Fights that could have happened but didn't.....

[jameswilson]

Whether it was politics, injury, whatever. List the fights that you were gutted not to be able to see.


Eubank v Jones. Before I got into boxing but I'd have loved to see Eubank in with the very best Middles and Super middles.

Calzaghe v Ottke any time from 2001 to 2003.

Calzaghe v Johnson - IBF Light Heavyweight title 2004. Fight was signed only to fall through. Johnson went on to KO Jones Jr later in the year.

Audley Harrison v Matt Skelton - 09-12-2006 - Skelton pulled out injured with about 10 days to go and Danny Williams stepped in at late notice instead. Had the fight happened and Audley won it would obviously have been his best win.

David Haye v Mark Hobson - Around 2003/2004 when Hobson's trainer was posting a lot on the boards. I think I remember at the back of my head the fight was signed but didn't happen for some reason or another.

Ricky Hatton v Kelson Pinto - For some reason I remember exactly where I was when I read the fight had fallen through. I was in a service station having just got back from touring Ireland with my University rugby team during the Easter break in 2004. A bit like when Princess Diana died and the twin towers got hit in the sense it was a 'you remember where you were' moment.....or maybe not. Obviously Hatton went on to win the IBF title from Tszyu rather than the WBO from Pinto but it was still a fight I was looking forward to.

Ricky Hatton v Junior Witter - Don't need to explain this one.

Froch v Calzaghe - Ditto.

Carl Froch v Tony Dodson - 2004-06-02 - Pretty sure this was the first time the fight fell through, at this point Froch was establishing himself and I think Tony before all the injuries would have made this extremely competitive against a much greener Froch than the one he faced all those years later.

Junior Witter v Arturo Gatti - I think Witter had just got into the upper echelons of the WBC ratings just as Mayweather stepped up in weight. I really do think Witter in 2005 was at his best and would have knocked the easy to hit Gatti spark out if he had got in there with him. He did go on to win the WBC title anyway but Light welter was positively packed at that time with guys like Cotto, Hatton, Mayweather, Gatti, Pinto, Tszyu, Spadafora, Sharmba Mitchell and probably a load of others I'v forgotten.

Scott Harrison v Nicky Cook - Fight fell through very very late, but I remember being bang up for seeing that one.

Scott Harrison v Any of the top featherweights - Like light welter, Featherweight was stacked to the tits at this time. Barerra, Marquez, Pacquiao, In Jin Chi, Morales who could probably make Featherweight even tho he wasn't in the division, and of course Harrison as WBO champ. Real shame this was a time when our British WBO champs just sat on their titles defending here in the UK.

I'll probably list a few more later but the rest of you can join in now.

[Syntax Error]

Out of interest, are you only wanting fights involving Britons?

If so, Lennox Lewis -v- Riddick Bowe (1993) - could & should have happened & would have been a barnstormer, but Bowe was so frightened of Lewis that he ran away hurling insults rather than fight the man.

The irony is that a focused, fit & unfazed Bowe probably had enough to beat the reckless, Right hand happy Lewis of 1993, if not the more cautious & controlled version of 1995 onwards.

[Dirk Kelly]

Would have loved to have seen all the domestic light middles of the late 90's early 00's fight each other - the Takaloo's, Alexanders, Roberts, Williams etc go at it instead of avoiding each other or boxing politics robbing us of these fights.

[Wake up call]

Henry Wharton v Crawford Ashley

[deadpan]

Benn-Toney
McGuigan-Nelson
Hamed-JMM
Bruno-Mason
Eubank-Graham
Thompson-Nelson 2

Global -

Tyson-Vitali K

[jameswilson]

Yeah go global too what the heck.

Prince Naz v Morales - instead of Barerra. Naz might have won this won and a win would have meant a different opinion of Naz by the knockers. Altho possibly not.

[Quixall]

Yeah go global too what the heck.

Prince Naz v Morales - instead of Barerra. Naz might have won this won and a win would have meant a different opinion of Naz by the knockers. Altho possibly not.

I think Hamed didn't want to fight Morales or JMM and didn't take up his re-match clause with Barerra either. Unfortunately for Hamed he had abandoned his skill sets in favour of a knock out punch by the time he got to the top end of the table, had made all his money by then, started a family, had too many trainers and had fallen out of love with boxing, not too mention his growing problem with his hands. The defeat to Barrera was the final straw and he knew that his time was up. Hamed had peaked around the time of the Johnson fight and i saw enough in the Sanchez and Kelley fights to know that he wasn't going to deliver against the very best unless he went back to his original style, but he never did and he tossed his career away IMO.

[Jeff Thomas]

Henry Wharton v Crawford Ashley

[jameswilson]

Yeah go global too what the heck.

