All-time disasterous choices as replacement foes

[sweetviolenturge]

Remember when Sean O'Grady was the toast of the lightweight scene after his upset of the unbeaten WBA champion Hilmer Kenty?
He was looking at future big money match-ups with the likes of Arguello, Ray Mancini & potentially even Ray Leonard after beating the Kronk Gym's first titlist. All he had to do was get past what was seen as an easy mandatory with the somewhat chinny Claude Noel & he could have written his own ticket.
But, then his father Pat got greedy & decided to use Sean as the launching point for starting his own organization, the World Athletic Association, having him relinquish the WBA's belt in the process. After which they signed for an initial WAA title defense against 1976 Olympic gold medalist Howard Davis Jr. on Halloween of 1981.
Davis was a tremendously talented tall, quick, natural boxer but lacked fight ending power for the most part, so Sean was the favorite & there's a good chance that had they fought that night that Sean would have retained his WAA title. Unfortunately, injury or illness caused Davis to drop out of the contest at the last moment.
But, instead of canceling the fight, papa O'Grady decided to bring in a replacement foe & showed his complete overconfidence in Sean by choosing an opponent that was the complete antithesis of Howard Davis Jr. in a short, power punching southpaw in Hawaii's Andrew Ganigan. Who came in & sent caution to the wind by swinging destructive pineapples & coconuts at Sean's head at the opening bell.
Sean never had a chance to get into the fight as he was caught cold & dropped four times in less than two short rounds, damned near being decapitated in the process & losing his fledgling WAA title. After which, he was pretty much finished as a fighter.

I'd appreciate everyone else's examples of last minute replacement foes who were all wrong for their opponents & came in & pulled the upset. Peace.

[sweetviolenturge]

I just thought of another one.
I can't recall at the moment who his original opponent was scheduled to be, but Wladimir Klitschko was set to defend his WBO title, but the opponent fell out & Wlad's people brought in Corrie Sanders as his replacement foe & again, as in the O'Grady fight, the quick-handed, power punching southpaw came in & upset the apple cart. Jumping on Wlad right from the start & dropping him four times in less than two rounds to score the upset.

[Boxing Prospect]

Pacquiao being brought in on short notices to face Ledwaba

[sweetviolenturge]

Pacquiao being brought in on short notices to face Ledwaba

Good one BP.
I'd forgotten that Manny was a late replacement foe. But, I do recall that Ledwaba was the one who was supposed to be the next big thing & that Manny was just seen as an undersized, chinny, blown up light flyweight. LOL.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

The Klitschko apologists would have you believe Lennox made a dire mistake facing vitali.

[sweetviolenturge]

Well, it very well could have been had LL not busted up Vitali's eyes so badly. He was giving LL a VERY tough go of it & anything could have happened. But, winning via cuts is still as legit a way to retain one's title as any other means, so ...
But still, it's clear that LL didn't fancy a rematch because he hung 'em up afterward.

[Kalan]

At the end of the Vitali Klitschko fight, Lewis was losing on all scorecards... it was Lewis's final fight...because Klitschko was beating Lewis handily even with blood streaming into his left eye from 2 jagged eyelid cuts caused by a thumb strike and glove palming holding-n-hitting foul by Lewis all within the first 20 seconds of the start of the 3rd round... Lewis was warned for intentional face palming in the fight, but it was a joke warning. The action wasn't stopped by Lou Moret and Lewis didn't even look at Moret for a split second.

Lewis often had referees in his pocket... If you look at 3:15 to 3:50 of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpiq5cdvYDk you see referee Mickey Vann giving Lewis one several severe and direct warnings for fouling Bruno ... without calling time or ever taking points ... In this case he warned Lewis for face palming, but at the same time Lewis was extending his left hand and keeping it out there---also a foul---Lewis didn't even acknowledge Vann's warning and went right back to palming Bruno's face as he pleased -- getting the stoppage he was after.

[littlepug]

I think John Davison thought he had it in the bag when Steve Robinson stepped in at about 48hrs notice !

[elmersalsa]

Lightweight champion Roberto Duran was supposed to fight a ten rounder against the great Carlos Ortiz at MSG on November 1972. But, some reason Ortiz had to pull out for the fight and Esteban Dejesus was Ortiz' replacement. It became Duran's first ever loss.

[sweetviolenturge]

Lightweight champion Roberto Duran was supposed to fight a ten rounder against the great Carlos Ortiz at MSG on November 1972. But, some reason Ortiz had to pull out for the fight and Esteban Dejesus was Ortiz' replacement. It became Duran's first ever loss.

