5 Biggest Heavyweight Boxing Upsets
Back in June, Andy Ruiz Jnr dropped Anthony Joshua four times on the way to scoring a dramatic seventh round knockout and one of the great heavyweight boxing upsets of recent times. But the history of the fight game is littered with shock results which no-one - or only very few - saw coming.
So we’re taking a look back at five other heavyweight upsets from the past, counting down in “shock factor” from five to one. AJ is in fine company, with Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali - as the young Cassius Clay - all featuring. But first, we’re starting off with some more recent boxing history…
#5: Wladimir Klitschko v Tyson Fury
November 28th 2015 | Dusseldorf, Germany
A 6’9” fighting traveller named Tyson Fury was always likely to make headlines, one way or another. But even in the chaotic and colourful history of the fight game, few journeys can match for sheer improbability that trodden by Manchester’s self-styled ‘Gypsy King’.
Leaving school before his teens with no qualifications, Fury soon found boxing and despite his awkward, gangling frame, discovered he was a natural. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising for a man born into a travelling community whose extended family includes the feared, notorious bare-knuckle boxing champions Uriah Burton and Bartley Gorman.
After winning several amateur titles, including super heavyweight gold at the 2008 English National Championships, Fury turned pro later that year. Scoring a 1st round KO on debut, the Gypsy King was on his way.
Ukraine’s Wladimir Klitschko meanwhile, 12 years Fury’s senior, was by this time a veteran of 54 professional contests and held three versions of the world heavyweight title.
Stepping out from the not inconsiderable shadow of his older brother Vitali, and under the tutelage of legendary trainer Emmanuel Steward, Wladimir had overcome a couple of early setbacks and developed into a fine, formidable champion.
Derided in some quarters as a one-dimensional automaton, the sage-like Steward maintained that Klitschko had all the tools necessary to go down as one of boxing’s very best. Certainly that pulverising right-hand was a terrifying weapon, the mere threat of it enough to dissuade David Haye from showing any aggressive intent in his hugely anticlimactic bid for Klitschko’s titles in 2011.
Two years later, Fury himself was set to cross paths with Haye, but two scheduled bouts never came to pass, the ‘Hayemaker’ citing injury and pulling out of both. That period of on-again off-again inactivity with Haye cost Fury his own place in the pecking order for a crack at Klitschko’s crown.
Regarded as one to watch from his early days – not that he was easily missed – Fury was considered an accomplished if eccentric talent, but it was by no means certain he would make it to the top. He was floored by the unheralded Neven Pajkić, and rather unkindly labelled as a bit of a lummox after memorably punching himself in the face in another early outing.
Nevertheless, he was 24-0 by the time he entered the ring against Klitschko, with two victories over a roughhousing Derek Chisora (one on points, one stoppage) his career highlights to date. ‘Dr. Steelhammer’ although by now 39 years old, entered the ring with a professional record of 64-3, with 53 knockouts, and hadn’t been beaten for over 11 years.
Even by the standards of professional boxing, Fury’s performances in the pre-fight press conferences were something to behold. Despite’s Klitschko’s best attempts to keep things civil (boring, according to Fury), the Gypsy King was having none of it, famously turning up to one of them dressed as batman, because, well, Tyson Fury.
A natural showman, Fury provoked the polished, respectful champion who was taken aback by Fury’s antics and insults. The barely disguised contempt in which Klitschko held the challenger was plain for all to see.
Come fight night, yet more drama was to unfold before the first bell had even sounded. The Klitschko camp, on ‘home’ territory in Germany, started playing mind games in an attempt to unsettle Fury and show everyone who was in charge.
After the Klitschko camp reneged on previously agreed stipulations regarding gloves and ring size, a livid – ok, furious – Team Fury threatened to pull out of the fight with the arena already filling up. They refused to back down. Klitschko gave way, Fury had made his point and the fight was on.
Facing one of the most formidable champions in history, away from home and in front of a 55,000 sell-out crowd, most hoping for and expecting an easy Klitschko win, Fury was showboating a mere 90 seconds in.
Throwing feints and snapping out jabs with the champion in pursuit, Fury won the first, gave Klitschko a mouthful at the bell and walked back to his corner, arms aloft. The pro-Klitschko crowd voiced their disapproval at such audacity, but there was a point to it. Fury was showing he could handle the occasion and the pattern of the fight had been set. Jabbing from the hip, switching stance, using his height and reach effectively, Fury succeeded in unsettling the champion who couldn’t do much more than paw tentatively for an opening which never came.
Fury was executing his game plan perfectly, bamboozling Klitschko, despite the ever-present threat of the champion’s concussive big right hand, held cocked and ready throughout. Although the challenger appeared to be in complete control, Klitschko hadn’t been seriously hurt and there was still the nagging doubt about how the judges might be scoring it.
In the ninth round, Klitschko finally let the right hand go but Fury took it well and responded with a left-hook of his own as the champion failed to press on. Then in the eleventh, more drama as Fury finally managed to rock the increasingly ragged Klitschko, before being docked a point for consistent blows to the back of the head. Both fighters came out swinging in the last looking to finish strong, and the outcome was left to the judges.
Most ringside observers had Fury ahead, and in the event the judges agreed, with the challenger winning by unanimous decision.
In true traveller tradition, the new champion celebrated with a song, serenading his wife in the ring. To general astonishment, he was actually pretty good.
From campsite caravan to the heavyweight championship of the world. The Gypsy King could now lay claim to the prized ‘lineal’ title held by boxing royalty stretching back through Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey and Jack Johnson, all the way back to John L. Sullivan.
As is so often the case in boxing, the pre-fight nonsense gave way to a mutual and genuine respect after the fight. Ultimately, Fury was a puzzle that Klitschko couldn’t solve and the great champion, ever gracious, acknowledged as much. Fury for his part, apologised to his vanquished foe. A rematch was agreed, but never took place. Soon after Dusseldorf, Fury’s well publicised mental health battles began.
Klitschko instead turned his attention to Anthony Joshua, flooring AJ in the sixth before succumbing to an eleventh-round stoppage in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley. Aged 41 and with no more challenges left to face, Klitschko wisely called it a day.
As for Fury, his story has many chapters as yet unwritten. Happily as it turned out, that night in Germany was just the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end.
Perhaps the last word should go to that late, great trainer of champions, Emmanuel Steward. Years before they ever met in the ring, Steward had labelled the young Fury as “the next dominant heavyweight champion” and “the heir to Klitschko’s throne”. On pugilistic matters, Detroit’s wise old man of boxing rarely got it wrong.