Prince Naz v Morales - instead of Barerra. Naz might have won this won and a win would have meant a different opinion of Naz by the knockers. Altho possibly not.

I think Hamed didn't want to fight Morales or JMM and didn't take up his re-match clause with Barerra either. Unfortunately for Hamed he had abandoned his skill sets in favour of a knock out punch by the time he got to the top end of the table, had made all his money by then, started a family, had too many trainers and had fallen out of love with boxing, not too mention his growing problem with his hands. The defeat to Barrera was the final straw and he knew that his time was up. Hamed had peaked around the time of the Johnson fight and i saw enough in the Sanchez and Kelley fights to know that he wasn't going to deliver against the very best unless he went back to his original style, but he never did and he tossed his career away IMO.

The Kelley fight? The Kelley fight was only about 6 months after his fight with Johnson and 3 years odd before the Sanchez fight. I didn't think he'd regressed at all when he fought Kelley. It remains a fight I can't stop watching too. I must have seen it 20 times and still watching it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Especially with the American commentary. 'Well Hamed is supposed to have power of his own and we havent seen any evidence of this as yet' about 2 seconds before Hamed sticks Kelley on his arse was a personal highlight.

But yeah you are right about the change of trainers and the change of style he made late on, doing him in. But the reason I mention the fight with Morales at that time was purely because if he had fought and beaten Morales back in 1997, it would have been before Morales came to prominence (as far as I am aware.)

[Quixall]

Yeah go global too what the heck.

Prince Naz v Morales - instead of Barerra. Naz might have won this won and a win would have meant a different opinion of Naz by the knockers. Altho possibly not.

I think Hamed didn't want to fight Morales or JMM and didn't take up his re-match clause with Barerra either. Unfortunately for Hamed he had abandoned his skill sets in favour of a knock out punch by the time he got to the top end of the table, had made all his money by then, started a family, had too many trainers and had fallen out of love with boxing, not too mention his growing problem with his hands. The defeat to Barrera was the final straw and he knew that his time was up. Hamed had peaked around the time of the Johnson fight and i saw enough in the Sanchez and Kelley fights to know that he wasn't going to deliver against the very best unless he went back to his original style, but he never did and he tossed his career away IMO.

The Kelley fight? The Kelley fight was only about 6 months after his fight with Johnson and 3 years odd before the Sanchez fight. I didn't think he'd regressed at all when he fought Kelley. It remains a fight I can't stop watching too. I must have seen it 20 times and still watching it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Especially with the American commentary. 'Well Hamed is supposed to have power of his own and we havent seen any evidence of this as yet' about 2 seconds before Hamed sticks Kelley on his arse was a personal highlight.

But yeah you are right about the change of trainers and the change of style he made late on, doing him in. But the reason I mention the fight with Morales at that time was purely because if he had fought and beaten Morales back in 1997, it would have been before Morales came to prominence (as far as I am aware.)

I can remember Hamed in an interview well before the Barrera fight saying that he thought his defining fight would be against Morales and after the interview McGuigan saying that Hamed looked bored and dissolusioned with the sport. I tend to get mixed up with dates and fighters, so your right to poinat out my mistakes with the dates etc, but what i'm saying is that over a period of time he altered that style he was initially known for and opted for the power punch approach which was definately evident in the Kelley fight. That fight is also one of my favourites too, but it was just a slug fest really and hamed looked clumsy at times which accounted for at least one of his knock downs in the fight. Certainly by the time he fought Sanchez, he was getting caught and looked wild at times, but that power got him through. I always think that Hamed would have achieved more if he hadn't thrown his initial style out of the window and had kept with Ingle, i don't think Steward did him any favours or Swarez.

[kamicazze]

Would have loved to have seen all the domestic light middles of the late 90's early 00's fight each other - the Takaloo's, Alexanders, Roberts, Williams etc go at it instead of avoiding each other or boxing politics robbing us of these fights.

I second this - adding in a Samuels, Dhami, Khaliq, Sinclair and Hare

[Jon Saxon]

Yeah go global too what the heck.

Prince Naz v Morales - instead of Barerra. Naz might have won this won and a win would have meant a different opinion of Naz by the knockers. Altho possibly not.

I think Hamed didn't want to fight Morales or JMM and didn't take up his re-match clause with Barerra either. Unfortunately for Hamed he had abandoned his skill sets in favour of a knock out punch by the time he got to the top end of the table, had made all his money by then, started a family, had too many trainers and had fallen out of love with boxing, not too mention his growing problem with his hands. The defeat to Barrera was the final straw and he knew that his time was up. Hamed had peaked around the time of the Johnson fight and i saw enough in the Sanchez and Kelley fights to know that he wasn't going to deliver against the very best unless he went back to his original style, but he never did and he tossed his career away IMO.

