Terrible Boxing mismatches: Which ones were the worst mismatches ever?

By Allen Hmiel: Watching Shannon Briggs gets massacred all 12 rounds against Vitali made me think of other Boxing mismatches and one side lopsided total devastation that have happened over the years. Briggs performance was absolutely pitiful and embarrassing to the sport and along with Briggs’ getting his face smashed in and pummeled unmercifully he got a paycheck for being an undeserving opponent.

One can go back to the Larry Holmes fight with Tex Cobb in which Howard Cosell announcing the fight in 1982 stated that the gross mismatch would be his last time announcing a boxing match. Holmes hit the defenseless Cobb at will and battered the poor guy all 15 rounds. Think of it 45 minutes of legal assault and battery to Tex Cobb by Larry Holmes.

I think back of how badly outclassed Marquez was against Mayweather and how embarrassed Marquez must have felt being defenseless against the super quickness of Floyd Jr. and being humiliated over all 12 rounds. Think of Chris Aerrola and his sickening lopsided loss to Vitali in a heavyweight title fight leaving the embarrassed and outclassed out of shape heavyweight bawling like a beaten sad child in the ring. Boxing is a great sport but some of the gross mismatches made over the years makes one think how can it possibly happen where one fighter is simply just outclassed so bad that one wonders how the battered opponent ever got the fight in the first place.

I am not talking about quick Ko’s but almost or full fight pummeling that have fans screaming to stop the fight or booing. I even think one can put the Mosely-Mayweather debacle into the possibly mismatched category where Floyd simply outclassed a slow older Mosley into embarrassing long rounds leaving Mosley trying to survive for a moral victory. Ali and Chuck Wepner was another fight that never should have been made as Wepner was no more than a human sponge absorbing every Ali blow like water.

How bad must an over-matched fighter feel when he realizes he cannot win the fight and his skills are not good enough to combat or negate his opponents superior boxing ability and ring generalship? How did poor Arthur Abraham feel against the superior skills of Britains Carl Froch? Abraham had no answer for the elite and superior Froch and had to take an embarrassing and possibly career ending defeat.

How about Hopkins beating an outclassed Kelly Pavlik? Roy Jones pummeling Vinnie Paz? How about Gatti-Mayweather? What other gross mismatches and farce fights have there been that are remembered as absolute mismatches. Boxing is a great sport, but some of it’s fights even championship ones have been embarrassing mismatches. Which ones do you remember as total devastation??

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