wins that meant nothing/little at the time but aged well

[margaret thatcher]

when andrew selby and kal yafai beat cris rosales, he'd never fought outside nicragua except for those 2 fights, and basically had little credibility. but then he eventually went on a very nice run that saw him score good wins abroad and become a wbc champ


what other wins are there like this? excluding dq style wins where the winning fighter was clearly inferior

[margaret thatcher]

lee selby has a bit of his own win like this. he widely beat then 20-0-3 eduardo ramirez in a title defense at home

ramirez at the time had pretty much just crushed cans and had little credibility. but since then he's been on a very respectable run

[margaret thatcher]

oh sheeyat i meant to start this in brit section

[gilgamesh]

When Carl Froch beat Jean Pascal it probably didn't get a lot of notoriety at the time, but now that's a damn good addition to Froch's resume.

Floyd beating Canelo got WAY better with the passage of time. He beat Canelo when he was a superstar in the making, and Canelo has went on to become THE GUY in Boxing for the last several years pretty much, and has already reached a point where he's arguably behind only Pac as possibly the 3rd best fighter overall so far of the 21st century. Which would mean Floyd is #1, and holds wins over the #2 and #3 guy of this millenium thus far. Which is huge.

As of this moment, I still personally have B-Hop ever so slightly ahead of Canelo in regards to that, so I'd have Canelo as #4 on that list for now, but he still has time to close the gap on B-Hop, and even now the gap ain't all that wide.

[gilgamesh]

In Canelo's 3rd fight, he got a win over Miguel Vazquez who was making his debut at the time. Vazquez went on to be a Lightweight Titleholder.

Not the biggest win in the world, but there was no way to tell at that point that either of them would go on to what they did.

[margaret thatcher]

good example for sure

[gilgamesh]

Anytime you have a Future Champion that gets beat early on I guess that fits this category.

Bernard Hopkins
Rafael Marquez

Another good example is Azumah Nelson. He was virtually unknown when he got his shot at Salvador Sanchez, and he gave Sanchez all he could handle. Azumah Nelson of course went on to become a Hall of Famer in his own right, and is now one of the standout wins on Salvador's resume. At the time it happened it was "Who the f*ck is this Azumah guy?"

[Enlightened-One]

Carl Froch's victory over Jean Pascal.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Anytime you have a Future Champion that gets beat early on I guess that fits this category.

Bernard Hopkins
Rafael Marquez

Another good example is Azumah Nelson. He was virtually unknown when he got his shot at Salvador Sanchez, and he gave Sanchez all he could handle. Azumah Nelson of course went on to become a Hall of Famer in his own right, and is now one of the standout wins on Salvador's resume. At the time it happened it was "Who the f*ck is this Azumah guy?"

Also, Juan Manual Marquez

[Perseus]

Roy Jones Jr vs Bernard Hopkins was just a Riddick Bowe undercard fight for a vacant strap at the time.
That win on the RJjr resume aged very well.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Roy Jones Jr vs Bernard Hopkins was just a Riddick Bowe undercard fight for a vacant strap at the time.
That win on the RJjr resume aged very well.

Yeh, was just 2 upcoming prospects gaining a chance at the vacant strap.

[joshj909]

Slightly missing the memo, but ones that, not so much meant "little" but in time the win grew in significance. Arguably Mayweather's win over Canelo. You can argue that Canelo was already a top fighter or that he wasn't in his prime yet or whatever but on paper that win has aged very well. Same could be said for Lewis over Vitali in that they were already a top fighter but what they went on to achieve after boosted the resume of the man that beat them.

[Enlightened-One]

Mike McCallum's victory over Julian Jackson was very underappreciated at the time, but The Hawk subsequently enjoyed a 6½ years winning streak that earned him Hall-of-Fame status.

Mike McCallum was definitely one of boxing's most underrated fighters ever.

[IRL25]

Joe Calzaghe v Bernard Hopkins

[Thomastearns]

Mike Tyson beating Larry Holmes.

We thought Holmes was finished, but he obviously wasn't.

