Underdog champions

[Gnome]

With the Ruiz-Joshua rematch looking likely, it seems Joshua will be the favourite for many coming into the fight. This begs the question: how often has the champion been the underdog?

Examples which for come to my mind are Martin-Joshua, Canelo-Fielding and Tyson-Holyfield II.

Which are the ones which stand out in your memory?

[oogiebe]

Louis/Braddock
Liston/Patterson
Patterson/Johanson II
Hagler/Minter
Holyfield/Douglas
Tyson/Berbick
Tyson/Smith (although Tyson already held one belt)
Lewis/Rahman II
Monzon/Benvenuti

Those came to mind first.

[littlepug]

Benn v McClellan
Bruno v Tyson 2

[keirw]

Burns vs Crawford

[sgtcecil]

Clev vs Kovalev

[TheLeprechaun]

Bellew makabu

[bigjack]

Bellew makabu

Wasn't it a vacant title fight ?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Wasn't it a vacant title fight ?

It was.

[liamlion]

Liam Smith v Canelo? And didn’t Smith also have the indignity of coming to the ring first?

[bigjack]

Fielding v Canelo

Spence v Brook ?

[bennie]

Louis/Braddock
Liston/Patterson
Patterson/Johanson II
Hagler/Minter
Holyfield/Douglas
Tyson/Berbick
Tyson/Smith (although Tyson already held one belt)
Lewis/Rahman II
Monzon/Benvenuti

Those came to mind first.

Good choices; however our bookies had Hagler losing and Monzon was a clear underdog vs Nino.

[jlh]

Could be wrong here but pretty sure Froch was the under dog against Taylor. Bookies almost got that one right!

[Delta Jay]

Both semis in the 140 WBSS this year, and Inoue Rodriguez.

Warrington Frampton. Am I right in thinking some bookies had different faves for groves Smith?

[bennie]

Jean-Marc Mormeck was an underdog vs our David H. - even in in Paris.

[JC]

Clev vs Kovalev

I don't think Cleverly was actually the underdog going in, the bookies and most people didn't realise how good Kovalev was at that point.

[ewenhay]

Was Vitali underdog against Herbie?