

Ernesto Marcel vs Eder Jofre
Danny Lopez vs Eusebio Pedroza
Salvador Sanchez vs Eusebio Pedroza
Azumah Nelson vs Brian Mitchell

Carlos Palomino vs Pipino Cuevas
Tommy Hearns vs Mike McCallum
Michael Nunn vs Mike McCallum
Michael Nunn vs Julian Jackson
Julian Jackson vs Mike McCallum (MW)
Julian Jackson vs James Toney
Roy Jones Jr vs Gerald McClellan
Nigel Benn vs James Toney
James Toney vs Michael Nunn (SMW)
Michael Nunn vs Nigel Benn
Roy Jones Jr vs Nigel Benn
Victor Galindez vs John Conteh
Roy Jones Jr vs Dariusz Michalczewski

[Seamus]

And from further back

Midget Wolgast vs Jackie Brown
Peter Kane vs Little Dado
Panama Al Brown vs Sixto Escobar
Abe Attell vs Jim Driscoll
Freddie Miller vs Baby Arizmendi
Tony Zale vs Ken Overlin

[Expug]

Saad Muhammad-Gregory II
Lewis-Bowe
Galaxy-Roman

Bennie, I wanted to see Saad fight Gregory a second time also.
Eddie outpointed him the first time out. A rematch would have been a good mesh of styles as Saad became a more aggressive banger since their first go. Eddie had that counterpunching style.
It would have been a good fight.

[bennie]

They were scheduled to fight again on a big MAPS bill at MSG, Pug. Early 1981.
Then Harold Smith got busted.

[Nile4000]

Jeff Chandler vs Lupe Pintor
Larry Holmes vs Greg Page

[Ambling Alp]

Chandler-Pintor Could have been the biggest bantamweight fight of all time. They could have made several times more $ fighting each other than fighting anyone else.
This fight could have helped the bantamweight division a lot. The winner's reputation may have skyrocketed. Too bad it never happened.

[HomicideHenry]

Holmes-Coetzee

[Nile4000]

Aaron Pryor-Saoul Mamby
Larry Holmes-Big John Tate
Larry Holmes-Tony Tubbs.

[Ambling Alp]

Pryor could have helped his legacy had he fought Mamby, or LeRoy Haley (who beat Mamby for the title) or Bruce Curry (who won the title from Haley).
He probably would have beat any of the three but the fact is he didn't.

Holmes-Tate probably would have happened if Tate had beat Weaver. They were already hyping that up.

[elmersalsa]

How about these world title unifications?:

Alexis Arguello vs Samuel Serrano
Roberto Duran vs Rodolfo "El Gato" Gonzalez
Julio Cesar Chavez vs Brian Mitchell
Azumah Nelson vs Brian Mitchell
Eusebio Pedroza vs Azumah Nelson
Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini vs Edwin "Chapo" Rosario

[Crease]

How about:

John Ruiz VS Chris Byrd, (I remember that there were rumours floating around that this may have happened)
OR
Ricky Hatton VS Junior Witter.

[Seamus]

Ruiz vs Byrd ? I see you're having trouble falling asleep at night.

[convict]

Paul Spadafora Vs Floyd Mayweather Jr
Floyd Mayweather Jr Vs Kosta Tszyu

[My2Sense]

Danny Lopez vs Eusebio Pedroza
Salvador Sanchez vs Eusebio Pedroza
Azumah Nelson vs Brian Mitchell

Carlos Palomino vs Pipino Cuevas

These four I would've definitely liked to have seen.

Also Azumah Nelson against Tony Lopez or John John Molina.

Anyone mention Terry Norris vs. Julio Cesar Vazquez?

[andyc6665]

I'm even more nausiated with these disgusting alphabet titles we have today. I really think it's TERRIBLE for boxing, which is slowly becoming the joke of all sports. Only the die-hard fans remain. I'm one of them but I NEVER thought there would come a day when I'm sick of boxing. I LOVE the fight game but I hate the politics.

Tolorating these foolish alphabet organizations is like being forced at gun point to perform Oral Sex on a prostatute after watching her with 20 of your worst enemies. It's just plain disgusting.

I really wish Oscar can use his influence as owner of the RING and wipe out those organizations. I'm surpised the useless IBF and WBO are still around. The WBA and WBC are as crooked as a room full of drunken old politicians and it's long over due time for them to leave.

It's very sad when even men in their 30s can't tell you who the Heavyweight Champion of the world is. When ALI was champ an 88 year old woman in Topeka Kansas could tell you who the champ is.

It's even sadder that these many mixed martial arts organizations have become more popular than boxing. Kelly Pavlik is big in my area and I work with many who grew up with him. However, though he's entertaining, I don't think he can save boxing. He can help but he's still limited and will surely lose to the first person who can get past his youthful way of boxing. I give him a lot of credit and wish him well. He's certainly good for boxing but he's limited.

[elmersalsa]

I'm even more nausiated with these disgusting alphabet titles we have today. I really think it's TERRIBLE for boxing, which is slowly becoming the joke of all sports. Only the die-hard fans remain. I'm one of them but I NEVER thought there would come a day when I'm sick of boxing. I LOVE the fight game but I hate the politics.

Tolorating these foolish alphabet organizations is like being forced at gun point to perform Oral Sex on a prostatute after watching her with 20 of your worst enemies. It's just plain disgusting.

I really wish Oscar can use his influence as owner of the RING and wipe out those organizations. I'm surpised the useless IBF and WBO are still around. The WBA and WBC are as crooked as a room full of drunken old politicians and it's long over due time for them to leave.

It's very sad when even men in their 30s can't tell you who the Heavyweight Champion of the world is. When ALI was champ an 88 year old woman in Topeka Kansas could tell you who the champ is.

It's even sadder that these many mixed martial arts organizations have become more popular than boxing. Kelly Pavlik is big in my area and I work with many who grew up with him. However, though he's entertaining, I don't think he can save boxing. He can help but he's still limited and will surely lose to the first person who can get past his youthful way of boxing. I give him a lot of credit and wish him well. He's certainly good for boxing but he's limited.

I could not agree with you more. We need a Mike Tyson for these times or a Sugar Ray Leonard or Roberto Duran...Boxing sucks nowadays.

[Robinson]

Would have been good to see the 'coloured' title claimants in a unification
bout with the 'world' title holders at any time pre Louis (the Johnson years
included).

That would have made for some great unification fights.