Most disappointing performances by Brits in world title fight

[Supremo]

Haye vs Wlad was a farce. Haye talked the talk before hand 24/7 for weeks in advance. If he had went in and gave it his all then he could have no regrets and I'd have respect for him. But he just went in an entered survival mode for the full fight and showed absolutely no desire to take a risk or win.

[reggaereggae]

Mitchell vs Katsidis and Burns?

Decent shout. But it has to be Johnny Nelson vs De Leon and warring. Awful, nothing comes close and twice. Truly pathetic. I thought Sammy Reeson was bad against Deleon but i learnt he got 4 weeks notice when he was on holiday and he had to lose 3 stone.

[mickey1975]

Big Enz was like a rabbit caught in the headlights vs Haye. Billy Hardy vs Naz was funny but always on the cards.

Why was Hardy-Naz funny?

Because of all the talk from Hardy beforehand.

Like what? Where are you from?

[handsofstone]

Clinton Woods against Antonio Tarver

[reggaereggae]

Also Paul Hodkinson. Not because he bottled it, but because I really thought with his style and grit he would be a star, but then Vargas ruined him

[Boxerbeetle]

Rhodes vs Alvarez. Ryan was intimidated the whole fight and didn't try to do anything but survive.

To be fair, I don't know what else Rhodes could have done in that fight. I don't think he was intimidated, just out-sized & outclassed.

[magwitch]

Haye vs Wlad was a farce. Haye talked the talk before hand 24/7 for weeks in advance. If he had went in and gave it his all then he could have no regrets and I'd have respect for him. But he just went in an entered survival mode for the full fight and showed absolutely no desire to take a risk or win.

......and then came out and carried on talking the talk afterwards. Like he might have won.

[Froch's Handwraps]

Paul Butler vs Tete - couldn't get past the jab, and I felt the uppercut that dropped him in the gods at the back of the Echo.

[Deserter]

Also Paul Hodkinson. Not because he bottled it, but because I really thought with his style and grit he would be a star, but then Vargas ruined him

Yes, I was exactly the same! As others have already commented, nothing can surely beat Nelson's 'efforts'...

[Flump]

Johnny Nelson is the standard bearer of this kind of debate without doubt. If you count Scott Welch's effort v Henry Akinwande as a world title fight then that was pretty poor, and Bugner's effort in the second Ali fight was a disappointment.

[THEBUTCH]

Johnny Nelson without a doubt. Absolutely pathetic.

[MightyWarrior]

Racing Post predicted Naz ko1 Hardy I remember.....and it was PPV

Yes Nelson tops the league, closely followed by Haye v Wlad, because of all the threats and boasts before hand

[veriton]

eastman against hopkins really p*ssed me off because he could have won that fight if he had pushed himself harder. he always boxed lazy.

Aren't you thinking of Eastman v Joppy, which Howard lost on a razor thin decision but would have won if he hadn't coasted so much? Hopkins won fairly comfortably against Eastman who put in a more credible effort than against Joppy

i probably am, thanks for the correction. most of eastman's fights were like that though, he seemed to have another gear that he never used.

the closest i ever saw to him getting excited was when him and mccracken nearly came to blows at ringside in hull.

for those mentioning jonny nelson, his take on the de leon fight in his book is absolutely priceless....it's totally honest, makes you understand why he boxed like that and is a refreshing read compared to all the bravado bull that goes in a lot of autobiographies.

[pyenest77]

When I first saw the thread my first thought was Honeyghan against Breland, but having read some of the posts it has to be Nelson v DeLeon where we all expected more, then to compound matters Johnny was the same against James Waring. Butler v Tete I just thought that Tete was all wrong for Paul & would beat him 9/10 times.

[Taansend]

By the way, do people in the UK refer to themselves as "Brits" now? I left in 1997. I always thought it was what Yanks called us.

Well the forum is named "British & Irish".

And?

[Finn]

In fairness to bellew he did drop Stevenson.

Don't know what fight you were watching. Bellew didn't drop Stevenson and won 0/5 rounds on two judges cards and 1/5 round on the other.

Bellew looked as though he knew what was coming throughout the buildup and it became obvious from the first bell. He was never in the fight.

This one
http://youtu.be/9Y0A-VfYYH0

[Wales]

Id be happy to ignore jennings cotto if jennings actually tried to do anything at all... But he didnt!

Dissapointing, Darren Barker for the non-event that was. Which is shame after the way he won the title. Eastman Hopkins also stands out.

[Matt W]

Got to be Haye against Wlad for me given all of the gob he'd been giving it for so long beforehand. It wasn't really a surprise though as he had been very negative against a far poorer fighter in Valuev.

I was at Naz vs Barerra and was very disappointed but in hindsight he got beaten by a better man that had the gameplan to beat him and wasn't intimidated. It wasn't the wide one-sided beating that it's sometimes portrayed as but Barerra was clearly far superior and Hamed never looked like winning.

On Hamed I'd add a very disappointing performance in a fight he won, against McCullough. Once he realised he couldn't hurt him he looked very poor and I remember he'd been very dismissive of Wayne beforehand. The Soto fight was awful too.

Honeyghan's loss to Vaca was a bad one, looked awful that night but put it right in the rematch.

Nigel Benn vs Malinga - seeing Benn so comprehesively beaten after all the excitement he'd given was sad to see.

Clinton Woods vs Antonio Tarver - I really thought Woods could win this one but he just didn't look as though he wanted to be there; such a shame after he'd done so well to win the title and the grit he'd shown in his fights with Johnson.

[Syntax Error]

Carlos DeLeon -v- Johnny Nelson.
James Warring -v- Johnny Nelson.
Lennox Lewis -v- Henry Akinwande.
Mike Tyson -v- Frank Bruno2.
Wladimir Klitschko -v- David Haye.
David Haye -v- Audley Harrison.
Steve Collins -v- Nigel Benn.

[THEBUTCH]

On a personal note, I had really high hops for Pat Barrett when he challanged Manning Galloway for the WBO belt. Pat had scored some devastating knock outs, but just failed to get to grips with the tricky American.

I wouldn't dare compare it to Johnny Nelson whose performances were beyond dreadful, but really thought Pat was going to gate crash the world scene.

[palooka]

Brian London v Ali?

Akinwandi v Lewis was awful

Paul Lloyd did what he could but was destroyed by Barerra, who was absolutely ruthless that night.

[TheLeprechaun]

gary lockett vs pavlik. looked for a way out at the end

[CharlesListon]

Some of these mentioned can't be considered disappointing.

London v Ali.....he had no hope. Lockett and Pavlik...likewise.

[TheWigwam]

Mickey Cantwell vs Eric Jamili (something like that, rather unknown Filipino for a vacant minimum weight belt) :)

[Bodyshot3]

Akinwande and Nelson figuring highly in this thread.....Henry could certainly fight but he dolled out heavyweight drama and excitement in pretty small portions.