Fights Where You Would Have Filed Criminal Charges

[jrc26]

By this I am not talking about crimes taking place in the ring like loaded gloves or other cheating.

I am looking at fights like Ali-Holmes or Marciano-Louis. When I say criminal charges, I am being drastic, but if you had your way, who would you put in jail for promoting or allowing a particular fight to happen. Complete mismatches, beyond shot fighters...

Gerry Quarry's last fight was criminal.

[Ketchel]

Sticking a tranquilised Tyson in against Lewis just for the payday then trying to build it up as some legacy defining fight bullshit for Lewis.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

The beating Duran gave Moore was one of the most brutal I've seen.

[yancey]

deleted

[yancey]

By this I am not talking about crimes taking place in the ring like loaded gloves or other cheating.

I am looking at fights like Ali-Holmes or Marciano-Louis. When I say criminal charges, I am being drastic, but if you had your way, who would you put in jail for promoting or allowing a particular fight to happen. Complete mismatches, beyond shot fighters...

Gerry Quarry's last fight was criminal.

Agree about Quarry's last fight.

Very, very sad.

[iamasadlittleboy]

Lacy v Calzaghe. That was a professional boxer beating the snot out of a human punchbag. Briggs v Klitschko was very similar.

[jezzamundo]

While all of these fights turned out to be mismatches, some of them should have never been made, while others actually seemd to be very good matchups. Lacy-Calzaghe was pretty much a superfight, and I remember most on this board thought that Lacy would win. On the other hand, Jerry Quarry should have been protected from himself and should not have been in the ring in the 80s, let alone the 90s.

[IRLangmaid25]

Lacy v Calzaghe. That was a professional boxer beating the snot out of a human punchbag. Briggs v Klitschko was very similar.

I agree with that one. You can chuck into the mix Manny Pacquiao v Antonio Margarito as well which goes down as one of the worse beatings I have ever seen in the ring and the referee Lawrence Cole and/or Margarito's cornermen should have stopped that fight also Floyd Mayweather v Arturo Gatti perhaps?

[dr_devious]

Dempsey vs Willard was a horrible beatdown

[Thunder and Lightning]

Didn't Howard Cosell quit after the Holmes vs Tex Cobb mismatch?

[Syntax Error]

Sticking a tranquilised Tyson in against Lewis just for the payday then trying to build it up as some legacy defining fight bullshit for Lewis.

Spot on.

That fight was a disgrace & Tyson's corner were appalling, when after 7 rounds, Tyson told his corner he was 'done' & 'gone' & they sent him out in the 8th to get poleaxed.

I'm no apologist for Tyson & judging by his actions in the ring, he probably deserved that shellacking, but on purely human level, that fight was truly appalling.

[IRLangmaid25]

Sticking a tranquilised Tyson in against Lewis just for the payday then trying to build it up as some legacy defining fight bullshit for Lewis.

Spot on.

That fight was a disgrace & Tyson's corner were appalling, when after 7 rounds, Tyson told his corner he was 'done' & 'gone' & they sent him out in the 8th to get poleaxed.

I'm no apologist for Tyson & judging by his actions in the ring, he probably deserved that shellacking, but on purely human level, that fight was truly appalling.

I agree it was a horrible beating as well as Lennox Lewis could have knocked him out anytime he wanted but was determined to punish him for being made into 6ft5 inch size press conference snack by Tyson and even Manny Steward was emerging Lewis to knock Tyson out. I have just finished watching Roy Jones Jnr v Richard Hall that was a terrible beating that Hall took with Jones landing pretty much as when he pleased as he could have dispatched Hall early if he wanted but kept the beating going and also the referee Wayne Kelly deserves a dishonourable mention for not stopping it quickly enough when could see that Hall was getting battered senseless over the ring so much to the extent that messers Lampley, Merchant and Foreman were begging Kelly to stop the fight along with the corner as well. After the stoppage Merchant said that Kelly should have been pistolwhipped for prolonging Hall's beating.

[Goodnight, Irene]

Two not yet mentioned...

Gatti-Gamache

Marquez-Johnson II

[duranfan]

Didn't Howard Cosell quit after the Holmes vs Tex Cobb mismatch?

Yes he did, and rightly so. That was far worse than anything mentioned on this thread so far IMO. Larry was throwing shots like what Americans call a " pitcher " in baseball, or a bowler at cricket for the whole 15 rounds all of them at Cobbs head, and either he couldn't drop him or Tex wouldn't go down through sheer bravery but it was subhuman as a fight. Only the ghoulish would want to watch it these days if it is on you tube, or something similar.

[jrc26]

Didn't Howard Cosell quit after the Holmes vs Tex Cobb mismatch?

Yes he did, and rightly so. That was far worse than anything mentioned on this thread so far IMO. Larry was throwing shots like what Americans call a " pitcher " in baseball, or a bowler at cricket for the whole 15 rounds all of them at Cobbs head, and either he couldn't drop him or Tex wouldn't go down through sheer bravery but it was subhuman as a fight. Only the ghoulish would want to watch it these days if it is on you tube, or something similar.