The Kelley fight? The Kelley fight was only about 6 months after his fight with Johnson and 3 years odd before the Sanchez fight. I didn't think he'd regressed at all when he fought Kelley. It remains a fight I can't stop watching too. I must have seen it 20 times and still watching it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Especially with the American commentary. 'Well Hamed is supposed to have power of his own and we havent seen any evidence of this as yet' about 2 seconds before Hamed sticks Kelley on his arse was a personal highlight.

But yeah you are right about the change of trainers and the change of style he made late on, doing him in. But the reason I mention the fight with Morales at that time was purely because if he had fought and beaten Morales back in 1997, it would have been before Morales came to prominence (as far as I am aware.)

Hey James you left out the best bit...

"Well Hamed is supposed to have power of his own and we havent seen any evidence of this as yet?.....BANG! "there's the power, there's the power!"
Kelly hits deck.

What an exciting fight.

[jameswilson]

Hey James you left out the best bit...

"Well Hamed is supposed to have power of his own and we havent seen any evidence of this as yet?.....BANG! "there's the power, there's the power!"
Kelly hits deck.

What an exciting fight.

You can hear one of them laughing in the background too. Also at the end of the fight just as the ref waves it off the camera cuts to a shot of Hamed with his arms in the air being lifted up by his entourage and George Foreman is shouting 'he's for real he's for real the Prince is for real!' I just had this brilliant image of loads of American Hamed haters with their heads in their hands.

[world ranked]

Joan Guzman-Scot Harrison

[Deno1986]

Out of interest, are you only wanting fights involving Britons?

If so, Lennox Lewis -v- Riddick Bowe (1993) - could & should have happened & would have been a barnstormer, but Bowe was so frightened of Lewis that he ran away hurling insults rather than fight the man.

The irony is that a focused, fit & unfazed Bowe probably had enough to beat the reckless, Right hand happy Lewis of 1993, if not the more cautious & controlled version of 1995 onwards.

Just shows how much Bowe and his handlers lacked confidence in his ability. Bowe would have beaten the one-dimensional Lewis of that time, in my opinion.

[Deno1986]

Eubank/Benn vs. James Toney at Super Middleweight late 1993 or early 1994. I remember reading that Toney called out the winner of Benn/Eubank II on the Jonathon Woss show but obviously the fight ended in a draw and nothing ever materialised. Toney went on the fight and lose to RJJ at the end of '94.

[nobby_nobbins]

Lewis utterly demolished Bowe in the Olympic finals, despite being outboxed. I think Bowe was scarred by that experience and wanted no part of Lewis again.

[Captain Hook]

Hamed v Espinosa? His name and that of Barrera were being banded around for a couple of year, until Hamed finally took on MAB later in his career

[stujones]

Steve Robinson vs Barry Jones - maybe too close mates, but would have been a dandy when Jones was WBO champion.

Junior Witter vs Kelson Pinto - I believe this was on the cards also at one stage, maybe with both under Warren maybe Witter vs Hatton might have been more likely with Witter (or both) as champs.

Spencer Oliver vs Naz - say no more - just such a shame.

Dean Francis vs Joe Calzaghe.

Joe Calzaghe vs Charles Brewer - in the states as Joe's first or second defence. Joe would have won back then, and what a platform it would have been. I know it did happen, but it was the perfect fight for him early in his reign to establish a big US profile.

Benn/Eubank vs Nunn - this was the fight that was agreed in principle for the WINNER of Benn vs Eubank 2 to face. Looking at what transpired in Nunn's career.... hugely winnable fight.

Lloyd Honeyghan vs Colin Jones - Jones wanted it, Honeyghan didn't say he didn't want it. Why didn't it happen.

Terry Marsh vs Lloyd Honeyghan - not often we get two geniune world champions just one weight devision apart. Two geniune household names, well known, outspoken fighters.

Herol Graham vs John Mugabi - people mention Graham vs Hagler. Why not British based Mugabi.

[stujones]

Azumah Nelson vs Barry McGuigan

Azumah Nelson vs JC Chavez (yeah, Chavez might have been too big, but I would have loved to have seen that fight - Nelson was one strong Featherweight).

[Khaosai-Galaxy]

Henry Akinwande vs Evander Holyfield in 1998



Just imagine...

[Matchfixer]

Pacquiao v Mayweather in 2009 or 2010

Not interested any more.

[jameswilson]

I'v just remembered Johnny Nelson v Enzo Maccarinelli was long touted as a possible fight too.

[Quixall]

I'v just remembered Johnny Nelson v Enzo Maccarinelli was long touted as a possible fight too.

I think they were close to getting that fight on when Johnny got his career ending knee injury.

[twenty six]

Too true.
That injury Johnny suffered was horrific.
His kneecap was facing inwards.
We'll never know now, but I truly believe Johnny would have stopped him.