All Time Greats Who Lost To Obscure/Bad Opponents

[wouter]

I wonder if the Daniels loss cost him a shot at Tunney. Tunney would have probably quit anyway, but there was a dearth of opponents available in '29 and Schmeling could have filled the bill. Dempsey had soured Sharkey's credibility and I guess Daniels did the same to Schmeling. You think about it, that fight-off for the title was between two fighter with spots on their record. And then of course the outcome didn't help either of them or the fight game in general.

I dont think anything Schmeling did before arriving in the US played any role whatsoever in him getting a title shot or not. I think you're looking at this through 21st century glasses.

[prewarboxing]

I wonder if the Daniels loss cost him a shot at Tunney. Tunney would have probably quit anyway, but there was a dearth of opponents available in '29 and Schmeling could have filled the bill. Dempsey had soured Sharkey's credibility and I guess Daniels did the same to Schmeling. You think about it, that fight-off for the title was between two fighter with spots on their record. And then of course the outcome didn't help either of them or the fight game in general.

I dont think anything Schmeling did before arriving in the US played any role whatsoever in him getting a title shot or not. I think you're looking at this through 21st century glasses.

Exactly. At the time Schmeling was the newly crowned European Light-Heavyweight champion. He was a promising young fighter who was becoming fairly well-known in his own continent. In terms of America, Tunney and those who were the most influential in running world boxing he was a complete 'nobody'. No-one in the States will have even heard of him. His loss to Daniels, whilst surprising, caused absolutely no ripples in America. Tunney would not know anything at all about Schmeling or Daniels.

Miles Templeton.

[prewarboxing]

That said, this is an extremely good example of what the OP is looking for. From the context of where both Schmeling and Daniels took their own careers, this is quite an amazing result in retrospect.