Thanks for sharing that. I never knew that Dejesus was a replacement opponent!
Cool info.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

I can't remember whom he replaced, but navarette was last minute when he took boza Edwards belt.

[Ketchel]

Steve Cruz was also a late replacement when he beat Barry McGuigan.

[elmersalsa]

It could have been disastrous for the greats Evander Holyfield, Wilfred Benitez and Salvador Sanchez in their respective fights with Bert Cooper, Bruce Curry and Azumah Nelson. But, somehow, they survived a possible upset.

[sweetviolenturge]

It could have been disastrous for the greats Evander Holyfield, Wilfred Benitez and Salvador Sanchez in their respective fights with Bert Cooper, Bruce Curry and Azumah Nelson. But, somehow, they survived a possible upset.

Now, these are from my era, Duran-Dejesus was a few years early for me.
The trio you mention in this post replaced Tyson, Duran & Juan Laporte.
I really thought that Curry deserved the nod over Benitez on NYS's old supplemental points system, but since it wasn't scored a draw in rounds, the commission never utilized it. A shame for Curry.

[evrenb]

I can't remember whom he replaced, but navarette was last minute when he took boza Edwards belt.

I think it was bazooka Limon...

[SaadOffTheDeck]

I can't remember whom he replaced, but navarette was last minute when he took boza Edwards belt.

I think it was bazooka Limon...

I was just thinking the same thing.

[sweetviolenturge]

I can't remember whom he replaced, but navarette was last minute when he took boza Edwards belt.

I think it was bazooka Limon...

Spot on. You're correct. I looked it up in my back issues of THE RING.

[sweetviolenturge]

But, oddly enough their coverage of the Klitschko - Sanders fight neglects to mention who Sanders was filling in for. Anyone?

[SaadOffTheDeck]

I don't recall that he was.

[gilgamesh]

I don't recall Corrie Sanders being a replacement opponent for Wlad at that time either.

[Tuan_Jim]

I just thought of another one.
I can't recall at the moment who his original opponent was scheduled to be, but Wladimir Klitschko was set to defend his WBO title, but the opponent fell out & Wlad's people brought in Corrie Sanders as his replacement foe & again, as in the O'Grady fight, the quick-handed, power punching southpaw came in & upset the apple cart. Jumping on Wlad right from the start & dropping him four times in less than two rounds to score the upset.

I don't remember Corrie Sanders being a late sub. That fight was announced well in advance. The forums at the time had thread titles such as: "Try and defend Wladimir Klitschko for fighting Corrie Sanders."

EDIT. Everyone has already pointed this out.

[magwitch]

Ensley Bingham deputized for Steve “The Viking” Foster when Ronald Wright came over to the UK.
It never upended Wright....Winky was back a few months later and beat Foster. Although recently, Foster explained (for the first time) that he had a case of food poisoning before that fight. Pretty classy how he kept it to himself such a long time.

[scartissue]

Although this might be a little redundant, Ken Buchanan was a last minute replacement for Roberto Duran against Carlos Ortiz. Duran had signed to fight the comebacking 36 year old Ortiz in a non-title on the undercard to the second Ali-Patterson fight in MSG. Duran, for whatever reason pulls out with a flu (he used this excuse more than once when pulling out last minute) and Buchanan, who was very popular in NY was subbed. Ortiz to this day claims he was ready for a certain style - the hard-banging Duran's - and claims subbing a fast-moving boxer threw him all off. Again, not too many would have given Ortiz a chance at Duran at that time anyway, but Buchanan was a polar opposite of the Duran style.

[elmersalsa]

Although this might be a little redundant, Ken Buchanan was a last minute replacement for Roberto Duran against Carlos Ortiz. Duran had signed to fight the comebacking 36 year old Ortiz in a non-title on the undercard to the second Ali-Patterson fight in MSG. Duran, for whatever reason pulls out with a flu (he used this excuse more than once when pulling out last minute) and Buchanan, who was very popular in NY was subbed. Ortiz to this day claims he was ready for a certain style - the hard-banging Duran's - and claims subbing a fast-moving boxer threw him all off. Again, not too many would have given Ortiz a chance at Duran at that time anyway, but Buchanan was a polar opposite of the Duran style.

I am glad that The Hands of Stone didn't fight the great Carlos Ortiz then. He would have been hated very much by the Puerto Rican boxing fans. At that stage of his career, at 36, fighting a young lion at 21, it would have been a disaster. A complete disaster.

Thanks to JAH in the heavens above, that the fight was cancelled twice. Maybe JAH was looking over Ortiz' shoulders.

[IKSRTFO]

The Klitschko apologists would have you believe Lennox made a dire mistake facing vitali.

Hey, it isn't a mistake if he won.