Heavyweight boxing’s biggest missed collisions in their prime & their fight year

[Benny The Kid]

Heavyweight boxing’s biggest missed collisions in their prime & their fight year

I'll get started with the early era

John L Sullivan- Peter Jackson 1893 (immediately after slavin fight)
James J Corbett- Joe Goddard 1897
Bob Fitzsimmons- Middleweight Champion Tommy Ryan 1896
James J Jeffries- Jack Johnson 1904
Jack Johnson- Sam Langford or Sam Mcvey 1909 (in place of ketchel)
Harry Wills- Jack Johnson 1915 (immediately after Willard)
Jack Dempsey- Harry Wills 1918 (immediately after Fulton) Harry Greb 1921 (in place of carpentier)
Gene Tunney- Jack Sharkey 1928 (was suppose to happen immediately after Heeney)
Jack Sharkey- Paulino Uzcudun 1933
Joe Louis- Elmer Ray 1946

[Crease]

I'll throw a few out:

Rocky Marciano vs Floyd Patterson (1956)
Jerry Quarry vs Henry Cooper (1969)
Joe Frazier vs Ken Norton (1973)
Lennox Lewis vs Riddick Bowe (1993)
Tommy Morrison vs Eric Esch (1994)
George Foreman vs Mike Tyson (1995)
Vitali Klitchsko vs Wladimir Klitchsko (2008)
Vitali Klitchsko vs David Haye (2012)
Tyson Fury vs David Price (2012)
Dvaid Haye vs Tyson Fury (2013)
Wladimir Klitchsko vs Deontay Wilder (2015)
Anthony Joshua vs Deontay Wilder (2018)

[Crease]

Jack Johnson- Sam Langford
Jack Dempsey- Harry Wills

Yeah, think it is generally accepted that those were the two big ones we missed out on...

[NazNaci1]

Lennox Lewis vs Riddick Bowe (1993)

This one still bugs me.

I remember hearing about Bowe just prior to the 1988 Olympics. An article in the Sun or Mirror and this huge dude bragging and boasting that he would win the '88 Gold, become HW Champion and go on to surpass his idol, Ali.

I did take an interest and watched pretty much all Olympic boxing (as I normally do) including the 88 Final, against Lewis, who I had never heard up until the Games and was surprised and a bit gutted that he lost.

Then Lennox switches over to the UK and for all the back and forth, I really thought it would happen. So technically, although we did watch them fight, just not when either were close to their peaks. Bit of a shame.

[cfang]

Holmes vs Coetzee in the early 80s
Bruno vs Morrison would have been been interesting
Stevenson vs Ali in the 70s?

[Caractacus]

Lennox Lewis vrs Vladimir Klitschko.
They did get in the ring for that Ocean's Eleven re-make in 2001 tho.

[Perseus]

Does it have be top heavyweights or just decent fights that would have been fun to see?

Dominick Guinn vs Joe Messi 2002
Tommy Morrison vs Butterbean mid-90's
David Haye vs Alexander Povetkin 2012
Anthony Joshua vs Deontay Wilder 2018
John Ruiz vs Chris Byrd 2002
George Foreman vs Larry Holmes 1995

[margaret thatcher]

tommy morrison woulda butchered bean, though i suppose that still could be fun

[Bodyshot3]

In my lifetime......Bowe v Lewis.
It should have happened and would have been a classic, but Rock Newman got his fat arse in the way.

The dates did not work for Vitali v Fury prime-v-prime but I think Vitali-Fury would have been a belter. I always felt Vitali was the way more dangerous K brother for Tyson.