Best Losing Performance?

[Coco]

Pat Cowdell v Salvador Sanchez

Also Jim McDonnell v Azumah Nelson was a great effort

[Jimmy2020]

Roy Jones. Seoul final '88.

[forcefraser]

Eubank Snr v Thompson

[Lenny Cravats]

Thaxton - Hatton

[mayorcurley]

Owen vs. Pintor, Johnny was gunning for the title and shot out the barrel blazing. 137 punches in the first round. By the fourth his swarming style had cut the legendary Pintor over both eyes and in danger of a doctor's stoppage. 148 punches in round 5!!! Walking through everything the hard hitting Pintor threw until the 9th round sent him to the canvas. It turns out the man whom the American press had called "Alf E. Newman with gloves on" was a lion!!! Sadly, Owen went out on his shield. What might have been! Johnny, we hardly knew ya!

[semtexreilly]

Kash farooq v lee McGregor, I thought farooq should have won that, but gave a great account of himself and got a good contract with Hearn out of it

[Ruthless-RKO]

Kash farooq v lee McGregor, I thought farooq should have won that, but gave a great account of himself and got a good contract with Hearn out of it

Got a contact out of Hearn.. not McGregor.. shows who really won. Twitter was blowing up..

[DrDuke]

The yesterday's Cuadras vs Estrada quite fits the thread.

[Old bones Ian]

Wayne Rigby in his first fight against Michael Ayers. Both punched themselves to a standstill, and the fighters stopped the fight really.

[stujones]

Herol Graham vs Charles Brewer always brings a tear to my eye - so bloody close and such an unfortunate stoppage - he got "stuck" on the ropes more than hurt.

[gilgamesh]

Barrera in the 1st fight with Morales, and Morales in the 2nd fight with Barrera. Reverse the results there, and there's absolutely nothing at all wrong with that trilogy.

Even as it is, it all worked out in the end I suppose.

[gilgamesh]

Castillo in the first Corrales fight is worth mentioning

[gilgamesh]

Tyson Cave against Oscar Escandon is the only person I've ever seen win every single round of a fight, and be ruled the loser. So I guess strictly speaking that's the best "Losing" performance, because he couldn't have done more to win aside from knock the f*cking guy out.

[TheLeprechaun]

first fight that came to mind was klitschko lewis

[AntonioMartin]

A lot of fighters who got robbed....

[gilgamesh]

first fight that came to mind was klitschko lewis

That would actually make an interesting separate category.

Because Vitali straight up became a major Boxing Star with that performance. Even with the loss.

Not a whole lot of cases where that happens I wouldn't think. A starmaking performance in a loss.

I suppose Ruddock briefly enjoyed something similar after his performances against Tyson, but it was short lived as Lennox knocked him into irrelevancy a short while after.

[bennie]

Owen vs. Pintor, Johnny was gunning for the title and shot out the barrel blazing. 137 punches in the first round. By the fourth his swarming style had cut the legendary Pintor over both eyes and in danger of a doctor's stoppage. 148 punches in round 5!!! Walking through everything the hard hitting Pintor threw until the 9th round sent him to the canvas. It turns out the man whom the American press had called "Alf E. Newman with gloves on" was a lion!!! Sadly, Owen went out on his shield. What might have been! Johnny, we hardly knew ya!

Nice post, if a little flippant at the very end. Johnny was quite well known in this country because his title fights were televised in the days of just three channels. I remember sitting in front of the television watching him against Paddy Maguire, Wayne Evans, Paul Ferreri and Juan Francisco Rodriguez. They were quality operators but Owen swamped them with punch after punch for round after round. He never stopped. His one-sided 15-round decision over the previously unbeaten John Feeney at Wembley on the Minter-Antuofermo undercard gave the London press (and a sellout crowd) a first proper look at him and his performance almost stole the show from Minter and earned plenty of copy. Bear in mind that Feeney came back to dominate the domestic bantamweight scene for many years and you get a sense of how prolific Johnny looked that night. Harry Mullan, Tim Mo and Mike Lockley of the old BN (a newspaper back then) had seen a few fights but they were blown away by this relentless Welsh marvel.
Horribly, just three months later, Johnny lost everything in his world title encounter with Lupe Pintor on a night when the behaviour of the Mexican fans as the stricken Owen was stretchered from the ring plumbed new depths in boxing anarchy. "Lockers", who covered the fight at ringside for BN, left the newspaper shortly afterwards (Sean Sheahan also left after covering the Steve Watt tragedy a few years later) and Johnny's devoted father, Dick, never really got over it.
On November 4, it will be exactly 40 years since Johnny passed away in a Los Angeles hospital. I remember the bleak, dark days all too well as Johnny clung on for several weeks in a coma. I remember Muhammad Ali suffering total humiliation at the hands of Larry Holmes during that time, the Hagler-Minter riot, Sean O'Grady covered in his own blood against Jim Watt, the ferocious Roberto Duran shamelessly quitting against Sugar Ray Leonard... Boxing didn't make any sense. Owen had a freakishly strong jaw and a freakishly thin skull. Pintor's final right hand drove the jaw into the brain.