Good call. I forgot that fight. I wonder how Cobb is functioning physically/mentally these days. He seemed to have it all together in his post fight career. Upon trying to answer my own question I just asked I read this:

Cobb lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and maintained a friendship with Philadelphia Daily News columnist Pete Dexter, who frequently commented on boxing. In a notorious 1982 Grays Ferry incident Cobb came to the defense of Dexter, who, during the course of a bar brawl, was severely beaten.[4] Cobb rescued him and endured a broken arm, costing him a scheduled fight with Muhammad Ali. Ali then fought Trevor Berbick and lost. Ali fought Berbick on December 11, 1981, so the 1982 bar fight could not have cost Cobb a fight with Ali.

In January 2008 at age 57, Cobb graduated magna cum laude from Temple University with a bachelor's degree in sport and recreation management. He remarked that it was odd to hear the cheers of a packed arena without being in a boxing ring. "It was nice to have that opportunity to wear a robe, to step up there and not have to worry about bleeding," Cobb said.

I had no idea he was supposed to be Ali's last fight instead of Berbick.

And if he graduated with honors from Temple 3 years ago he must have all of his marbles still. Amazing after the beatings he took that he can be seemingly unaffected and some guys are punch drunk much younger and from much less punishment.

[jrc26]

Page-Crowe could be in this conversation. Page was reasonably competitive at the time of the fight (compared to other fighters mentioned here), so I don't necessarily think the fight was terrible to make. The criminal charges should have been filed for the safety/medical handling of the entire fight card.

On March 9, 2001, Page fought Dale Crowe at Peel's Palace in Erlanger, Kentucky for $1,500. Page appeared to be holding his own with Crowe until the tenth round. Crowe said, "The timekeeper smacked the mat with his hand toward the end of the fight to indicate ten seconds were left, and that's when I went after Greg with one last flurry." Crowe hit Page with a flush left to the chin and then pushed him back. Page fell against the ropes, slid down, and was counted out by the referee.[10]

What followed was chaos. There wasn't an ambulance, a team of paramedics, or oxygen, all of which were required by law. The ringside doctor, Manuel Mediodia, wasn't licensed in Kentucky and was under suspension in Ohio. At the time of the stoppage, Mediodia had already left and had to be brought back into the building. Twenty-two minutes passed before an ambulance arrived.[11]

Before the fight, Page's trainer, James Doolin, complained to several members of the state commission about the conditions, including the lack of oxygen. He then wrote his complaints on a piece of paper and sealed it inside an envelope. Doolin gave it to the commission chairman, Jack Kerns, who then gave it back to Doolin. "Mail it to me," Kerns said.[12]

Page was taken to the emergency room at St. Luke's hospital, where a CT scan revealed a huge mass being formed by the bleeding inside his head. He was then transported to University Hospital in Cincinnati.[13] During post-fight brain surgery, he suffered a stroke and was left paralyzed on the left side of his body. Page was in a coma for nearly a week.[14]

For the rest of his life, Page suffered many complications from his injury. He was hospitalized numerous times for such ailments as pneumonia, acute respiratory failure, sepsis, hypothermia, and seizures.[15][16][17]

Page filed a lawsuit against the state of Kentucky and settled out of court for $1.2 million in 2007. As part of the settlement, boxing safety regulations the state enacted the previous year were named the "Greg Page Safety Initiative.

[The 1bangkid]

Sticking a tranquilised Tyson in against Lewis just for the payday then trying to build it up as some legacy defining fight bullshit for Lewis.

[marcianofan]

Dempsey vs Willard was a horrible beatdown

Hard to criticize anyone for putting the undisputed champion in with a challenger that is too good for him, though.

RJJ vs. Lebedev is a recent one that almost made me puke when it was made. I only saw video of the last couple rounds, but I actually heard Roy was doing halfway decent until the brutal ending.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Dempsey vs Willard was a horrible beatdown

but I actually heard Roy was doing halfway decent until the brutal ending.

Not really, he was just upright.

[iamasadlittleboy]

Dempsey vs Willard was a horrible beatdown

but I actually heard Roy was doing halfway decent until the brutal ending.

Not really, he was just upright.

IIRC one of the scorecards had Jones leading as they went into the 10th

[bollox]

Michael Nunn once 'fought' a friend of his, can't remember his name now. He was totally and utterly crap and Nunn carried him til the later rounds. It was criminal that such a fight was even allowed

[tennessee]

roberto duran vs william joppy title fight. didnt like seeing the great manos de piedra get hit like he did.

[Brutu]

Mike Weaver was scheduled to defend his WBA title against Randy Tex Cobb
June-2-1982,but Weaver hurt his shoulder during training in May and the fight
was postponed,Weaver instead fought Michael Dokes later that year.
Mike Weaver was also suppose to fight Cobb January 1984
for the new USBA title,but that fight never happened either.

[Brutu]

I think it was Scott LeDoux who was suppose to be Ali's last comeback fight,
and instead he fought Trevor Berbick.