BoxRec

Post a list of great fights that COULD have happened but never did for whatever reason. Here are some that I wished would have happened. Hagler-Monzon. Robinson-Burley, Lamotta -Graziano, Dempsey-Wills, Cooney-Holmes2, Zale-Lamotta, Mathew Saad Muhamed-Michael Spinks. Post some you wished would have occured.

robinson/cerdan is one i'd like to have seen.

schmeling/braddock...which schmeling really earned but never came about for sociological reasons is another. most people who wrote...or write..about that era think schmeling would have won, but i lean toward braddock.

charles/lesnevich for the light heavy title..which would have made charles the first to go from the lower title to the big one.

Sanchez-Pedroza
Chavez-Nelson
Leonard-Hearns II (at jr Middle)
Hagler-McCallum
Lewis-Bowe
Bowe-Tyson
Ali-Foreman II
Liston-Frazier
Holmes-Foreman
Charles-Zale

Arguello-Sanchez
Leonard-Pryor
Leonard-Cuevas
Lewis-Bowe
Hagler-McCallum
Hagler-Monzon
Hagler-Valdez
Jones-Benn
Jones-Collins
Hearns-McCallum
Hearns-Mugabi

Azumah Nelson v Brian Mitchell
Larry Holmes v Greg Page
Tyson v Witherspoon
Carbajal v Lopez

another with azumah,
nelson-mcguigan
sanchez-pedroza
hearns-mccallum
arguello-sanchez
pryor-duran

dr_devious wrote:Arguello-Sanchez

Pick it Devious...

Richardo Lopez- Humberto Gonzalez

Ezzard wrote:

dr_devious wrote:Arguello-Sanchez

Pick it Devious...

Very difficult pick, my guess would be Arguello to win a close points decision, but not sure we saw the best of Sanchez. Who do you think wins?

Coetzee vs Holmes - If Holmes would of beten Coetzee and unified the title Holmes wouldnt be as underated as he is and would certainly be ranked at least 3rd in everyones list.

Although Holmes would of beaten Coetzee, he would have to dig down deep to win just like he did against Norton.

dr_devious wrote:

Ezzard wrote:

dr_devious wrote:Arguello-Sanchez

Pick it Devious...

Very difficult pick, my guess would be Arguello to win a close points decision, but not sure we saw the best of Sanchez. Who do you think wins?

I think Arguello needs a KO to win this and I don't see that happening. Both men were great fighters. I just feel that Sanchez had an answer to everything. He is a more versatile figther. Arguello hit harder but for em Sanchez was quicker. A very very hard fight to call.

Brian Paul vs. Roger Sanders

Tyson -v Holyfield circa 1989. Evander had been calling Tyson out since '88, but Mike was too busy.

Earnie Shavers -v- George Foreman. BOOM!

Leonard -v- Hagler (middleweight circa 1983).

Azumah Nelson -v- Salvador Sanchez 2. I would have liked to have seen how Nelson would have performed, had he had a proper amount of time to prepare.

Bowe-Lewis and Jones-McClellan are the big two that should of happened.

Ezzard wrote:

dr_devious wrote:

Ezzard wrote: Pick it Devious...

Very difficult pick, my guess would be Arguello to win a close points decision, but not sure we saw the best of Sanchez. Who do you think wins?

I think Arguello needs a KO to win this and I don't see that happening. Both men were great fighters. I just feel that Sanchez had an answer to everything. He is a more versatile figther. Arguello hit harder but for em Sanchez was quicker. A very very hard fight to call.

Just to add my two cents.. I believe it would have played out much like Arguello vs Olivares except Sanchez had longer reach than Olivares which would ultimately allow him to outbox Arguello with more success than Olivares had. And I don't see Sanchez being KO'd like Olivares. (Although it isn't impossible I just don't see it happening.) Sanchez wins a UD if not TKO. And to add to the topic it would have been an older version of Monzon but Monzon vs Hagler.

Hagler-Barkley
Hagler-Kalambay
Hagler-Graham
Leonard-Barkley
Leonard-Benn
Leonard-Eubanks
Leonard-Graham
Hagler-Griffith
Hearns-Eubanks
Hearns-Benn
Hearns-Kalambay
Leonard-Kalambay

Mugabi - Jackson

Mugabi - Ayala - 1984

I definately would have liked to see Bowe/Lewis and Tyson/Witherspoon. I would also have liked to see the great middleweights Hearns, Hagler, Leonard, Duran (I know they was a better welterweight/Lightweight!) against the top British guys a few yaers back Benn, Watson, Eubank.

Mosley-Mayweather (Mayweather at jr. lightweight had been calling out Shane)

Mosley-S.Johnson

Mayweather-S.Johnson

Delahoya-Tszyu (at 140 unfortunetly Phillips win killed this match-up)

Chavez-Yori Boy Campas (would have been very interesting but Campas would have to come down in weight)

Tszyu-A.Diaz (Diaz should have had a chance to face Tszu)

Quartey-Whitiker (at welterweight very interesting fight so close to happening)

Trinidad-Norris (almost took place)

Norris-Hopkins(many times it was said Norris was going to move up to middleweight)

Arguello v. Duran.

Sanchez-Pedroza
Page-Dokes
Pryor-Mancini

In regards to McCallum I wish he could have fought Hagler or Hearns. I dont know that He wins either. But a win against one would have been the cherry on top of a good career. And he always seemed to want it to happen.

This was done to death on the CyberBoxingZone recently.

Most of the guys on the list as possible Robinson opponents were not in the right time and/or weight frame for a match to be considered.

Burley is widely accepted as the guy that Robinson could have fought and didn't, but the others (especially the 'Murderers' Row), are/were not really viable opponents for the points raised earlier.

Zarate was supposed to come back at 126 after he got over his disgust of "losing" to Pintor to challenge Danny Lopez but it didn't happen.

Decagon wrote:Of course, but most of Charley Burley's opponents weren't "viable," yet he still fought them. If Burley had fought Robinson at welterweight in 1942 or 43', when he was still only a few pounds over 147, do you think he would have spent the rest of his career at middleweight, when he could have been a part of the welteweight mainstream?

Burley started out before Robinson and was in the right 'time frame' for most of those fighters. Burley also went form welter to middle around the same time as Holman Williams and Cocoa Kid.

The other difference is that Burley fought bigger or more experienced fighters out of neccessity, while Robinson - to an extent - had better management and more pulling power and could therefore be more selective. Not that Robinson fought stiffs, but his career was more planned and/or engineered than Burley's. As a result, the Charley Burley of 1942 or 43 would have been too much of a risk for a young Ray Robinson and would not have been considered in the time frame you mentioned.

If we imagine that it did happen and Burley beat him it is likely that he would still have been frozen out of a world title challenge due to the war. Burely was part of the middleweight mainstream for about five years and didn't get a sniff at the title - being part of the welterweight mainstream would have been no different.

You would also have to consider the fact that Fritzie Zivic had Burley's contract after 1940 and Charley would not have been allowed to make any progress at welterweight while his manager was fighting there.