[deadpan]

Augustus v Ward
T-Rex Sanders v Golota
Morales v Garcia 1
S. Briggs v Lewis

[Boxing Prospect]

Tyson Cave against Oscar Escandon is the only person I've ever seen win every single round of a fight, and be ruled the loser. So I guess strictly speaking that's the best "Losing" performance, because he couldn't have done more to win aside from knock the f*cking guy out.

When people talk about robberies this is the one they need to watch. Absolutely atrocious decision

[AntonioMartin]

first fight that came to mind was klitschko lewis

A starmaking performance in a loss.
.

Like Tim Witherspoon...

[mayorcurley]

Owen vs. Pintor, Johnny was gunning for the title and shot out the barrel blazing. 137 punches in the first round. By the fourth his swarming style had cut the legendary Pintor over both eyes and in danger of a doctor's stoppage. 148 punches in round 5!!! Walking through everything the hard hitting Pintor threw until the 9th round sent him to the canvas. It turns out the man whom the American press had called "Alf E. Newman with gloves on" was a lion!!! Sadly, Owen went out on his shield. What might have been! Johnny, we hardly knew ya!

Nice post, if a little flippant at the very end. Johnny was quite well known in this country because his title fights were televised in the days of just three channels. I remember sitting in front of the television watching him against Paddy Maguire, Wayne Evans, Paul Ferreri and Juan Francisco Rodriguez. They were quality operators but Owen swamped them with punch after punch for round after round. He never stopped. His one-sided 15-round decision over the previously unbeaten John Feeney at Wembley on the Minter-Antuofermo undercard gave the London press (and a sellout crowd) a first proper look at him and his performance almost stole the show from Minter and earned plenty of copy. Bear in mind that Feeney came back to dominate the domestic bantamweight scene for many years and you get a sense of how prolific Johnny looked that night. Harry Mullan, Tim Mo and Mike Lockley of the old BN (a newspaper back then) had seen a few fights but they were blown away by this relentless Welsh marvel.
Horribly, just three months later, Johnny lost everything in his world title encounter with Lupe Pintor on a night when the behaviour of the Mexican fans as the stricken Owen was stretchered from the ring plumbed new depths in boxing anarchy. "Lockers", who covered the fight at ringside for BN, left the newspaper shortly afterwards (Sean Sheahan also left after covering the Steve Watt tragedy a few years later) and Johnny's devoted father, Dick, never really got over it.
On November 4, it will be exactly 40 years since Johnny passed away in a Los Angeles hospital. I remember the bleak, dark days all too well as Johnny clung on for several weeks in a coma. I remember Muhammad Ali suffering total humiliation at the hands of Larry Holmes during that time, the Hagler-Minter riot, Sean O'Grady covered in his own blood against Jim Watt, the ferocious Roberto Duran shamelessly quitting against Sugar Ray Leonard... Boxing didn't make any sense. Owen had a freakishly strong jaw and a freakishly thin skull. Pintor's final right hand drove the jaw into the brain.

The Owen vs Pintor fight can lead a grown man to tears. If anyone should have, could have won a world title, it was Johnny Owen.

It leads a fan to many questions about the fight. Did they take the fight too early? Did he need a fight with a decent hitting seasoned top 10 on American soil first? Why did Owen tire? Was it the swallowing of blood? Was it Pintor's overhand right? Was it the lack of time training in SoCal? Where were the ref and doctor on stopping this fight?

If only Richard Steele was around.

How I watched that fight and wished they stopped it! Save the great and courageous Owen from his own valiant bravery.

I am sure if Johnny had survived that fight, he would have become a great world champion and the entire globe would have fallen in love with him.

[gilgamesh]

Tyson Cave against Oscar Escandon is the only person I've ever seen win every single round of a fight, and be ruled the loser. So I guess strictly speaking that's the best "Losing" performance, because he couldn't have done more to win aside from knock the f*cking guy out.

When people talk about robberies this is the one they need to watch. Absolutely atrocious decision

Simply not possible to score a fight worse.

[TheGman]

Roy Jones. Seoul final '88.

Was gonna say this

[TheGman]

Castillo in the first Corrales fight is worth mentioning

[AntonioMartin]

Owen vs. Pintor, Johnny was gunning for the title and shot out the barrel blazing. 137 punches in the first round. By the fourth his swarming style had cut the legendary Pintor over both eyes and in danger of a doctor's stoppage. 148 punches in round 5!!! Walking through everything the hard hitting Pintor threw until the 9th round sent him to the canvas. It turns out the man whom the American press had called "Alf E. Newman with gloves on" was a lion!!! Sadly, Owen went out on his shield. What might have been! Johnny, we hardly knew ya!

I am sure if Johnny had survived that fight, he would have become a great world champion and the entire globe would have fallen in love with him.

Maybe not...the punishment he took in that bout was astonishing and it could all have gone downward for him after that.

But sadly we will never know anyways...