[Mexi-Box]

Carl Framptons first win over Kiko Martinez. After his loss to Frampton, he goes on a great run beating Romero, Mathebula, and Hasegawi. Even after Frampton long retired he's still upsetting the apple cart having stopping Kid Galahad in a major upset.

[Fightnight Scores]

Brook beating Porter got moe impressive the following years when Porter was still a force in the division.

[Fightnight Scores]

Maybe you could say AJ's KO of Whyte. I've always been somewhat of a Whyte detractor, but after that loss he got some decent wins and was the consensus number 4 in the division behind the big 3, and before Usyk stepped up

[brilo33]

when andrew selby and kal yafai beat cris rosales, he'd never fought outside nicragua except for those 2 fights, and basically had little credibility. but then he eventually went on a very nice run that saw him score good wins abroad and become a wbc champ


what other wins are there like this? excluding dq style wins where the winning fighter was clearly inferior

maxi hughes beat Kris Pilkington 2 w 10 L, then went on to beat Carroll,Kotochigov,Paul Hyland Jnr ,Straffon,Ryan Walsh

[Syntax Error]

Mike Tyson beating Larry Holmes.

We thought Holmes was finished, but he obviously wasn't.

Holmes certainly wasn't in his prime, but he wasn't as far gone as we thought at the time.

Holmes fought for another 14 years after that, gave peak Holyfield a decent fight and beat some top guys too.

Nobody ever smoked Holmes the way Tyson did.

[Enlightened-One]

Mike Tyson beating Larry Holmes.

We thought Holmes was finished, but he obviously wasn't.

Holmes certainly wasn't in his prime, but he wasn't as far gone as we thought at the time.

Holmes fought for another 14 years after that, gave peak Holyfield a decent fight and beat some top guys too.

Nobody ever smoked Holmes the way Tyson did.

To be fair, Larry Homes openly admits he knew he was going to lose to Tyson beforehand, because he was rusty, out-of-shape, and only took the fight for the money.

Holmes says he was happily retired when Don King visited his home and offered him an immediate $500K down-payment (from a $3.5m total purse) to sign the contract there-and-then for the Tyson bout that was scheduled nine weeks later.

Don King subsequently brought the fight-date forward, despite being told by Larry he was too out-of-shape to compete.

When 'The Easton Assassin' entered the ring for the Tyson bout, he hadn’t scored a legitimate win for almost three years prior (i.e. the Williams robbery, coupled with two defeats to Spinks), coupled with the fact he’d also endured 21 months’ worth of inactivity.

Holmes actually told this story to an audience in front of Tyson (they were both sat next to each other on-stage, with Mike also conceding Larry taking the fight at short-notice and was out-of-shape, because he wasn't given the opportunity to prepare properly - his actual words).

Larry's impressive performances against Ray Mercer, Evander Holyfield and Oliver McCall have to be considered in a completely different context.

For instance: he’d engaged in five bouts during the twelve months prior to both the Holyfield and Mercer fights.

[Kronkpride]

Andrew Hartley beating Charlie Zelenoff. Very few people knew Charlie when it happened. Now Charlie is one of the most infamous boxing trolls in history. Shannon Briggs continues to stalk him to this day...LETS GO CHAMP!

Every time somebody actually looks up Charlie's claimed undefeated records they always find just 1 real bout and Hartley's name as the victor. For Hartley who was a career punching bag opponent himself, this was a win that keeps on delivering for him. Zelenoff keeps increasing in internet infamy and everybody he attracts into his web learns about Hartley and then dies laughing. You aint undefeated....you are winless against the career tomato can Andrew Hartley.

[chucktaylor]

Steve Cunningham's win over Guillermo Jones aged very nicely.

It was a deep undercard fight, and while it was step up for Cunningham and a solid win at the time, it really is one of his best wins looking back. Jones went on to become a boogeyman in the cruiserweight division. Also, it was almost the only time Cunningham won on the cards after a close fight!

[margaret thatcher]

in inoue's 4th fight he beat ryoichi taguchi, who was then the japanese champ. taguchi later became unified world champ

[Enlightened-One]

Clinton Mitchell beat Bernard Hopkins in 1988.

Bobby Watts defeated Marvelous Marvin Hagler in 1976.